🙂 Lovely pool, comfortable camp site with clean ablutions.
🙁 Noisy – party on opposite bank of river. Lost and found phones!
Thursday, 29 – Friday 30 December 2023 – Maun – Island Safari Lodge and Mokoro trip – 38C
It was an easy drive to Maun where we stopped off to buy some supplies. Paul and I were blown away by how large this town has become – in the 90s it was an airstrip and a hotel and shop under a tin roof! We topped up on meat and biltong at Beef Boys and then on to Spar for additional groceries and water plus a few more boxes of red and white wine. I had googled which options were best and Robertson Merlot came tops for red and Drostdy-Hof Chardonnay for white (neither Charlotte or I drink Sauvignon Blanc). We filled up water tanks and fuel and headed to Island Safari Lodge.
Island Safari Lodge is located a little outside the frantic chaos that is Maun and has nice views over the river. There are two large swimming pools – the one next to the campsite is warmer! We caught up on wi-fi and phone calls home and enjoyed a big lunch and a refreshing swim. Our campsite was large and spacious and next to the clean ablutions which had hot showers. That evening the boys from Elephant Sands came to join the kids to play cards at the bar at Elephant Sands. The adults had eaten a huge late lunch so we did not cook a meal but snacked on biltong instead before having an early night.
We were up bright and early and packed up and headed for a delicious breakfast at the bar. We had decided to follow our driver William so that we did not have to double back on ourselves. He had kindly offered for us to park our vehicle in his village in the Okavango Delta – the Okavango Delta is a World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa. It is magnificent. We turned left to his home but Alys and Nick missed us indicating so continued to drive on… fortunately we had walkie talkies – which were nearly out of range by the time we made contact!
We continued the drive until we entered the gate at the buffalo fence (to avoid transmission of TB and foot and mouth disease). When we arrived we realised that Nick had lost his phone – at the point when we had met up with each other after losing them at the turn of. William kindly offered to go in search of the phone … We joined our 4 Polers for a tranquil float on the waters. We spotted hippo in the distance as well as an array of birdlife and a reed frog. It was very peaceful. We enjoyed a quick lunch next to the river before heading back.
The lilies are white if they are pollinated by butterflies during the day and the purple lilies are pollinated by moths during the night…
The local fisherman leave nets out and had caught a dogfish. When we got back William was delighted to report that he had found Nick’s phone on the road! We raced back to collect our vehicles with William shouting,”Branches! Branches” so that we would not get hit in the open vehicle – this became our catch phrase! The local Villagers asked for a Thank You Gift for looking after our vehicles so we have the some beers and some money. One chap showed us the hide of a hippo which had killed their friend walking after sunset in the village two weeks ago and who they subsequently hunted and killed themselves. A few days later we discovered that Alys also lost her phone on William’s vehicle – he did find it – he must have despaired! 🙂 It had been great to share this experience with the Whiteheads but to really reap the full benefits of a mokoro trip you need to book Chief’s Island for a few days of walking and gliding through the water – it is incredible and our favourite type of safari. It was rather off putting when our Poler answered a mobile phone call and discussed rates with another potential client…ho!hum!
It is quite funny as our WhatsApp Group is called the very number plate that we were driven in BAE – W (Botswana & Earwakers) – synchronicity and perhaps why all phones were found?! 🙂
Our next adventure was Moremi Game Reserve!
Go Back to: Botswana
Go Back to: Nxai Pans
Go to: Moremi – Third Bridge
