The Okavango Delta

Well as a result of our flight issues with SAA, we missed the Chobe National Park Game Drive and the river cruise but from all accounts the animals were well hidden anyway as its heading into the rainy season here and water isn't hard for the animals to find and therefore they don't need to pile up at the local watering holes.  We did manage to see a sort of domesticated wart hog and her brood right in the middle of town as we were leaving Kasane.  She was right in the middle of the action and didn't seem to mind us a bit.

From Kasane we got on the overland truck (they go nuts if you call it a bus!) and drove for about 11 hours to Maun.  A word about the truck as its an important part of our trip.  Its basically an oversized 4x4 with bus style seating for 24.  Our trip is completely full so every seat is taken.  The truck contains lockers at the back for our packs (one for each seat) and space underneath for the 13 tents, poles and all of the cooking supplies, chairs, mattresses, tables, etc we need for the twenty days.  It has a communal icebox up front where we keep our beer and soft drinks.  The first four seats are sideways across a large steel table and the kids sit up there as well is in the first row of 4 seats and that makes a nice segregated area for them to play card games with the other kids.

Ther are three families on the trip.. the other two from Australia with 7 kids (Shawn -13, Rachel 11, Rebekka -12, Simon-15, Timothy-17, Josh-15 and Mattie-20 (ok... 6 kids but Mattie hags with them).  There is also an Indian girl of 21 (Monica) who's latched on to Rachel and vis versa.  She's studying to be an international lawyer and is on assignment in Capetown for 3 months before she returns to Sydney.  Rebekka, Simon and Timothy's mom Judith is a geologist who's widowed.  Josh/Mattie's parents are Andrew (a bond trader for HSBC in Sydney) and Carrie (a former hotel owner.  We have an Israeli (Bar) who's just finishing up a volunteer stint at a Cheetah rescue centre in Zimbabwae, an Austrian (Martin) who's working for an NGO in Tanzania, a couple of English girls (Emma - working for an ad agency in Zambia and Helen - working at an NGO in Gaborne which is the capital of Botswana).  We also have an Australian Phys Ed department head Craig who runs their Rugby program...  and his girlfriend Rebecca who's gone back to study Pharmacology but was a hair dresser.  Finally we have a South African couple Lappise and Bonnie from Capetown.  They run a conservatory for frogs and fauna.  He's an amazingly enthusiastic teacher.  All in all a very good bunch and there are no prima donna's and everyone is pulling their weight.    I suspect that we've made some lifelong friends here.

Back to the truck...  it rides like one.  We have instituted a system where we rotate clockwise every day so we can take spells sitting over the rear wheels which gives quick an enthusiastic "African Massage".  Jen and I had the unlucky seats this day which wasn't too bad until we hit a stretch of new road that had built in speed bumps every 100 metres for about 5kms.  We also passed in and out of more Foot and Mouth quaratine areas so everyone out, wipe your feet on the mats (with 2 pairs of shoes) and the truck goes through a trough of the same stuff.  We had lunch in the shadow of a very large Baboa tree and stopped quite frequently for either stops at service stations/Wimpy's or "bush toilets".  We were very impressed with the quality of the roads in Botswana.  Considering that we drove almost 600 kms, we were on paved roads the whole time, any kilometer of which would put Ontario roads to shame... and we could count the cars we saw in an hour on one hand.  Not many villages either... and any we saw were in great shape.

Its very obvious Botswana is much better shape than Tanzania - and a LOT less populated.  We saw a few Elephants, Zebras and the occasional Ostrich or Wart Hog but not nearly as closely as we saw in Tanzania so other than a few Elephant shots (because he was huge and white from the dust), we didn't bother to get in others way for pictures.  They were freaking out like we must have in Tarangire... but as we learned, this isn't really the best time for sightings in Botswana.  We spent most of three days driving through the Kalahari Desert.  Its really the world's largest beach... its all sand with low scrub for about 1000 miles.  It really does look like the land in the God's Must Be Crazy I/II movies (which if you haven't seen, go get them... they are hilariously funny documentaries of African life and highlight a San Bushman's odyssey to return a Coke bottle to the "God's").

A large solitary bull

"He's a big guy oi?'

