ORAPA was a place one either loved or hated.
Some women complained that there was nothing to do, but I always found that I couldn’t get through everything I wanted to do.
Entertainment took up a great deal of time because it was all do-it-yourself.
If you wanted live theatre, you put on a play. If you fancied a masked ball, you organised one. If there wasn’t a club catering for your particular hobby, you started one.
There was no club for amateur explorers, bush-bashers, conservationists and ecology-nuts. And there was no bush orientation organisation for beginners, or rescue team for lost souls in the desert.
The lack of the latter was serious and came to the notice of everyone soon after we arrived.
Three people set out for a weekend jaunt, not telling anyone where they were going, carrying insufficient food and water and no maps or compass.
They got totally lost in the Kalahari and, had they not had the sense to ration their water from a very early stage in their ordeal, would undoubtedly have perished before they were found the following Thursday.
It was known that they had left town through the WEST gate and daily increasing numbers of searchers – at the height of the operation there were 27 vehicles and five aircraft involved – concentrated in that direction. They were eventually found 5km from Letlhakane Mine, 20km EAST of Orapa.
It is so easy to get lost in almost featureless sandveld.
It is not as bad as desert dunes, but it takes an experienced person to tell the difference between one acacia thorn tree and another, to know at all times which way he is facing and to avoid driving in circles.
We had people with experience and they were willing to help newcomers learn the ropes. Everyone agreed that we needed a Bush Club but, like so many things on which everyone agrees in principle, it was smothered at birth by too many conflicting ideas on details.
So we all continued to meander around the bush at will and everybody forgot about the Bush Club. At least, until Corrie got lost!
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