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So much has been talked about the Okavango Delta in Botswana, often called the jewel in Southern Africa´s crown, that we did wonder whether the place was actually deserving of the label, especially after our unforgettable experiences in some of the less fashionable parks in Africa. As the thought of being stuck at our campsite in Maun, Botswana surrounded by backpackers reading about Mme Ramotswe´s latest adventures in her ladies detective agency wasn´t exactly appealing, we thought we would go for it and booked ourselves on a 3 day safari trip out into the Delta.
Getting to the Delta involved a 2 hour truck ride across an unpaved track made difficult to negotiate by deposited sand from the encroaching Kalahari desert. We caught sight of a few Zebra along the way but little else. Arriving at a small village we left the truck and got into canoes called Mokoros. Each Mokoro was steered by a poler who stood at the back of the canoe and pushed us gondola style through the very narrow water channels. I tried to sit back and relax but somehow the whole thing seemed to me to be pretty uncomfortable. The sun was glaring down on
us and it was blisteringly hot and the grass was so high that it was impossible to see anything. At each bend in the channel our canoe brushed against the grass depositing spiders into the canoe and pollen into my already bloodshot eyes. A few minutes in and I also started to feel an unwanted sensation in my trousers. Water was gradually seeping into the canoe creating a pool of water within which we had to sit. Luckily (or unluckily), we were distracted from worrying about whether we were burning or sodden because we started to worry about hippos. ´Make sure you keep you arms and legs in the canoe at all times´ said our poler. ´Not long ago, a girl I was transporting had her leg dangled out over the side and a hippo came and bit into it and flipped her into the water´. With our legs and arms well and truly tucked in, we continued on towards our bush camp.
I was a bit disappointed with the bush camp to be honest as the area could never be described as idyllic. To me it seemed like we were camping on a scorched patch of bare earth
next to a flooded field of grass. We were told that we could go swimming but the ground was so boggy that your feet disappeared into the mud and you came out of the water dirtier than when you went in. We set up our tent and I took a stroll to the toilet. A small hole in the ground just a few feet away from our tent.
Once the heat of the sun had started to die down a bit, we headed out for a late afternoon game walk which followed elephant tracks through the bush. We were walking for an hour or so before we suddenly came across a herd of elephants. Our guide wasn´t licensed to carry a rifle and we felt really uneasy when the Bull came very close to us. Towards the end of the walk we stopped at a watering hole full of hippos. They were really active and loud and we sat and watched them for a good half hour. Unfortunately Kim hadn´t put on any insect repellant and the mosquitos went to work on her back and feet. We later counted 75 bites on just her ankles and feet alone -
ouch!
After cooking dinner on the campfire under the stars we arose the next morning and headed out for another game walk this time seeing lots of giraffes and zebras as well as lots more elephants. Arriving back at camp we were greeted by an adult puff adder curled up and asleep next to our camp. In it´s docile state it didn´t look particularly menacing, but it is supposedly the leading cause of snakebite death in Africa. In the middle of the night the girls in the tent next door felt something slithering underneath their ground mat and they were jumping out of their skin until a torch shone underneath their tent revealed just a frog.
That night we had a sing song by the fire and the guides got up and showed us what they claimed to be a traditional dance. The entire dance seemed to consist of pelvic thrusts and the men seemed to be in competition with each other to see who could thrust most impressively. We showed them no encouragement yet they continued for a good 30 minutes until the sweat began to run down their faces. In fact, it wasn´t until one of us brought out a couple of bags of marshmallows that they stopped thrusting and started toasting them on the fire instead.
On returning to Maun we headed straight out to the local airport for a flight over the Delta. Five of us piled into the small plane with our Kiwi pilot (you know your getting old when pilots look like they should still be in shorts) and we headed up and over the Delta to give us a bird´s eye view of where we had just camped. We asked the pilot to make the flight as exciting as possible and at one stage he swooped down and flew very...very close to the ground pulling up just as we were about to hit a coppice of trees. Within a few seconds we were back up at 2000 feet again and we got a great view of the Delta and it´s anaimals including some roaming elephants, impalas, zebras and giraffes. Yet again it was the animals that made this particular trip unforgettable and it was a fitting way to finish our adventures in Africa.
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