At about 6:30pm (after a 6:30am departure) we arrived in Maun.  Its a very modern little town with roadhouses, good grocery stores, etc.  Again no sign of the motor bikes, everyone was well dressed and it could have been any small town in Ontario except for the people.  Speaking of which, we ran into a tribe in Maun called the Herero that are fascinating.  The women all wear Victorian style dresses with the big hoops and very stylish hats that have "antlers" made from the same material.  The Antlers signify their interest in cattle - they are Botswana/Namibia's big cattle farmers.  Some of these dresses must be worth thousands.  It was quite surreal.  We stocked up on beer, water and snacks as we were staying in the Delta for the next two days and then moved down the road to another campsite for the night to repack our possesions into our day packs as we couldn't take everything into the delta.  The camp site had a nice pool and a bar so it was a great way to wash off the road dust.  The beers are from Namibia and are brewed with the German brewing rules so are quite good.

This little guy (a Leopard Tortoise) crashed our game walk, marching right through the assembled group!

Sunset on the Delta.

The next am, we were up at dawn and transferred to another big 4x4 truck for our transfer into the Delta,  It was about a 40 minute drive crossing several stream beds before we ended up in a small village in the middle of the delta and into our "Mokoro's".  A Mokoro is a dugout canoe with a flat bottom and a poler in the back.  Ours were made from fiberglass which we were pretty pleased about as the wooden ones looked pretty leaky.  Rachel and I were poled by a middle aged lady named Remi while Shawn/Jen were poled by the main guide Mohali.  Remi's English was near non-existant but Mohali proved to be a fountain of knowledge over the next few days.

Poling a Mokoro isn't easy and we had very little freeboard (boat above the waterline) but it was very relaxing lying back as someone else poled us through a maze of reeds to get to our campsite.  We went in for about an hour and then landed at our campsite which was a site on the hippo/elephant trails although the poor was months old.  By now we were experts at setting up and tearing down our tents and Shawn and |Rachel could usually get theirs up about the same time as Jen/I.  We then learned about the bush toilet and then were ferried down to the swimming hole (basically a large intersection in two Hippo trails).  The water was amazingly refreshing after the body temperature waters of Tanzania.  We all loved this very much and did it multiple times over the next 2 days.  We did game walks in the evening and mornings but didn't see a lot beyond a few Zebra's and Antelope/Wildebeast.  One evening we took the Mokoro's down to the Hippo pool to hear them.  We could see the odd one but they were in the water a long way from us - which we were quite happy about after seeing their huge teeth and gaping maws in Tanzania.  Shawn and Rachel got their share of time poling the Mokoro's and Gerti our guide continued to whip up amazing meals under trying conditions - we had steak!  The highlight of the trip was the singing and dancing by our guides/polers.  How 10-12 people from the middle of nowhere could make such harmonies is beyond me.  They have a real talent for it and it brought shivers to my back to hear them.  This is Africa!

And we're off!

The beautiful lillies... white buty also purple and pink.  They open and close daily.

Another great Tilley hat picture

Jen's working hard as you can see.

Mahali, Jen ans Shawn in a Typical Hippo path.

These reeds take the salt out of the water.  As the delta evaporates yearly, it would be very salty without them.
The water is quite sweet actually which brings all the animals.  Nature is amazing.

And quite clear too.

Still working....

The Aussies got up and did a few Aussie songs and the South African's got up and did a few SA ballads but Jen/Shawn/Rachel rushed off to bed leaving me alone and the group took pity on me and didn't make me sing any Canadian tunes (besides I's the by and Bud the spud, I was struggling anyway).  Then we sang a few hymns for Christmas and off to bed aafter looking at the stars of an African sky at night - you haven't seen dark until you've seen a moonless night in the middle of Africa.

The last day we left early as  few folks had helicopter/aircraft flights over the delta.  I kicked myself that I didn't do the helicopter one but was a bit concerned before I saw it as to the state of any aircraft.  It turned out to be a new Robinson R22 and looked very well maintained.  They didn't see many animals either so that made me feel better.

Then it was back to Maun for more shopping and back to the campground for the next day's trip to Ghanzi. Our camera battery died and we couldn't find the spare so pictures are a bit short.