Sat 23rd May. Day 13
We left camp at 6.30am this morning for a short drive to the Namibia-Botswana border and then onto Maun, the gateway to the Okavango Delta.
The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta and is produced by seasonal flooding. The Okavango River drains the summer rainfall from the Angola highlands and the surge flows 1,200km to a basin in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, forming the Delta over the following months. The water is consumed through transpiration by plants or lost by evaporation. The floodwater attracts animals from miles around, creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife.
We did some shopping in Maun for essentials such as beer and drove to the Island Safari Lodge, arriving ~3pm. A couple of the girls took up the option of a flight over the Delta so we headed off into town. I'd already seen the Delta from the air on TV so didn't think it was worth the not inconsiderable sum of money to take a flight myself. Me and Doug decided to get some food, a nice beef stew and rice for 11 Pula each, less than £1! The usual in the evening, a few beers in the Lodge bar, however, I was starting to find the company rather boring.
Sun 24th May. Day 14
We had breakfast at 8am and then packed away the camp to leave for the Delta at 9am. We'd be camping for two days in true wilderness, no showers, improvised toilets, etc, so we packed a small bag of essentials. We caught a motor boat to the mokoro canoe station. The birdlife along the banks of the river was fantastic although due to a combination of the noise and speed, there wasn't really much of a chance of taking many decent photos. We did see a hippo peeking out of the water, plus a Fish Eagle and a Saddle-billed Stork which I managed to catch a great shot of in mid-flight, and there were plenty of more common animals such as cattle, horses and donkeys around the small settlements that we passed. It would have been nice to take a slow boat along the river or go on a walking safari along the river bank to see the birdlife.
An hour later, we set off in our mokoro canoes to the campground. I was rather worried about the stability of the canoe, more concerned about getting my camera wet if it tipped over rather than my person, but looking at the shape of it, it shouldn't really tip over. I was expecting to see lots of birdlife during the mokoro trip but this didn't happen - we were basically travelling through a flood plain along a channel in a sea of reeds, made by previous canoes pressing the reeds down as they travelled through them. The trip took about 3 hours and although very peaceful, soon got very boring. We glimpsed a couple of elephants but that was pretty much all we saw.
We arrived at our campsite and found that Robert and crew, who had travelled ahead of us, had put the tents up, which was very welcome! We were also introduced to our toilets for the next 2 days - a hole in the ground and a shovel to scoop earth over the top of our business, either to keep the bugs off it or to save the next person from having to look at it, or both. I'd taken a couple of pills in the morning as I didn't fancy having to squat over a stinking hole for 2 days. We didn't have anything planned till our first game walk at 4.30pm and had been told to bring along a book to read, but I didn't so was pretty bored till then. Looking back on it, it was a bit embarrassing to be camped out in this pristine wildlife wilderness and not be able to find something to do, but I'd resolve this particular problem the next day.
Our late-afternoon game walk wasn't great in terms of wildlife spotted, we saw some zebra and warthogs and that's all I could remember. There was a beautiful sunset that evening though. We had beef stir-fry for dinner, which was very nice. The sounds of the night were wonderful, an orchestra of insects, frogs, birds, baboons and elephants and being away from civilisation, the night sky sparkled with thousands of stars. A perfect night!
Mon 25th May. Day 15
We had an early game walk this morning, which meant breakfast at 6am for a 6.30am start. Unfortunately, the area around our camp had flooded a bit more during the night and we'd have to do a bit of wading through water during our walk but this didn't deter anyone. The water was only knee-deep, warm where deeper and freezing cold where shallow, with a dirty-brown mud underfoot which we'd later find out was very difficult to clean off fully. Again, I didn't think the walk was too great, we saw herds of wildebeest, zebra, some giraffe and elephants, and plenty of birds. I had read there were crocodiles in the Delta, along with cheetahs, leopards, hyena and rhinos, but we were obviously in the wrong place and my expectations were too high in terms of what we'd see.
We arrived back in camp before lunch and had brunch - eggy toast, beans, sausages. We then had all afternoon free till our next activity, a sunset mokoro ride, so I discovered an interesting way to while away my time. I got a fold-up chair, walked outside the camp to the edge of the water and plonked myself down to see what wildlife I could see. To proved to be very rewarding and as it was so quiet, I saw quite a number of birds in the surrounding trees and bushes close-up, plus there were insects and squirrels, and the sound of frogs and fish plopping in and out of the water.
We had our evening mokoro ride, again very relaxing but we didn't see much wildlife, just some elephants. The sunset was beautiful again, but the evening round the campfire was dull again.
Tues 26th May. Day 16
We had to leave the camp by 7am today, far too early! It was another mokoro ride to the mokoro station (I had a mattress in the canoe so managed to lie down and have a snooze), where we transferred to a motor boat to whizz back to the Island Safari Lodge. We saw a brief glimpse of a hippo and plenty of birds, but we were in too much of a hurry to snap any. We had a quick shower to wash away the two days of grime, was glad to use a toilet which wasn't a hole in the ground, and then were off on our way to Nata.
The Okavango Delta
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Maun, Botswana
Other Entries
2025-02-15