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October 8th 2009

Published: October 10th 2009

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Okavango Delta

When seasonal rains that fall in the Angolan highlands make their way into neighbouring Botswana the Okavango Delta floods over 18,000 square kilometres of grassland creating islands and lagoons inhabited by all wildlife you'd expect in Africa. On previous trips to Africa we've spent time on safaris in Tanzania and Namibia, but nearly all of that time was spent within the confines of a safari vehicle. There was a trip up a river and a game walk included one time but most of the time the African wildlife experience for us has been accompanied by the sound of a diesel engine. So as well as the chance to visit Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the main draw for us of this 12 day tour was the 3 days we'd spend in the Okavango Delta, because once there there would be no 4 x 4 safari vehicle and we'd be seeing Africa either on foot or from a traditional type of dugout canoe called a mokoro.

At the Delta's edge the camping gear and supplies were transferred to the mokoros and the polers poled (think gondola) us and the rest of the group the four hours to camp. A bush camp, no

Chobe national park

When they turn and flap their ears and shake their heads like this they're not happy. They can turn over safari vehicle with everybody in it

running water or facilities, no anything. They don't even want you using shampoo if you wash your hair in the waters of the Delta in the interests of protecting the environment. The journey through the Delta was serene but although we saw a lot of bird life I saw no animals and I was wondering at what point in the Delta does the wildlife 'begin'?

Although once at the camp we didn't have to wait long. Someone called us back to the water's edge where elephant had appeared on the banks of two islands opposite and soon afterward leaving the camp on foot on the other side of a small thatch of trees that separates the camp from the plain there was another one, fully committed in the moment to the destruction of a palm tree. Their being so close to camp could have almost been stage managed but then I never saw elephant in these same locations again. I soon realised that in the Delta the wildlife doesn't 'begin' anywhere. All the animals are nomadic and at 18,000 square kms (roughly the size of Wales) they're either in front of you, or they're somewhere else.

Next morning

Okavango Delta

we woke up at dawn and split into 2 groups of 4 and 5 and a guide took me, Lynn and another couple on a long game walk. We seemed to walk for a long while without seeing much other than animal tracks and I'd almost begun to forget where we were when a large bull elephant emerged determinedly out of the trees about 30-40 metres ahead. It's exciting being in this situation on foot because you know he could just as easily have burst out of the trees just 5 metres in front of you, it's all chance, could even be lion watching you from the next thatch of bush. Elephant don't have good eyesight and they don't like surprises, not even on their birthdays.

At this point this particular elephant hadn't noticed us and I watched as he checked his stride and suddenly stopped in the middle of the clearing to mull over something in the grass. Something large and white he seemed to be considering and feeling over with his trunk. After a while he moved away and we went to take a look. It was the partial skeletal remains of another elephant. Its an oft'

Okavango Delta

quoted saying that elephant 'never forget' but its only fairly recent behavioral studies showing just how complex a creature they are. I saw a TV documentary where African elephants came across the bones of one of their own herds deceased and were filmed doing this exact same thing. Feeling over the bones as if reading them and using a dexterity you wouldn't think they possessed to gently turn them with their feet. It's obvious elephant remember their dead and respect their bones. How many other of the earth's creatures do that other than ourselves? This is really what me and Lynn paid for. I'd take observing unnoticed on foot the intimate actions of this one elephant over seeing herds of them from a convoy of safari vehicles where they are alerted to your presence long before you see them.

Later that afternoon towards sunset the guides took us out in the mokoros to a place called hippo pools. During the journey I'd not really had my mind on hippo as I'd had my feet up enjoying the ride and the setting sun when all of a sudden we were on the edge of the pool amidst a lot of

bush camp, Okavango Delta

loud snorting and honking. It was the bull hippo who was alone in the centre of the pool where he was sinking out of sight then suddenly resurfacing at intervals with a great amount of splashing, head shaking and mouthy displays of toothy hardware. Seemingly surfacing just a little closer each time. I think it was all for our benefit. I got the message loud and clear, it spoke..... "I am the undisputed heavyweight champion around these parts, what the fuck, are you doing in my pool?"
We've been close to hippo once before in South Africa but that was from the safety of a guard rail on a boat with an engine. Here being sat just five or six inches above the surface of the water in what is really just a hollowed out tree trunk facing over a tonne of territorial hippo feels, different.

