http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Botswana , North West , Okavango Delta en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:40:37 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:40:37 UTC So I met my group on Tuesday evening got a quick tour of the truck had a group dinner and went to bed. The next morning we left early for Botswana We got to Chobe in the afternoon and went for a river safari. Lots of elephants hippos and crocs. At one point a whole herd of elephants came down to the river to drink water. There were about 25 of them some of them little babies. We also saw a http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-345807.html HowdyOur journey began the next morning from the campsite with a 1.5 hour drive to the water's edge of the Okavango Delta. We went through tiny towns with huts that looked like bus stops for phone shops and hair dressers. Everyone waves.....which I loveMokoro boats with our rowers were waiting at the water's edge for us. I was such a relaxing and amazing experience We just lay back in our Mokor http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-330026.html This spring break camping trip was where I finally got to see the wild side of Africa and not just the city side of Africa that I've been living in. Our trip started with a 6 am flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg where we loaded into these giant blue overland trucks and drove across the desert plains into Botswana. South Africa needs to get a move on their airport reconfiguration before the 2 http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-321230.html After an early start we were on the way to our next adventure two nights in the Okavango delta with a whole army of local guides almost 11 ratio. For those of you who haven't marvelled at the footage of the delta on the BBC'S Planet Earth it measures an enormous 18000 squared km and is a bit of real wilderness as it is not a national park.Part of the attraction to the delta is that the best http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-319197.html I'm writing from another airplane. We're flying on air Botswana from Maun Botswana to Joberg where we'll spend a night before we head back to the bush. We'll go to South Africa next.I'm sad to be leaving Baines' Camp. It's a beautiful camp in a beautiful place and we had a wonderful time. I wish we could have stayed a little longer. Things were just beginning to get notawkward with Martin http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-315499.html I stopped writing yesterday at tea time thinking I'd have time to continue later. I should have known better. We seem to have no down time here.I'm sitting in the outdoor living room of the main lodge. We've just finished lunch and we have a few hours until we go out on our evening game drive so I thought I'd try to get a little closer to caught up on my writing. I can hear the hippos just s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-314315.html Where to begin We're at Baines' Camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta. The camp itself is amazingit has a maximum capacity of ten guests and sits in the middle of the swamp on stilts. The main building is openair and includes a living room a campfire pit with a porch around it an outdoor dining patio and an indoor dining room. The rooms all have a bedroom and bathroom and a porch that looks http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-313653.html 16 July 23 JulyWe arrived in Livingstone around 2pm and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. The next day we went to the falls. It was very spectacular It looked as though many years ago there was an earthquake or some natural disaster that just cut a slit though the earth which created the falls. We did a few walks and got very wet a few times thank goodness for gortex trous http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-308561.html You have not truly lived until you have been charged by an elephant. I say that because I now believe that in order to know how alive you actually are you must at some point feel very close to death. An encounter with the matriarch of a breeding herd of elephants is a great way to do this I really recommend it. It's extra efffective if she charges you three times. More on this later.I'm wr http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-307176.html 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 landscap http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-303180.html Pictures from the DeltaFinally getting a chance to get some of our pictures on the blog for all to see. Following are some pictures of our trip into the Delta in Botswana. 2 nights with no facilities. But a really nice hole I might add. Everything including ourselves had to be taken out by Mokoro. Small hand dug out canoes. Chester and Kirsten even made an attempt at becoming the first Amer http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-298471.html You might be noticing that my entries are waayyy shorter than usual. Some of you might even be happy about it. but seriously it is a task just getting to an internet connection here and they are running on tandy 1000s with a 1992 version of aol online and 10 computers sharing that connection. I'm actually missing the days of Windows Vista heaven forbid. So anyhow unless a miracl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-291209.html Getting into my mokoro with Kim a friend I've made on the trip it was the first time so far this trip that I've felt now this is what I'm here for. Seated in a reclining position amongst the bags and gear at first we sat very still the mokoro was exceedingly thin a slight movement right or left resulted in a much more exaggerated movement for the boat. The driver of the boat or poler http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-291175.html After a brief 2 night stay in Namibia along the Caprivi Strip we crossed back into Botswana and set out on our 2 night Mokoro trip on the Okavango Delta. We stayed at a tented camp on an island in the delta and went out on Mokoros traditional dugout canoes for day trips. We also went on a walking safari on an island in search of big game. We didn't see much more than a couple elephants and s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-273047.html After the theatrical entertainment