Blogs from Okavango Delta, North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 5

Located in the northern panhandle of the Okavango Delta is Duba Plains Camp. An intimate 6 tented camp nestled on the edge of a floodplain, teh camp is set amongst a lovely grove of Ebony, fig and mangosteen trees. With a lovely fire place, deck and swimming pool, this camp is perfectly located for a host of wildlife encounters. Apart from the very exciting lion / buffalo encounters that Duba Plains is famous for, its their bird life that is just spectacular. Duba Island is predominatly a wetland with lots of water and plenty on swampy areas and little lagoons. Because of this, an abundance of different birds species frequent the area, however it was the beautiful Wattled Cranes (Grus carunculatus) that caught my eye. Today, Wattled Cranes are listed "endangered" and are becoming more difficult ... read more

Someplaces clearly hit our imagination more than others. I still have a pretty long wish list of places I dream to go, dog-sledging in Greenland, trekking Buthan, diving Cocos or PNG...and the list goes one. Okavango has been on my wishlist for a long time. I had to find the right person, well, you know Mari and I are sharing our life for nearly three years now (I'm lucky!)...the right time...this is always tricky...and the right deal at the right place. But we managed to do it, and what a trip! I've done few safaris so far, from South Africa to Tanzania and Uganda, but Okavango is in another league, or should I say the place we visited is in another world. We stay at Nxabega Tented Camp. The private concession is 70,000 hectares....to give you ... read more

Okavango - Day 3 Ahhhhh! The luxury of a morning sleeping in while half the group went for a morning flight over the delta. We had done this last year, so opted out in favor of a later breakfast at 7:30. When everyone returned, we packed the gear back into the speedboats, minus heaps (we're learning Aussie speak) of bottled water that went in with us, and an hour and a half later arrived at the Swamp Stop Rest Camp at Sepupa.  Swamp Stop is actually in a huge swamp that borders both sides of the Okavango River, complete with mosquitoes. But we are protected by Mossie spray, netting over the tent windows and daily malaria pills. These are much smaller than Canadian mosquitoes and harder to hear around your ears. So far we have not ... read more

Saturday 25/7/10 Our final day on the Baz Bus and unfortunately another full day, we clambered on with a few extra bags following our recent purchases. With a quick stop in Nelspruit for lunch we arrived in Joburg for our predeparture Kumuka tour.We met our new crew Tour leader Celia, Driver Jay and Cook Henda and the fellow eighteen passengers a couple Germans, Canadians, Brits, a South African, and a shit load of Aussies. We followed the advice of our soon to be truck driver and headed to a local Portugese Restaurant with Robby, Nicole, Mark and Caz for dinner. Then retreated to the dorm ready for our early start the next day. Sunday Day 1 of Kumuka Southern Highlights Tour Up at 5.30am we did our best to sneak out of the dorm quietly and ... read more

Now managed to find a computer to download photos.... read more