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R EC ON N E CTI N G I N T HE O KAVAN G O
M E L A N I E VA N Z Y L R E V E L S I N T H E U LT I M AT E W I F I - F R E E S A FA R I F R O N T I E R
Doctors can now prescribe nature as
medicine. Deep down, I think many of us
know nature heals, but CNN has made it
official. “Long walks, bird-watching and
making daisy chains are being prescribed
by doctors to patients in Scotland’s
Shetland Islands as part of treatments
for chronic illnesses,” the news agency
reported late last year. These “nature
prescriptions” are said to treat a range of
afflictions, including high blood pressure
and depression.
36 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE
Although I didn’t have high blood
pressure when I stepped onto my first
aeroplane flight out of Maun, I felt wholly
less anxious upon landing in the Okavango
Delta, because my smartphone had been
rendered impotent.
These days it’s difficult to disconnect.
Even at some of southern Africa’s most
remote outposts or safari stays, there is
now (usually) wifi.
But not in the Okavango.
A low-impact tourism destination, visiting
most camps in Botswana’s Unesco
World Heritage Site requires off-road
driving, adventurous boating or flying in
via small aircraft, as I did. Thanks to its
inaccessibility, the Okavango has been
dubbed “the last Eden of Africa”. It is also
the last den of digital silence.
What a pleasure it was to let my
smartphone run flat and allow the sounds
of nature to envelop my suite at Mma
Dinare lodge. From within the folds of my
luxury safari tent I could make out