work = play = work...

Q: What do you do when you're trying to get back into the groove after two months on the road?

A: You go on holiday again.

There is something of a logic behind this... Botswana has two major holidays in July (Sir Seretse Khama Day and President's Day) that tend to result in three- or four-day weekends. The city really clears out; everyone goes to the villages. I've stuck around for some of them in the past and had a nice, quiet weekend. This time, however, I'm back on the road. For the first holiday, which is this coming weekend, I'm headed back up to Planet Baobab to camp on the salt pans and try my hand at quad biking. For the second holiday, which is in three weeks' time, I'm headed back to Tuli Block in the eastern corner of Botswana for a walking safari. I've never done anything like a walking safari, and I am thoroughly excited.

I am trying to use the 'work hard, play hard' logic here. After all, I have five conference papers to give between now and the end of the year, and I need a serious draft of the first one in four weeks. But whatever, I won't be in southern Africa that much longer, and who knows when I'll get to do anything like this again?