Okavango Delta

The delta is probably the main highlight of Botswana for most people. The Okavango river begins in Angola and flows into Botswana where around 18.5 billion cubic metres of water spread out to form islands, lagoons and channels for 16,000 sqare kilometres. It is also promoted as the place to see hippos, in fact our Lonely Planet guidebook has a picture of 2 hippos from the delta on it cover. Needless to say, we were quite excited at the prospect of bushcamping on one of these everchanging islands.

Our transport from camp was by open sided truck. This time with 2 long bench seats the length of the tray. All our tents, food, water and daypacks were then stuffed under seats or on laps. The drive out to our launch point was around 45 min of very bumpy sandy road, and included a stop to drop the drivers wife at work!

When we arrived at the launch it was organised chaos. There were other groups there as well, although we're not sure if they were staying the night or just doing a day trip. Once we had divided into pairs we had to find a 'poler' and get our gear into the Mokoro (think canoe). A mokoro is the tradional way of navigating the delta. Usually the mokoro is made from the sausage tree, but the tree has to grow for 80 years before it is usable and then the boat only lasts 5years. Most of the mokoros we used were more modern fibreglass versions.
A quick stop for 2 people to change out of a leaky canoe.

Off we go...

In the canoe, we had our daypacks as backrests and sleeping mats to sit on. The 'poler' stood in the rear and poled (or punted) us to our camp. The water appeared to be about 1m deep although we were advised not to leave the canoe unless told it was safe be the poler. Hippos and crocodiles seemed to be the animals to look out for. We were lucky enough to see some elephants on the way out as well. It took about 3hr to travel around 1km but it was very relaxing to sit or lie back and watch the reed and lilies go past. The only annoyance was the baking sun and the tiny bugs that jumped off the reeds. Claire even managed to grab a quick nap along the way.

This was the lady that had all the tents and chairs

The halfway stop and yes Claire is asleep

The tent lady just kept on going!

On the island it was all hands on deck to unload the tents, all of which were on one canoe poled by a single lady! Once everything was on shore the males in the group were instructed to 'mark the territory'. Even though they weren't sure if the guides were joking or not, each male dutifully went and 'marked' a perimeter around the camp. The guides then told us that elephants had been in this exact clearing a few days ago. Somehow this didn't make us feel safe! An upturned mokoro became our bench for food prep and the next 24 hours were spent swimming, learning to pole, reading and going on safari.

Safari out here either happens on foot or in canoe. Since we had already spent 3 hours in the canoe we all voted for foot safari on the same island that we were camping on. I don't think anyone expected to see as much as we did. We were split into 3 groups and instructed to follow the leader at all times. There was a guide in front and at the rear. Within a few meters of the 'perimeter' we were shown different animal tracks and dung and we hadn't been walking for more then 20min when we saw Zebra and Wildebeest herds grazing, further along we saw Giraffe and could hear elephants. The island is one of the bigger ones in the area and we saw a couple of other groups walking as well.

The highlight of this safari was definitely sunset. Not only was it an amazing colour or red and orange, but a herd of buffalo were kind enough to put on a stampede for us. The sunrise safari didn't yield as many animals but we could see some elephants shaking trees, possibly a little closer then we would have liked.

Our guides sang for us around the fire

This elephant was in sight of our camp
Our time in the delta wasn't just restricted to floating on the water. We had opted for a scenic flight over the delta as well. There were 4 of us in each tiny plane and for about an hour we were shown the delta. The view was stunning and for as for as you could see there was water and islands. Whenever the pilot spotted animals he would bank quite sharply to give us a look, the only problem was trying to figure out what he had seen. Steve managed to get front seat so had the best view.

To finish our time at the delta we joined with the people from the small group tour and had a 'bin-bag' costume party. Neither of us were in the running for best dressed but we tried our best, Claire went as the southern cross and Steve was a blackboard.

A herd of elephants on the move between islands

One lone animal