I´ll be honest: I am stunned. I had forgotten how much I felt at home in the bush, but seeing this has brought back a deep feeling of peace and joy. Remembering how our small group of 6 to 10 people got up every morning before dawn and started walking through the bush in so many beautiful places. How all of us got supplied with beanies made in the bush by a dear friend because it was freaking cold until the sun showed its face.
The countless scratches and scars I got on my legs (I promise I did look where I was going, it just seemed like all the scrubs and bushes wanted a hug :D) The days out at the shooting range, practicing our drills and the ARH tests.
The sleep-outs, with nothing but the pure night sky above and lions roaring near camp. The gorgeous scenes at dawn and dusk (I apologize to everyone who has asked me about how much I liked a particular sunset since and has only gotten a half-hearted answer. City sunsets just don´t cut it. ^^)
I loved the light dipping the trees and grasses into earthy yellows and oranges as much as the (admittedly) few encounters we got to enjoy.
Finding a submerged rhino skull (or was it a branch) in the muck of one of the waterholes, where we decided to take a bath followed by a mud fight.
I smiled when I realized that I still haven´t told half of the stories (that could probably fill a book) and laughed remembering how often I began a sentence with "In the bush..." since coming back.
India was a wholly different beautiful experience, but even there Africa remained in my life in the form of a few amazing women who were either raised there or just came from the bush.
Amazing, how your passion is never far, no matter where you are and it will keep knocking on your door, no matter how far you go until you let it in.