Even hard-core Internet addicts have to disconnect sometimes. I recently returned from a trip to Africa, where I lived in a bush camp with no TV, no phone, no electricity and you guessed it ... no Internet.

Before leaving home, I had to slap my hand down when, out of some alien reflex, it tried packing the dreaded little communications device named after fruit. This device has helped me send e-mails and blog posts from far corners of the Earth, like on a train in China.

Not that it would have worked at all in the middle of the Kalahari. But even it if did, somehow the creatures just wouldn't approve. When an elephant saunters past your tent at night, it wants your full attention.

So the big news of the day, the impala got away from the lion, didn't get posted in real time. Oh well. I can live with that. But guess how I'm keeping in touch with my new friends in Botswana? You've got it, e-mail.