I believe in extraterrestrial life.  I have no evidence to support this belief.  I am on the fence about the existence of intelligent life.  Evidence abounds on Earth that life finds a way to come back, as has happened numerous times after planet-wide calamities.  Life emerged and reemerged after every mass extinction event.  Sadly, evidence of intelligent life anywhere in the universe has yet to be discovered.  

Let’s pretend, though, there is intelligent life somewhere in the universe and that travel to Earth is possible.  Why would alien tourists visit?  

Well … there’s the murderous, wildly emotional, mostly delusional, dominate ape-like species with opposable thumbs that somehow discovered fire and agriculture.  Big mistake.  They’re a curious species, programmed to act selfishly but feel conflicted about it.  Check out their mating rituals for a good chuckle.  Visit soon, though, as most of the Homo sapiens who will ever live and die have already done so.  Unless some heretofore unknown technology allows them to settle (and lower the property values) of the galactic neighborhood beyond their home planet, population numbers will likely never be much higher than they are right now.  Direct communication is not recommended.  Just pretend to be from a place called Germany, and no further questions will be asked. 

Our planet has other, less homicidal attractions beyond us.  One such place might be The Okavango Delta.  If I were alien, which for all intents and purposes I am in this place, I would visit here.  So here I am.  An alien, visiting a far off world I don’t belong in. 

We flew on Mack Air, about as formal an operation as it sounds, from Kasane to an airstrip near our camp on an 8 seater Cessna Caravan.  The flight briefing was fun.  I’m paraphrasing, but it boiled down to this:  There are two exits here and two exits there, but if we crash you’ll likely die so don’t worry too much about it.  I was not worried.  Though these planes are small, collectively they probably have a better safety record than Boeing aircraft in passenger miles flown.  The plane was very comfortable.  We sat directly behind the pilots, which I thought enormously fun.  After playing so much flight simulator as a kid, I’m dumb enough to think I know what I’m looking at. 

Our stop was the fourth and final one, so I got plenty of take-offs and landings as we jumped from airstrip to airstrip.  Just an incredible treat.  I wondered at the time why we didn’t drive.  Flying seems really bougie.  Like, who do these people think they are?  However, after witnessing the remoteness of this area it makes sense.  Cars are generally expensive and require a lot of things to work.  Maintaining them costs money and takes infrastructure and labor.  Cars need fuel, which requires money and infrastructure.  Asphalt needs maintenance, which requires more money and more infrastructure.  The roads would be constantly flooded in the changing water channels.  By comparison, an airstrip is considerably easier to build and maintain.  

Many things we take for granted actually require lots of infrastructure to maintain we never see. When we need a car part, we go to AutoZone.  When we need a road built, we rent heavy machinery.  When we need fuel, we fill up without thinking of the enormous industry behind how that gas came to sit in this local gas station.  COVID has illuminated some of that infrastructure as it falters, but much remains opaque to us.  Here, there is very little infrastructure, and it requires many compromises people in more developed nations never have to consider.  

More about the delta tomorrow.