After the Delta we camped at campgrounds called 'Elephant Sands' in another part of Botswana where elephant seemed to be allowed to roam at will. They were crossing the main highway back and forth, in their own sweet time. They were at the campground where there was a bar and viewing area set

"Don't panic - unless I panic"

the guide's advice before the walk on what to do if encountering things that can hurt

up next to a watering hole they used, and they were in the camp at night where it sounded like they were kicking a big plastic bin around for fun half the night. But apparently what they most like to do at this campsite is wait until everybody is asleep and drink from the swimming pool. Nobody had mentioned this to us and on my way back to the tent that night I stopped for a minute just to listen to the night sounds coming from the bush when I turned and there was 'Mr Big Face' peering out at me from between the trees just feet away, far too close. I think I must have been blocking his route to the pool and he was waiting patiently for me to leave so he could rush in and take a slurp on the pool while no one was looking, cheeky!
To be so bold these elephant must have had more exposure to people than those we'd just seen in the Okavango Delta. Still, later during the night when I could hear the crunch and snap of breaking tree branches right outside in the dark it would have had to be

Zimbabwe

three ladies, a red basket of oranges, and a baby

a major emergency before I'd step out of the tent.

From these campgrounds we did a morning and afternoon game drive in Chobe National Park and then headed to Zimbabwe. At the border the news was that the Zimbabwean authorities had whacked up the price of the entry visas for Brits. This combined with some currency exchange rates they must have found inside a bag of crisps that morning that made less sense than hieroglyphics meant it cost us 45 pounds each to enter Zimbabwe for just 3 nights.
We were still feeling a slight stinging sensation from this entering Victoria Falls town an hour later and at first all we could see were the touts and chancers on the street and we began to wish we'd not left Botswana because the place to us just screamed "tourist trap" to us, which is really what it is.

Things mellowed nicely through that evening with a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River that was part of the group itinerary. There was no sunset, but there was a free bar and it was one of our group's birthdays. One of the moments being in Africa sometimes throws up happened when

Chobe national park

afternoon thunderstorm rolls over the plains soaking everyone in our open sided safari vehicle

we cruised up to a herd of elephant entering the water for an afternoon cool down and a swim. You could clearly see the youngsters and adolescents climbing on top of and dunking one another underneath the water for what could only be, the sheer fun of it!! One of the better sights in Africa to enjoy with a cold free beer in your hand. Poor light that evening though meant I didn't get photos of this worth saving.

Next day we went to see Victoria Falls themselves, not really just one waterfall but something like the Grand Canyon in that no one photograph captures the whole. Its a thing to see from nine or ten panoramic viewing points on a trail about half a mile long on the opposite rim. A pulsing sheer wall of water plunging down 220 metres to the canyon floor where the Zambezi re-groups and continues at a pace I would become familiar with the next day.

People say the Zambezi River at Victoria Falls is 'the daddy' of white water rafting worldwide. As if I needed reminding of this some of our group did the rapids the day before me and one

Victoria falls

came back having dislocated his shoulder. This was bad news for Lynn who'd been suffering with back pain those past few days and realised she'd have to duck out of this one or risk some worse back injury.

After climbing the steps down into the canyon in flip flops which was already enough danger for me for one day I was sat in the raft at the foot of the falls listening to every world of instruction the oarsman/guide was telling me. Something in his manner and tone and the way he used direct eye contact with everyone on the raft to get his points across told me this would be something that was probably going to live up to the hype. And just 10 seconds into rapid no 1 of 21 on this all day rafting trip I knew this was going to be like nothing else. I can't really describe what it was like and afterwards neither could other people. Of all the depth and breadth of the English language there are only expletives and curses used during and after the rafting and all of those words are the only words near suitable.
To illustrate how things

Victoria falls

were going there was a guy from London sat opposite me in the raft and after being in the water twice early on he wanted to leave the raft and the canyon before the half way cut-out point, which of course isn't possible. So he just sort of cowered with his head in the bottom of the raft at the remaining rapids clinging onto a rope until he could leave.
It was the most dangerous thing I have ever done, but at the same time it was the most fun. I didn't want see the water close up again either and at the big rapids when the oarsman shouted "paddle hard" I paddled like a duck on speed just like everyone else. If you do get through grade five rapids with names like 'oblivion' without the raft flipping the buzz is amazing.

