OkavangaDelta

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Early in the morning we packed everything we were going to need for the next 3 days into motorized flat bottomed bosts and set out into the Okavanga Delta to the transfer dock which takes about an hour. There we were divided into pairs and allocated a mokoro, which is a traditional dugout canoe, with a "poler", my boat buddie was Pablo and our poler is called shorty (for obvious reasons). The mokors are very unstable so we were required to keep very still, and as the delta has many crocs and hippos, we were both happy to comply, neither of us wanted to go for a swim. There were 22 of us so that required 11 mokoros + extra for all our equipment, one of the polers acted as lead guide. The ride is slow and very relaxing except for all the bugs dropping on us as we pushed our way through the reeds and grasses.
After a couple of hours, our guide headed for one of the larger islands in the delta to set up camp. The polers cleared the undergroeth from under some trees, dug a toilet hole and had a fire going within a very short time, we unloaded everything and put up our tents, this would be home for the next 2 nights. We soon realised that we were not alone on the island, a couple of elephants came right up to the tents, interesting! We were not allowed to leave the camp area without a guide.
Late in the afternoon, we were split into smaller groups and went on a short sunset walk. In the morning we went on a walking safari around the island for a few hours, there was infact about a dozen elephants, we also saw other wildlife including zebra, wildebeast, hippo etc, our guides also told us about the Okavanga and the wildlife which was really interesting, then it was back to camp for a full cooked breakfast/brunch, food always tastes better in the open air cooked over a fire, that is probably why my clothes are getting tighter.
In the afternoon we all had ago at being a poler, I just managed to go round in circles. In the late afternoon the poler took us out in the mokoros to watch the sun go down over the Okavanga on water, then after dinner they all sang and danced for us, they had no music but seem to have a natural voice and rythum. It was quite haunting to watch and listern by the light of a camp fire in the middle of Africa. They also have a great sence of humour and started mimicing animals then laughing at themselves, it was a fun evening.
The next morning we broke camp and headed out of the delta.
Sorry no photos, Im on a very old computer.

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