Painted rustic plates - A travel diary in crockery!

I was up visiting my mum earlier in the year, and I saw some plates on her dresser that I had painted back in 2008.   

Back in the summer of '08 my mum, my sister and I went to The Okavango Delta in Botswana on a horse back safari.  

My step father had died a short time before, and my mum wanted the three of us to have this experience together (lucky us it was her treat!).  While we were there we ate (like kings) each night on some rustic local plates that my mum took a shine to. Unfortunately the local pottery that made them had closed, so I painted these as a thank you when I got home to depict some of the funnier (to us anyway) experiences we had enjoyed during our trip.   

As most mums would, mine has these proudly on display in her kitchen.  I like to look at them, but also cringe slightly at the awfulness of some of my painting.  Lets gloss over that.

Each of the plates tries to sum up something that happened on the holiday.  We saw so many more animals than my painting skills are up to, and although they wont mean anything to anyone else, each of these plates represents a funny incident, story or special memory of our trip.  

The Okavango Delta is swarming with hippos.  They look cute and cuddly, but are ferocious.  I think Ive heard they are the biggest human killer in Africa (maybe dont quote me on that).   

So vicious to humans yet vegetarian!  At night in our camp, we were told very clearly to stay inside our tents,  We could hear the hippos tramping directly outside.  As you can imagine we didnt need to be told twice!

It was an amazing experience.  The presence of the horses relaxed the big game, and we were able to ride right up to the animals on horseback. Much closer (and more reactive) than in a jeep.  One BIG exception to this was lions...horse meat is one of their favourite foods....consider yourself a cantering canapé.  At one point we saw evidence of fresh lion tracks in water buffalo poo.  The horses were very edgy, and the guides got us out of the area very quickly.  

Anyone on a safari wants to see Elephants.....we rode for days....we saw fresh droppings and other evidence that they were near, and were giving up hope and then finally on the second last day we managed to get up close and personal to an Elephant family, complete with cute baby (that could have been straight out of Disneys jungle book).  We also saw some amazing birds, but I can't remember any of their names.

We saw thousands of giraffe....we became completely blaze, not even bothering to get our cameras out...even when there were REALLY cute baby ones.

Impala, Kudu, Antelope, Eland.....we saw them all....sadly not sure I know which is which now (or which these are).

We galloped with herds of zebra and buffalo (the latter very smelly, scary and noisy)

We saw warthog babies hiding in a hole, and bush babies....that we spotted mainly by their eyes.

Grumpy baboons (yes that IS meant to be a baboon), and hilarious vervet monkeys. Im guessing that white blob is an ant hill, eve though it looks more like an iceberg.  (I think I may have been pushed for time on this plate!)

Wow we did have a wonderful trip.  Its maybe a little unconventional, and I'm sure "plate painting" isn't going to replace instagram and facebook any time soon.  However its amazing the memories that looking at these and writing the story behind them has brought up.  

There are also so many more other wonderful exhilerating experiences not captured "in plate":

* Swimming in the river at lunch time, while the guide stood by with a gun to look out for crocs;

* Swimming bareback on the horses when we were going in to fly camp

* Amazing food conjured up from nowhere (that was the life) with lovely smiling friendly local staff

* Fantastic sundowners, exhausted and the way the sun switches off instantly as if being turned by a switch.

I'm clearly talking myself into going back (or painting a whole dinner service).....if we can get enough anti-histimine to keep Mr PSGCs rampant horse allergies at bay......

Sadly, I'm not likely to go back, but if you fancy it.....

The company we travelled with was called In the saddle.com.  They were amazing.  Its certainly not a cheap trip.  but if you reasonably competent on a horse and can scrape the cash together (or persuade a rich relative to pay) I cant recommend it highly enough.

I'd love to hear of anyone else who's been to this area, planning to go, or who has collected interesting holiday mementos.