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Published: December 19th 2010
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Our next stop was a 2 night bush camp in the Okavango Delta. The Okavango is the worlds largest inland Delta and is home to a huge variety of wildlife. For this trip we packed up 3 days worth of food and clothes as we were camping in the back of beyond with no water, no toilet, nothing other than bush for miles! When we arrived at the Delta a group of guides from the local village awaited us and James and I were assigned 'Jakey' as our guide for the 3 days. We then hopped aboard our mode of transport for the next few days - the Mokuru, a shallow wooden boat were Jakey polled us to our camp! This took just over an hour and was the most relaxing way we have ever travelled, until we came accross a group of unhappy hippo's!!
In our time at the Delta we went on various game walks and spotted lots of giraffe, zebra, hippo's, wild boar! The knowledge of the local guides is amazing, they can spot the smallest footprint and tell you how long it has been there for and from which animal, as well as spotting the tiniest
Our Mode of Transport!
Any crocs fancy an easy meal...?! of creatures far into the distance - Impressive! After a four hour game walk in the morning a few us were all feeling a bit sticky so decided to go for a dip in the Delta. The guide had to take us to a specific area which had little danger of crocs and hippo's lurking around!! We were all eager to jump in for a swim, although became a little nervous when we realised that we couldn't see what lay in the water as it was really murky. We enjoyed a brief swim and then each had a go at polling the mokurus, it definately takes a certain knack as a few of us almost fell in! Back at camp everyone exchanged stories of their days viewing and we were all a bit diappointed not to have seen any elephants, just at that point five elephants appeared in the distance. A few of us hopped in a mokuru and a guide took us for a closer look. At one point we were literally meters away from one of the elephants, too close for comfort as according to one of the guides it was showing the first signs of a charge!
Pretty scary when on our guide had just told us about two guides from his village being crushed by elephants earlier this year, arrrrgggghhhh!!!
On our last night in the Delta we watched the sun go down and toasted some marshmallows on the campfire as our guides performed some traditional singing and dancing. The singing and dancing was amazing to watch and listen to as they sang about 'beautiful Botswana', in the end everyone was up and dancing around the campfire - a great way to end our amazing experience in the Delta!
We are only a week into our eight month trip and already we have seen so much and experienced such amazing things. The Delta has definatley been a highlight, as we were able to walk in amongst zebras and giraffe, as well as getting so close to the elephants. We also really enjoyed spending time chatting to people from the local area. We have been so lucky in all that we have done so far, I wonder what the next few weeks will have in store...
Hope all is well back in snowy Scotland,
Love to you all, Claire and James x x
x
Ps. Having trouble uploading pictures but will get them up asap!
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