Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 8

Today we were heading into the Okavango Delta. We were up quite early today to pack all of our stuff onto boats. I mean everything: tents, cooking supplies, EVERYTHING! We had about a one hour power boat ride to the Mokoro station. A mokoro is a dugout canoe. Some were actually made of fibreglass though. Erica and I ended up as Mokoro buddies which was nice, as it meant the 3 odd hour Mokoro ride wouldn't be boring. It was such a peaeful boat trip that both of us (as well as many others) fell asleep. The only distraction was the beautiful surrounds, and the wet reeds slapping you in the face as you floated through the Delta. It was amazing. Once we arrived we set up our camp and had a quick bite to eat. ... read more

Tuesday August 28 We've just spent a most amazing two nights in the Okavango Delta. I loved, loved, loved it and the time spent in the mokoro is some of the most relaxing hours I've ever spent. Mekoro (plural of mokoro) are traditional boats carved out of a single tree. Ours were of the less traditional kind (fibreglass) that are more common these days but I did see a couple of wooden ones, lined with hay. They each came equipped with a 'poler' who has a wooden pole four to five metres long and uses it to propel us through the water by pushing off the river bed and as a rudder to change direction. After a three hour trip that wasn't a race (though we were definitely racing), Denise and I arrived last to find ... read more

After a interesting night in the bush in terms of animals, we were all up early because we had a long drive ahead of us. After a quick and simple breakfast, we packet up and left in the direction of Kasane. The road was extremely difficult due to the sand being so soft and deep but it was still an awesome experience with minimal problems except for the fact that we got stuck but we were on our way again in very little time. The parks here are extremely over priced but it is still good value for money in terms of animals to be seen.We had seen quite a large amount of animals like herds of Elephant, a few Giraffe and some lonely looking Kudu that all looked very desprate for water. We arrived at ... read more

After a long and noisy night we were all up early and enjoyed the sunrise with a cup of coffee and a homemade crunchy. We packet up quickly and we where on our way in no time ready for the days events.The drive to our camp was not to bad but when it did get a little bumpy, the Land Rover powered through it with no problems at all. Upon arrival we were presented by an amazing view of the khwai river and all its resident which included hippos, open bill stalks, giraffe, a large herd of impala and elephant that happened to be wading through the river. We set up camp and enjoyed a bottle of Meerlust Merlot and ate while the sun went down. But the night wasn't over just yet, as we watched ... read more

Kubu to Maun Kubu island was a amazing experience like the 360 degree view from the top of the island , the way you can see the curvature of the earth because it is so flat and best of all was the view from the toilet which was magnificent but unfortunately the campsites are too close together and the toilet is crap. The drive back to the main road was very long and dusty but it isn't just dust its "HOLY CRAP what did i do to deserve this" dust. Once we arrived found the main road the drive was calm and thankfully at 120KM/H unlike the 20KM/H on the dirt road. The main road was at least tarred but anybody that was driving behind could see nothing because of the huge dust trail that NASA ... read more