Blogs from Okavango Delta, North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 2

Geo: -19.0933, 22.4451A few days ago, our boss/lodge owner Jan offered us a trip to the Okavango Delta in the neighbouring country of Botswana. He was going there for a two night business trip and there was space in his plane – should we be interested. Paul and I were very interested in going to the Delta, especially as he was only going to have us pay the airport taxes, so a very cheap trip for us. This was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity, although I was a bit sceptical of flying in such a small plane! I had seen his plane fly over the lodge plenty of times and everyone who had been for a flight with him did say that it was an amazing experience. So Paul and I accepted ... read more

28 mai 2014 : Lever à 06h00, douche puis petit déjeuner. Notre 4X4 nous attend avec nos guides, notre cuisinier et trois autres personnes qui vont partager notre voyage, un couple de Français (Claude 80 ans et sa femme Marcelle 68 ans) ainsi qu'un Allemand (Karsten 44 ans). Nous quittons le lodge à 07h45 et il fait frais dans cette voiture ouverte à tous les vents. A 08h45 nous traversons la petite cité de Toteng, puis à la sortie de Toteng nous passons au-dessus de la rivière Kuyéré. A 09h15 nous traversons la ville de Sehitwa. A la sortie de la ville, un panneau nous annonce que la prochaine station-service, Shell, est à 144 kilomètres. Nous avions du mal à nous connecter sur internet, et là, nous nous rendons compte que nous allons être coupés du ... read more

30 mai 2014 : Lever à O6h00. Nous vidons les tentes et les démontons, puis nous prenons le petit déjeuner. A 07h00, nous sommes prêts à partir. Nous quittons Mokoro Island à 07h30 et arrivons à Nguma Island Lodge à 09h30 après une heure en mokoro et une heure en bateau à moteur. A certains endroits il y a une profondeur de 15 mètres d'eau. Nous en profitons pour recharger les batteries des appareils photos et caméras. Nous prenons notre repas froid préparé par Papi et nous attendons 16h00 pour prendre l'avion qui nous pemettra de survoler le delta. Il nous faudra une heure pour rejoindre Maun. Nos guides et notre cuisinier sont repartis à 10h00 avec le 4X4, ils ont cinq heures de route. En attendant l'avion, nous tournons un peu en rond. C'est une ... read more

Monday March 24 Up again to greet a new day and head to the city of Maun, Botswana. We arrived at Maun about 2 pm and we had to prepare for our trip into the Okavango Delta. A river delta usually leads to the open sea right???? But in Botswana the Okavango River empties onto open land and floods the savannah. 18,000 acres of this swamp land!!! that is unique to this area in the world ONLY!!! Preparing for the 2 days in the Delta meant we each needed to buy 5 liters of water, choose carefully the ONE set of extra clothes we needed and prepare ourselves for extreme "out in the wilderness" camping. No power, no showers and no toilet. So...... prepare meant physically as well as mentally wrapping our heads around this unique ... read more

Geo: -19.0933, 22.4451The next few entries in our blog will be about our G Adventure overland trip. This one, the first of three or four entries, sees us travel by air from Arusha, Tanzania through Kigali and Johannesburg to Livingstone where Victoria Falls sits on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. After a day in Livingstone, we continued our 21-day-trip-in-a-truck and journeyed to Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari Desert in Botswana.In order to reduce the cost of our flight from Arusha to Livingstone, which should have been about a 3 hour flight, we flew for 18 hours through the night including two 5-hour stopovers. Upon arrival, we were as exhausted as our new travel-mates who had come from other continents! Our tour began with a preliminary gathering, meeting our fearless leader Wendy ... read more