Blogs from Okavango Delta, North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 7

Geo: -19.0933, 22.4451Raining again, very strange weather for this time of the year normally very hot and little water. The delta is still full thus the animals are not concentrated around the water holes..Camp packed we head off having a great time wandering the various tracks the rain has made the sand easy to drive.. come across the 1st river crossing on our way to bridge 3.. I stop to check it out and another chap on the other side is also having a look.. we both wade to the middle and find it is about 2mm short of the male critical zone.. his vehicle is a petrol version of a RAV with low range thrown in.. I get the WD40 out and spray his critical components and whish him luck.. If ya get stuck I ... read more

I had been in Africa just under a month now and while I had seen so many incredible animals, met so many incredible locals, I still wouldn't say that I had "fallen in love with Africa" yet. Maybe it was the hustle and bustle of long days on the tour bus or simply because I'd been too worried about taking good photos that I forgot to enjoy it but I was still willing to give Africa a chance. The Delta was a favourite of my travel agent who spoke highly of Botswana when I was booking; and luckily I had been here long enough that no electricity and no plumbing didn't bother me any more (if my first stop was the Delta I don't think I would have enjoyed it). But, when we were standing in ... read more

Hi Everybody! We just returned from safari. It was fantastic! There were 2 other people and our guide. We could'nt have asked for better, we all got along so well. Angela from England and Danny from Australia. We had to camp en-route to Botswana which gave us a chance to get to know each other. Our first adventure was the Okavango Delta. We met up with local native guides who took us into the Delta by Mokoro, a dug out canoe carved in one solid piece out of a tree trunk. The guide is also the poler. He stands in the back of the Mokoro and uses a long pole to guide the canoe through the water and reeds. It was a little scary at first because the canoe sits very low in the water and ... read more

Day 21 (Monday,11-May-09, JRJ) Up early for another mokoro trip and two short walks. On the walks we briefly saw an Elephant in the undergrowth, but it was so quick no-one managed to get a photo. It's amazing how well an animal that size can hide. We also saw many different birds and some red lechwe bounding through the shallow water which was cool. Got back to island and packed up our stuff onto the mokoro's and leisurely made our way back to the mokoro station where we transferred onto the speedboats and went back to camp. Got back Guma Lagoon for lunch with freshly made bread. Yum. Put up our tents and sat around on the deck for a few hours. Had chicken 'boom' chakalaka for dinner and afterwards, Nat and I hosted a pub ... read more

Day 301 (5/2/09) And it was time to hit the road again, we said our goodbyes to Vicky who was finishing the trip and to the excitement of Livingstone. With a relatively smooth border crossing we stamped out of Zambia and caught a five minute ferry through 'No-mans land' to Botswana. Botswana enforces a very strict foot and mouth prevention program which involves walking through specially soaked pads and Franko driving the truck through a significantly larger Tyre wash. We arrived in the small town of Kasane and to 'Thebe Camp' back in the routine we set up camp and headed to the pool until interrupted by a late afternoon shower. Later that afternoon headed off on a afternoon cruise through Chobe National Park sighting some elephants in the distance, a couple crocs, a herd of ... read more