I didn't see any but the previous day but some of our group had done the rapids and seen crocodile on the rocks, (as rafting is not dangerous enough already). I was thinking about this and wondering just how could it be possible for any animal, even a crocodile, to swim up and through the rapids? So

rainbow, vic falls

I asked the guide and he told me that they come flying over Vic Falls by accident to get here. A kind of extreme sports for reptiles then. Sometimes hippo and elephant get caught out by the power of the water crossing the Zambezi upstream and they also take the leap, of course they don't survive the fall. Leopards deal with any carcasses that are washed up around the canyon the river winds through.

I want to know the grizzly details of things so near the end of the day I asked the guide about injuries on the Zambezi while rafting and was told there are plenty, and often. The most common are broken teeth and noses, next are broken bones and incredibly even deaths. One or two people have disappeared underneath the rapids and turned up miles downstream dead. It's rare but it can happen, the last time was in 2006. You've signed the disclaimer beforehand and whatever happens in the water, happens.

Everybody comes back talking about the rapids but no one told me just how beautiful the scenery was going to be over the day in the raft. Between the rapids the raft is pulled

Victoria falls

after the rains in Spring apparently you can't even get near to this point for spray

along sedately as the river winds through the canyon and you can take your helmet off and put your feet up. Sit in the sun and watch fish eagles flying from their nests high up on the canyon walls. You come to a beautiful white sand beach at the half way point and have lunch. It's a pure wilderness. Something you'd pay for even without the rafting.

One night in Victoria Falls town me and Lynn went to a local bar for a few drinks. All the clientele were Zimbabwean and as we sat at a table I was picking up furtive glances coming from just about everybody at the tables nearby.
Q: What did they want?
A: Nothing.
They were just curious and keen to talk. So Lynn talked to one table of people and me another. It was interesting hearing what ordinary Zimbabweans think about what's happened to their country. In March of this year the Zim dollar collapsed, (they use US dollars today). How must it have felt for these guys, teachers and electricians, or anyone else, working month after month for no money in the bank at the end of it? They were given

it reads 'for sale one goat'

one parcel of food once a month.
Before the Zimbabwean dollar collapsed inflation ended up running at something insane like 5 billion per cent. That meant a loaf of bread cost one price at 11am in the morning and double that price after lunch. The government tried to deal with it by printing bank notes in the mega billions and trillions. Guys on the street today try to swap them with you as souvenirs in exchange for any other currency. I swapped a T shirt with a guy for 10 billion Zim dollar note.
Zimbabwe produce's nothing anymore so everything is imported and therefore beyond the means of most Zimbabweans. I've never been anywhere before other than here where people come up to you in the street and ask you for such basic but precise items. Things like shampoo, towels, once even my socks, what can you say to a man that asks you for your socks?
On my way back from the rafting trip three guys came up to me at the campsite gates with carvings they were selling, one said to me "I like your shorts" I looked at it and saw that I liked his carving so

Okavango Delta

I whipped off my shorts there and then and traded them for the carving. So now I'm stood there just in my swimming shorts that are still dripping from the rafting and another guy says "I like your swimming shorts" I could have traded every stitch I had on, they'd of let me walk back to the tent naked.

The street guys were too much on some days but we found most Zimbabweans to be unassuming friendly people, as were the Botswanans. I keep finding that in these parts of the world where people have the least you often find the most of things like basic civility.

We did this trip with it was good value and the only 'small group' budget trip we could find on the internet leaving from Johannesburg. Many people fly into the Okavango Delta but of course on a cheap trip you drive. Johannesburg is a long way from the Delta and there were some long sweaty days in the van. Plus the earth in Botswana is a white or reddish dusty sand so while camping even after showering you're never ever quite clean for long.
But none of that really matters

Okavango Delta

because it's Africa. Massive skies, sudden run for cover thunderstorms and the slightly metallic smell in the air after the freezing cold rain hits the hot African plains. Blazing sunsets where the setting sun turns a blood red disk the seconds before it sinks out of the sky. Waving children and the genuine smiles of the people. The total profusion and diversity of all the bird life, wildlife, the plants, trees and flowers. It's officially, good.

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