of the previous evening I was relieved that there was no second performance. The marula fruit remained fastened to the trees and the Clog Family von Genet kept their slippers on and rested. As such I had a remarkably full nightrsquos sleep having hit the pillow at an extremely modest 21h30.However it was now 06h15 and the alarm hadnrsquot gone off. It was http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-267985.html I didnrsquot sleep last night. I know that because I heard every marula fruit within a hundred yards of me leaving the trees and landing on the corrugated iron roofs. I also know that the genets were having a talent show and the local troupe had donned their clogs and were dancing up and down the roof of my lodge to Offenbachrsquos famous CanCan. I just wasnrsquot sure why theyrsquod chos http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-267145.html Irsquom sure I slept last night but no sooner had I turned off the light and got under the mosquito net than it was morning. The little alarm clock was screaming at me to get up its volume disproportionately large for its size.After a very hot shower I made my way down the sandy paths to breakfast. Both Brian and Jill were there before me and were waiting patiently for their cooked meal. I http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-266425.html I've never in my 29 years thought i could love a place like i do the Okavango Delta. I've been to so many places through out my life East to West. Asia Middle East Europe North Africa North America... and finally EastSouth Africa. The whole trip was unexpected we were supposed to b in Europe at the time. I was in Barcelona when my grandfather died and we had to go back home the UAE. A few http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-253742.html There are great things to be said about waking up at home. Even if it's not exactly your home. All 3 of us slept in and lord knows we needed it. It was very comforting to be at Jerry's house. I had wondered for years where Jerry slept and now here I was...waking up actually IN in. I lingered under the mosquito net simply because I could. Jerry brought me coffee.We were all moving slowly. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-252430.html Our day started delightfully with coffee and granola. The plan was to head to Paula's office check some email Paula is a new again grandmother and was anxious for pictures and I needed to check on our hostel reservation in Zambia. Then we were to hit the road.So off we went to Paula's office. I got on line to make sure that our Visa's were in order for Zambia because when you book a hos http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-250439.html Awoke in the morning with only a slight hangover...er....memory of the wine and the conversation from the previous night and after some vitamins and juice started to pack to head out. As we started packing the the little boy we met the day before came into Dani's house and sat down with us. Unlike the USA most kids are not given much attention as they are growing up and it was clear with thi http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-250414.html Leaving Ghanzi and the Kalahari Bushmen we headed further north into Botwana to the town of Maun the gateway to the famous Okavango Delta. The world's largest inland delta is a swampy low lying area covering a large section of Botswana. Fed by a number of rivers in Namibia Angola and Botswana and disconnected from the ocean the delta dumps 11 cubic km of water onto the Kalahari Desert ever http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-239278.html On Wednesday morning I woke up famished and began to charge all of my batterieshelliptwo batteries for each camera my laptop my berry etchellipBruno drove me to the airport around noon only for me to arrive and realize I left my entire envelope of vouchers etc in the room A speedy drive back which was only 5 or 10 minuteshellipMaun is a pretty small town. I met the rest of the group http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-228812.html Much of our time during the past several days in Botswana has been spent on buses. In sharp contrast to roads in South Africa roads here are mercifully paved and devoid of all but the rarest pothole. Also in contrast to East Africa the animals do not seem to stay within the game parks. This means that regular bus rides from A to B can turn into game drives. So far we've spotted several herds of http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-223919.html Hello everyone from beautiful BotswanaAfter an unexciting night in Chobe just across the boarder we made our way through the Kalahari desert towards the Okavango Delta in the northwest of the country. It is BAKING HOT here we are absolutely dying with thirst all of the time and some people take that the wrong way and just get drunk every night . Not my way to deal with the heat but there http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-220140.html After all the thrills and spills of Victoria falls we moved into Botswana where the pace didn't really slow down. Botswana is famous for the Okavango Delta a huge number of small waterways that move through reeds with a great number of wide life in a concentrated area. We were taken through these waterways by Mokoro or hollow canoes by the local people where we set up camp for 2 nights. As http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-207965.html October 2005 After our brief initial stay in Zambia we crossed to Botswana at the Kazangulu Ferry border crossing. The Zambian side of the border crossing on the Zambezi was chaos queues of trucks queues of people and queues of pretty much anything else you could care to mention. It didnrsquot seem conceivable that all these large trucks were going to get across the river on a couple of minu http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-204769.html Hello againSo next stop after Vic falls was Botswana where who should i run into No other than lil sis Gemma It's a small world I had just come out of the shower and it was getting dark when suddenly I heard some sreaming and is Hannah here. Some of the guys had gone into town so I thought it must be them but thought the behaviour was a little wierd..... but it was Gemma So yes we had a http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-201393.html