How my real-life romance in 1990s Botswana inspired "Whispers in the Kalahari"
By B. G. Nettelton
The Okavango Delta, 1992. Paraffin lamps flickering in the darkness. Lions roaring in the distance. And me—a former journalist from South Australia—managing a luxury safari lodge with nothing but a two-way radio connecting me to the outside world.
It sounds like something out of a novel, doesn't it?
Well, it became one. Thirty years later.
But first, let me tell you about the bush pilot.
Above: Me (second from left) with my friends, Chris Kruger (back left), Alistair and Annie
How I Ended Up in the Middle of Nowhere
I wasn't supposed to be in Botswana at all.
Unlike Verity White, the protagonist of my novel Whispers in the Kalahari, I didn't arrive in the Okavango Delta reluctantly, dragged along by circumstance. I came because I craved adventure—because my safe, comfortable life as a magazine editor in South Australia felt too small for the restlessness inside me.
So when the manager of Okavango Wilderness Safaris invited me to manage Mombo and Jedibe luxury safari lodges for a couple of months, I didn't hesitate.
I got extended leave from my job. (Like, I seriously believed I was coming back!) Packed a duffel bag. And flew into the heart of the Okavango Delta.
What I found was a world unlike anything I'd ever imagined.
Life at Mombo: Paraffin Lamps and Open-Air Bathrooms
Mombo and Jedibe were 16-bedded luxury lodges—but "luxury" in the early 1990s Okavango meant something very different from today.
We had:
- Large East African-style tents with canvas walls and thatched roofs
- Letaka reed bathrooms open to the sky (yes, you bathed under the stars)
- Paraffin lamps for lighting (no electricity)
- Two-way radio as our only communication with the outside world
- No mobile phones, no internet, no escape
Inside the tents, it was pure Out of Africa romance—wooden furniture, crisp white linens, the scent of canvas and dust and wild sage.
Outside, it was raw, untamed wilderness. Elephants wandered through camp. Lions prowled the perimeter at night. Hippos grunted in the channels.
And the pilots—ah, the pilots.
The Bush Pilots of the Okavango
Bush pilots in 1990s Botswana were a breed apart.
They flew single-engine Cessnas loaded with supplies, navigating by sight across hundreds of miles of floodplains and desert. They landed on dusty airstrips carved out of the bush, dodging elephants and kudu. They were confident, charismatic, often handsome—and yes, some of them were womanizers.
Every single one of them became inspiration for Starky Willis, the safari operator in Whispers in the Kalahari.
But one pilot in particular caught my attention.
He was Norwegian. Tall, quiet, with the kind of competence that comes from flying in some of the most challenging conditions on earth. He'd come to Africa after training in Canada—a decision shaped, indirectly, by the 1989 Australian Pilots' Dispute.
The Australian Pilots' Dispute: A Crisis That Changed Lives
For readers outside Australia, the 1989 Australian Pilots' Dispute might sound like ancient history. But for the pilots who lived through it—and the families caught in the fallout—it was devastating.
In 1989, Australian domestic airline pilots went on strike over pay and working conditions. The dispute dragged on for months. Airlines hired replacement pilots (scabs, as they were called). Careers were destroyed. Families were uprooted.
Pilots who'd spent years building their careers in Australia suddenly found themselves unemployable. Many fled overseas—to Canada, Africa, Southeast Asia—searching for work.
My husband (then just a young flight instructor in Calgary, having gone to Canada for his Commercial Pilot's License after a US flight school went bust and he lost all his money) remembers seeing a full-page ad in the Globe and Mail recruiting pilots for Australia.
His reaction? "I'm sure not going to apply for a job there and be a scab."
Little did he know that, thirty years later, his wife would weave that moment into the opening chapters of Whispers in the Kalahari.
Falling in Love in a Non-Normal World
When you live in a place like the Okavango Delta—isolated, beautiful, suspended in time—romance feels inevitable.
The sunsets are impossibly vivid. The stars are so bright you feel like you could reach up and touch them. The rhythm of life slows to the pulse of the wilderness.
It's intoxicating.
But it's also not normal.
And when you fall in love in a place like that, there's always a voice in the back of your mind whispering: Is this real? Or is it just the magic of the place?
I fell in love with my Norwegian bush pilot in that romantic, magical, entirely non-normal setting.
And honestly? I had no doubt that it was last - but not everyone did.
Thirty-Three Years Later
Spoiler alert: It lasted.
Thirty-three years of marriage. Twelve countries. Careers in aviation, geophysical surveys, publishing, hospitality. A bed and breakfast in Australia's Clare Valley. Splits of time between Australia and Norway.
And now—full disclosure—I'm waiting to hear if I've landed a job that will see me working on the aircraft with my husband on his next flying adventure in Western Australia.
Turns out, you can fall in love in the Okavango Delta and have it be real.
You can build a life out of paraffin lamps and two-way radios and impossible sunsets.
You can take the magic with you.
How This Became Whispers in the Kalahari
When I sat down to write Whispers in the Kalahari, I knew I wanted to capture that feeling—the intoxication, the uncertainty, the question of whether love born in such an extraordinary place can survive the ordinary world.
But I also wanted to explore what happens when you go to Africa reluctantly—when you're not seeking adventure, but running from something.
That's Verity White.
She's a journalist (like I was) who follows her airline-pilot husband James to Botswana after the 1989 Australian Pilots' Dispute destroys their careers. She doesn't want to be there. She's clinging to a failing marriage. She's adrift.
And then the Okavango Delta—wild, beautiful, unforgiving—forces her to confront everything she's been running from.
Including the charismatic safari operator Starky Willis, who embodies all the danger and possibility she's been avoiding.
Above: Jedibe, in 1993, was a rustic, yet luxury safari camp (Okavango Wilderness Safaris) which I managed.
The Real Okavango vs. The Fictional One
When I write about the Okavango Delta, I'm drawing on real memories:
✅ The letaka reed bathrooms open to the sky (you really did bathe under the stars)
✅ The paraffin lamps (I can still smell the kerosene)
✅ The two-way radio crackle (our only link to the outside world)
✅ The lions roaring at night (you never, ever got used to it)
✅ The bush pilots (confident, charismatic, larger than life)
But I've also woven in the fictional elements:
🔹 The poaching ring (inspired by real wildlife crime, but fictionalized)
🔹 The Kalahari hunting accident (a mystery that drives the plot)
🔹 Verity's failing marriage (exploring what happens when love isn't enough)
The result is a novel that feels real—because so much of it is.
What Readers Are Saying
"I felt like I was right there in the Okavango—the heat, the dust, the lions. This is exactly what I wanted after reading Circling the Sun." - Amazon Reviewer
"Verity's journey broke my heart and put it back together. And Starky? Swoon." - Goodreads Reviewer
"If you love Africa, strong women, and second-chance romance, you NEED this book." - BookBub Reviewer
Start the Journey
Whispers in the Kalahari is the first book in my Wings Over Africa series—standalone (with some connected) novels of love, danger, and secrets set across southern Africa.
Each book features a different heroine, a gripping mystery, and the untamed beauty of the African wilderness.
Book 1: Whispers in the Kalahari (Verity's story, 1989 Botswana) A journalist's failing marriage, buried secrets, and a poaching ring in the Okavango Delta.
Book 2: Wings Over the Okavango (Angie's story, 1995 Botswana) A flight attendant investigates murder in the safari camps.
Book 3: The Lesotho Diamond (1962 Lesotho) A forced landing, a dangerous lie, and diamonds worth killing for.
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P.S. Stay tuned for news about my next aviation adventure. Who knows? Maybe it'll inspire Book 4.