Botswana - The Okavango Delta

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Botswana - The Okavango Delta

Saturday 12th February

After our adventures in crossing the border from Namibia we eventually arrive at our base in Botswana, the Delta Rain campsite near Maun on Saturday afternoon. We've stopped off in Maunfor supplies, to change money and to try and use the internet before arriving at our campsite in the late afternoon.

Botswana has a record of stability since independence. This, together with its natural recourses of diamonds and minerals, have given the population one of the highest standards of living in Africa. Surprisingly it also has the second highest HIV infection rate in the world with nearly 40%!o(MISSING)f the adult population infected. This has reduced life expectancy from 65 years to less than 40. At all the border crossings in Southern Africa and at some of the campsites we are offered as many free condoms as we want. There are advertising campaigns in all the countries and at the Namibia/Botswana border there are random signs up in immigration and customs telling me to use a condom. {There was also a sign up when leaving Namibia imploring me to check that I had the right paperwork to avoid further incontinence! - I wasnt brave enough to try and use my camera at a border crossing though}
After setting up camp and eating some of the group disappear to the bar for the evening. Im not sure why I was a late in joining them but when I get there Im amazed to find that there is a live football match featuring my team, Stoke City, showing on a small TV in the corner of the bar. I manage to catch just the last ten minutes of the game amazed that the match is showing on Botswana TV and frustrated that I hadnt come to the bar earlier. Not surprisingly, Im the only person in the bar watching the TV.

Just One Makoro, Give It To Me

The next day is Valentines Day. In what turns out to be my most romantic Valentines Day for years Im going for a romantic boat ride. We are going to the Okavango Delta, a nature reserve. This is the largest inland delta in the world - i.e. a delta that has no outlet to the sea. {I dont know how many inland deltas there are in the world but this is the largest} To get to the delta we have to travel for three hours by truck and then, when the track finishes, we transfer to Makoros, something like a canoe, and paddle for two hours into the delta towards our campsite. Doug and I share a makoro for our romantic trip into the delta. Our Poler whose name is Seven seems quite a bit older than the other guides and polers who are paddling us into the delta. I'd love to buy him a drink and listen to his life story but he doesnt seem to have too much English - his answer to all our questions is "long time"!

There is nothing at the campsite - we've had to bring everything we are going to use in by makora. We were planning to dig some drop toilets but we've forgotten the shovel - somebody is poling all the way back to the village to fetch a shovel. I find out that my bag and all its contents have got wet during the makora ride and once the tents are up I try to hang my wet clothes, camera equipment and toilet roll from trees to try and get them dried out.

Health and Safety

We have a bit of time before our next trip out to the delta. I find myself falling asleep in some shade. I spend most of the next few days asleep. Not sure why; perhaps its the result of heat and dehydration - we've brought lots of water with us but its difficult to drink because the water itself is so hot.
Later in the afternoon we are taken for a walk in the delta. Before we can do that we have to have a safety talk from the chief guide. Last time I went walking in an area where there was wildlife we were protected by three men with rifles when all we were likely to see was baboons - this time I'm going to be protected from lions by a bloke with a medium-sized stick! We are told that if we are charged by any animal we have to run or hide behind a tree - I'm happy with this as I feel that running and hiding is something I'm quite good at. The only exception is that if a lion charges us we have to face it down - I'm not sure I'd be so good at this! After changing into my brown trousers I find that I have suddenly become very popular and that all of the walking groups are looking for someone old and slow to join their group - it's the Bushman philosophy!
Our walk is more of an educational visit than a game spotting experience. Jackie, our guide, is very knowledgeable about all the plants and animals we find in the Delta and how they depend on each other. I dont get as much out of this as I should have done as my camera is not yet dried out and working properly and I am still feeling the effects of the heat.

Monday 15th February

On the Sunday evening we are hit by what seems to be a strong storm. It may not have been as severe as I thought because weather always seems a lot more extreme from inside a tent. I was still feeling drained of energy and had disappeared into my tent as soon as possible. I had missed the excitement when an elephant came to the river very close to our campsite just after dusk but it seems to have been scared away by our torches and noise. The weather changed with a really strong wind that seemed to blow for a couple of hours before the storm itself started. It probably sounded a lot worse than it actually was because I was inside a tent but another campsite in the area had been hit by lightning and evacuated the same night.
I crawled out my tent in the morning and was amazed to find the clothes Id left to dry out were still there despite the wind last night! {although far from dry!} but my toilet roll could not be saved. We'd actually got an unexpected lie-in while we were waiting for the rain to stop. The schedule for today is a 4-hour walk into the Delta.
Our group is again led out of the camp by Jackie but today we are also joined by Seven. I think that Seven is probably there to look after me because I struggled with heat yesterday and today is a longer walk. As it is the sky is overcast and cloudy after last nights storm and we're not in direct sun and I'm OK. The cooler temperature also brings some of the animals out from the shade. We seem to spend a long time trying to get close to some giraffes who keep avoiding us. Some of the other groups seemed to have a bit more luck with spotting the big game, getting quite close to elephants and hippos. But a lot of the walk was about seeing some of the stuff that you wouldnt normally see on a safari. I think Im quite an expert in ant hills and elephant dung now!

Hippos Again

I spend much of the rest of the day sleeping again until it's time to go out in the makoros in the afternoon to try and find some hippos. Some of the rest of the group have spent some of the afternoon trying to master the art of poling a makora. I certainly feel a lot more vulnerable paddling after the hippos in a makora than in other boats {you know, they have outboard motors}. The polers aren't allowed to take us closer than 50m to the hippos although they prefer to stay 80m away.
After some successful hippo-spotting we park up {makoro up?} to watch the sunset and then return to the campsite. Our entertainment that evening is provided by the guides and polers who put on a show of singing and dancing for us. The star of the show turns out to be Jackie, showing us he has more talents than just guiding. We also get the feeling that this a more genuine evening's entertainment than if we were watching some traditional dancing in one of the hotels or lodges. Fortunately there isn't too much pressure on us to respond and perform some of our traditional singing and dancing!

And Finally, An Aerial View

On the Tuesday we pack up camp and leave. We are taken out for another walk in the Delta while the camp is being packed up and the makoros are being loaded. We get closer to giraffes this time and spot an elephant on the opposite side of a river. I think this is the first time this trip that my dodgy foot has let me down as we are offered the opportunity to take our shoes off to wade across the river to follow the elephant and I have to say no.
The journey back to Maun is a bit difficult at times since the track which had been quite difficult for our truck to drive on coming out is a lot worse following the storms of Sunday evening. Back at the campsite I just about have enough time to find some {much needed} clean clothes before we head out to the local airport.
Because a number of us have got together its not too expensive to hire a couple of planes for a flight over the Delta. The Delta doesn't look anything like I imagined it from the air. I can't pick out where our campsite was or recognise any of the rivers we travelled along. In fact, although we poled along the river for two hours, I don't think wed travelled too far into the Delta.

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Photos

This Beetle Is Called A Rhinoceros Beetle
For obvious reasons

Giraffe
Spotted during a walking tour

Hippo
This is as close as we dared go in a makoro