Botswana - Chobe NP & the Okavanga Delta

17th December - a month tomorrow since we left home. Seems forever and only yesterday!!
The border with Botswana is only 30 minutes away from the campsite and once there the formalities are quickly done - though we also have to go through disinfectant troughs - precautions against foot & mouth which decimated the countries livestock some years ago.

A quick provision stop in Kasane - quite a busy town and then onto our site and an afternoon game drive in Chobe NP. Went in open jeeps with high hopes of seeing loads of elephants. Eventually saw a group of about 10 just before we had to leave! One of them got pretty agitated with our presence and came very close to the jeep with ears flapping and trunk up! Got a good photo of it. Also saw kudu (with twisted horns), hippos (on land for a change), water monitor, lots of birds and some warthogs. Our driver, Leonard, explained that because it had been so wet the animals were able to stay in the bush.
Straight on to a sunset river cruise which was great; nice and sunny to start with then a really heavy downpour, a good rainbow, and finished with a lovely sunset. Saw lots more hippos and Kudu plus a huge crocodile. Took our own wine - a very nice Pinotage (Spiers).

Next day was a longish drive to Maun along very straight but increasingly bumpy roads. Saw elephant along the roadside 3 times and African Wild Dogs - apparently very rare. Most of the vegetation is bush and scrubland with very few settlements outside the towns. Cattle and donkeys grazing.
We stock up on supplies for the next 2 days bush camping in the Delta - mainly beers!, then on to our site (Sitatunga) which has a swimming pool - very nice after a long drive. Also has the most enormous termite mounds - way taller than C.

The journey to the Okavanga Delta is in two parts; first an open sided truck across scrub and tracks for an hour and a half - pretty bouncy. Then we meet up with the mokoro teams for a two hour “cruise” to an island. Each mokoro takes 2 passengers. Our poler is called Irene and like all of them she has the most amazing balance. Mokoro’s are essentially dug out canoes with a flat bottom and are fiendishly hard to keep your balance in apparently. We glide along at reed height enjoying the views - and then fall asleep!! Lots of sunburned faces as a result.

Our plans are to swim, practice poling a mokoro, go for game walks and see lots of animals. It rains and it’s cold! So we do lots of reading, playing cards and sleeping! We do go for two game walks; see lots of evidence of animals - tracks and droppings of jackal, elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo. Get to see a herd of wildebeest, some zebras and buffalo in the distance and a few antelope and baboons. But no elephants despite all the pooh.
The polers also weave with reeds and grasses - beautiful bowls, pots and bracelets.

After 2 nights the weather improves and we return to Maun! Hey ho.
Take a 6 seater plane ride over the Delta; looks very different from the air - water patterns and swirls interspersed with islands. Get to see more hippo, some elephant, a few giraffe and wildebeest and buffalo.

We drive to Palapye, our final stop in Botswana. Along the way we pass along the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Lots of sandy scrubland and open grassy areas. Virtually no settlements outside the towns which are attractive and have good facilities. Stop at a bottle store for more supplies and the secret Santa Xmas presents.

The campsite has a freezing cold mossie infested pool; but we go for it anyway. It feels nice and fresh after the day’s drive. It also has a tree that is covered in mopane worms - about 3 inches long and bright blue or red. You can eat them - we chose the BBQ steak supper instead!!

Tomorrow we start the final leg of this part of the trip - into South Africa.

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