Botswana

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last entered a blog - so much has happen and I’ve seen so much its hard to know where to start! The lack of blog entries and photos has mostly been due to being on the move a lot or just not having internet, and usually when we do it is sooooooo slow (i.e. 15mins to get into Hotmail - that sort of thing!). Anyway, the only reason I’ve been able to put the following blogs on is because one of the guys on the trip kindly lent me his laptop (its cost me several bags of harribo and several beers!).

Since leaving Namibia along the Caprivi Strip (the long thin strip at the top of the county and our first insight into the ‘real’ Africa (mud huts, thatched rooves and ladies carrying any object you can think of on their heads)) we entered Botswana to visit the world famous Okavango Delta (a huge plain covered in waterways, lagoons and islands and inhabited by many birds and wildlife). It took us a couple of days to get to Maun, the gateway to the Delta. The following day, those that chose, set out on our 3 day trip into the Delta by Mokoro’s, the traditional shallow dug-out canoe used to travel the vast waterways and channels of the Delta. Notice the word ‘shallow’, they certainly were that, water was practically lapping in over the sides and it didn’t help that our Poler (our local person to push us along in the water with just a stick) was not great at steering; hence we ended up in the reeds alot! To be fair though, and as I would find out later in the trip when I had a go myself, some of the channels narrowed down to 0.5m and were never more than 3m and you needed a lot of energy. As a group, with 2 people plus a poler in each Mokoro, we laid back and cruised down the channels through beautiful reeds and lillies, absolutely magnificent and so quiet that Tash (my Mokoro buddy) and I nearly dozed off! After an hour and a half, we arrived at our ‘campsite’ (well a small opening) in the middle of the Delta (no amenities), right in the middle of the action and with no fences to protect us. When we first arrive an elephant was spotted close by, a sign to come! Until about 4.30pm we swam in the water (watch out for the hippos!) and sat around talking to the local guides and polers. Late afternoon when it was cooler we split into small groups and headed out into the bush, in my group we saw a heard of zebras very close up and we investigated the different animal poos and their footprints, and we also had a briefing of what to do if we become in close encounter with an elephant, lion and hippos (slightly scary prospect and I’m not sure I would be thinking straight if that did ever happen!). We had a good evening sat around the camp fire talking and swapping stories.
Next morning called for an early start as we headed out on a game walk for a few hours, initially it was extremely cold, and I couldn’t understand why any animal would be up in this! But within a few hours or so we had been pointed out so much including various plants and trees, remains from buffalo and elephant, poo and footprints from elephant, hippos, kudu, giraffe, buffalo, zebra and wilderbeast poo and fresh that morning, prints from a lion (so close but not seen!). It felt so good to be out and about in the wilderness with no protection from any of the big five. Our guides were very knowledgeable and excellent at spotting game in the distance, that we couldn’t even see when they were pointed out! Later, we found out that all the other groups had returned to camp at 10.30am but we kept going until nearly 1pm as we were seeing so much and had walked a great distance. As we were camping on an island we had to paddle across a huge channel (goodness knows what was in the water) to get from one part of the Delta to another. By the end of the morning, we had seen more than I could ever imagine and not just that we were so close, mostly only a 100m at a time, we were so lucky; giraffe, widerbeast, hornbills, zebras, ostrich, baboons, mongoose, monkeys, kestrels, badgers....)- it made the highlight of my whole trip. And best of all we spotted a heard of 19 elephants way in the distance and walked to them and found that they were happily grazing and chewing the trees. They were massive with huge tusks and we stood only a few hundred metres from them, it was awesome! We watched them for ages and then slowly backed away and made our way back to camp. Unfortunately, the other groups weren’t so lucky and so I don’t think they appreciated hearing about our experiences all afternoon!

We cooled off in the water and then I had a go at paddling a Mokoro (easier than it looks). You have to use a wooden pole to push from the bottom of the water (about 3m when we were there), which is not so bad, it’s the steering which takes careful timing and skill (both which I didn’t have). You also have to have really good balance to, but I managed not to fall in. In the evening we watched the sunset from the Mokoros and the local people performed traditional dancing and singing under the clear night sky around the sky.

On our final day in the Delta we had a chance to do an early morning game walk, of which I chose to do. It was very enjoyable even though we didn’t see much wildlife, instead we saw giraffe remains, footsprints, poo and some of the plant uses were explained. Just great to be out in the wild! Soon after breakfast we boarded our Mokoros and cruised back to the village we had started from 3 days ago. In the afternoon, a few of us took a scenic flight over the Delta. I thought it was be great to get a perspective of the size, a whooping 16,000 sq km. It was truely fantastic and worth the money. We got great views of the animals from above - elephants, giraffe, loads of wilderbeast and so much more- and the expanse of water was amazing too and we could see the waterways we travelled through. An amazing and memorial experience the last 3 days have been!

Our next major destination in Botswana was Chobe National Park. It took a day and a half to get there and a bush camp in a truckers layby which was frightening enough to hear trucks turning up all night and thinking you’d be run over but also the prospect of being eaten alive by lions or stampeded by elephants. Yes, several cars stopped and pulled over during the evening and asked “are you sure you feel ok about staying here? We just saw two lions in the road a few kilometres back” and “I’m not sure you should be camping here, we just saw a heard of elephants 10km up the road”. Anyway, I’m still here to tell the story so obviously nothing happened but we didn’t get much sleep that night! The next day we drove to Casana our base for Chobe NP, along the way we I spotted loads of elephants randomly grazing in the trees along the road. It was amazing to see them outside a park and just roaming around minding their own business. In the afternoon we did a game drive into the NP with a tour company (our truck was too big to go into the park) and had a fantastic time, seeing loads of animals and birds. Immediately after the game drive we went on a sunset/game boat cruise along the Chobe River into the park. We so loads of hippos, they look so cute but it was scary to think that one of them could turn the boat over any second!

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