Okavango Delta

I joined another group on the morning that we left Livingstone as I had chosen to go to the Okavango Delta and unfortunately the girls had not. The group I was to join was a smaller vehicle but ironically a larger group. They are a mix of Irish and Aussies and a lovely German lady. Our guide was Wessel from Blomfontein. We crossed the border into Botswana over the river. I have to say the landscape in Botswana is a little uninspiring. It's flat and dry different again to what I have seen so far.

The first night we stayed in Kisane which is also where Juliana and Riaan were staying so at least I could delay my goodbyes! We did a game drive in the Chobe NP and got very very close to some Elephants. The trumpeting is frightening when you are so close! The following morning I very sadly bid all the girlies goodbye in Kisane. It was so so hard. I really hope I see them again! Juliana like my mother had packed me snacks for the road and we promised to see each other again at least in Joburg before the girls got their flight and Jules and Riaan left for Nairobi to do it all again.

My new group and I headed for Setutunga camp which would be base camp for the Okavango Delta. We were going to leave the vehicle and the majority of our belongings there and just take a day pack on the Mokoro (like a dug out canoe) into the Delta. The camp in the delta was a wild camp. That means basically there is you, the tent you brought, some locals who will hopefully look after you and a very large number of wild animals. We were put on an open vehicle for 2 hours (at 7am you know you're alive) to the Mokoro station via the Foot and Mouth Disease checkpoint (they have them all over Botswana you have to get out and wash your shoes in a solution). The locals then packed all our stuff into Mokoro and poled us to the Island for nearly 2 hours. It was the most serene 2 hours of my life. You can absolutely hear a pin drop. They pole you to an Island which is in the middle of the water body where we were going to sleep for two nights. It was so so amazing as they push you through the reeds and the lily pads. We set up camp and then went on a series of walking safaris over the next few days. I have done a lot of game drives to this point but seeing the animals on foot is a whole different ball game! The Sunrises were amazing and hearing the animals at night used to scare me but now I really enjoy it. Being somewhere so uninhabited by humans was fantastic. We had the opportunity of swimming it (very freezing water) and one sunset they took us to a hippo pool which is fantastic and petrifying all at the same time! Even the guides crap themselves around the hippos! The guides all live in a nearby village and they have a rotation system for taking groups out. They were so beautiful. African women are so mesmerizing. They have such amazing skin and beautiful features. At night they sang for us which was haunting. For some reason everyone can sing! They are so so talented! I managed to provide a bit of entertainment myself though when I found a mouse in my tent! Luckily Bennie sorted it out...needless to say I did not sleep in that tent!

By the end of the three days I was dirtier than I have ever been in my life. The dirt is absolutely ingrained in my skin but it was so so fantastic. To see elephants, zebras, wildebeast, warthogs on foot so close was unforgettable.

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