Last night, the Naro Choir gave Kedra and I a private concert, to let us hear some of the material they want to record. They were well prepared and sang beautifully. However, since most of them are only available to record at night, we will have our days essentially free. Local missionaries Coby and Hessle invited us to an event at the nearby game farm owned by the same church which owns their compound.
The plan was to head out to the farm at around 8:00 AM. Along with some visiting students from Canada and Gabarone, and many Naro, we were going to count the animals on the farm. Each person would get a "line" to walk of 1 to 5k and would count animals spotted to one's right. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see distinct-to-the-Kalahari wildlife up close. We'd have lunch at 1:00 o'clock and be back in plenty of time to make a 5:30 PM recording session.
I was assigned to walk a 10k strip about 50 meters from a fence. To my right, individuals were spaced at 100 meter intervals. We were told that we would meet others coming from the opposite direction who had started walking an hour or so before us.
It became apparent only a few steps into the bush that the likelihood of actually seeing someone somewhere within 100 meters was actually very low. Had I not been walking near the fence, I would have become thoroughly lost. As it was, I knew that if ever I lost sight of the fence, I need only ease left until I caught a glimpse of it. I learned later that a number of people from the student groups had gotten so completely lost that they had come out on the road only a few feet from where they had started.
I maintained a reasonably straight course myself, parallel to the fence, zigging and zagging a bit to avoid particularly dense patches of sticker bushes. Most of the bush seems to consist of sticker bushes, though, so I was soon stuck from knew down by various kinds of prickly things. Some bit deep enough to draw blood. I ran out of snacks. I ran out of water. I kept saying to myself, "I'm deep in the African bush!!" I realized that had my wife Eshinee been on this trip, she would never have let me walk out into the middle of nowhere (this latter realization actually hit most strongly when, as I was being dropped off on the side of the road, a snake was spotted; "A bite from that will take your leg right off," one of the other riders had said. On the road, you can see a snake. In the bush, you have no idea what's under your feet). I thought on this more as I continued not to meet anyone coming from the other direction. The shadows grew long. I began to feel my sunburn along about 2:30 PM.
Eventually, I decided I must have come too far. I eased left and found my way back to the road. Before too long, I was picked up by a truck from the lodge. I had walked 7k of the 3k I was supposed to have walked and had become listed as one of the "missing." The driver was a part of a search party looking for me. Kedra and Coby were also among the missing.
When I got back to the lodge, several search parties were being sent out to look for Coby and Kedra. I told them where I'd last seen the women. By 5:00, some of the searchers were returning empty handed.
The sun began to set at 6:00. People around me were saying that there was no way to find someone after dark in the bush. I had been worried about missing the recording session, but for the first time I started worrying about my colleagues lost in the bush. What would happen if the search parties had to wait until morning to resume the search? Given how cold it had been the previous night, I wondered if they could even survive.
But the moment the last bit of orange disappeared from the
horizon, a pair of trucks drove up to the lodge, the Naro hanging onto the larger howling in triumph. Both ladies had been found safe and sound... only hungry and a bit sore in the legs. 
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