🙂 Sliding through the water in a makoro listening to birds, Bush Cricket, Wild camping surrounded by wildlife
🙁 The poverty that the guides live in when we went to visit their homes and the dire AIDS situation.
Our excitement was palpable. Paul and I first experienced the paradise that is the Okovango Delta in 1994 on our Around the World Trip, and then again as part of Rob & Jo’s Buddymoon in 1998. This is in our opinion the perfect way to enjoy the bush – it is incredible.
We had transferred to Kasane from Vic Falls and ordered a coke while we waited to board our small plane into the Delta. We noticed a chap reading his book in the corner and paid no further attention. The girls were incredibly excited and of course young shrill voices carry…little did we know that the chap was praying hard to himself that we were NOT the family that he was told he would be joining as a solo traveller…. to his horro he was called to board the small plane at the same time as us and his worst fears were confounded!
Oblivious to all this we boarded and were distributed according to weight. It was a hot day and hot means bumpy on small planes!! We were all rather relieve to land in the heart of the delta 45mins later. Our first night was in camp – very comfortable tents with stunning views. We had a quick shower before sundowners and dinner in the main camp area. We sat around the camp fire enjoying a beer before we went to bed. We had mentioned that we had been poled by Ra Simon and by Electricity in our previous visits – this was met with great excitement as the Polers are all related.
We were up at 05h30 and enjoyed a delicious breakfast. The jungle drums had been at work and Electricity had travelled over from another camp to come and see us. I was pregnant with Caitlyn on the last trip – so heartwarming!
It was time to head off for a few night’s camping … the tranquility of being poled on the water is difficult to describe….you feel so at one with the Universe and nature…. almost meditative. The two hour pole was stunning.
We arrived at the little island where we would be camping and set up our tents and toilet!
Paul then taught the girls survival skills and showed the girls how to use flint to light elephant poo in case they were ever stranded.
We then roped Niall in to join us in playing bush cricket. This entails peeling a palm leaf to create a robust cricket bat and finding solid palm fruits which weigh about the same as a cricket ball. We had a great time!
After all this exertion it was time for a Bush shower! Nice warm water – very civilised!
It was time to head off on our afternoon pole and bush walk. The guides here do not carry guns as they know exactly what to do in a tricky situation …. which we were about to encounter! We had been walking about 2 hours and not seen much other than some ant lions. We were heading back to the mokoro and lost concentration – suddenly two old dagga boys burst out of nowhere – our guides went pae and we raced towards an ant hill – Paul pushing us down as he tried to get up (he says he got up first so that he could help us up! lol).. Quite hairy – thankfully the guides dispersed and clapped hands and they ran off on another direction.
It was incredibly hot so we decided to have a swim where it was ‘safe’ from crocs and hippos!
We were now seriously hungry and ready for food – which was cooked from scratch on an open fire – delicious! An ellie had been in camp while we were out on our walk… We had kept our beer and wine cool in the river and enjoyed a sundowner with dinner.
We were up at 05h00 the next morning for our bush walk after a cup of coffee and a rusk. We saw a HUGE herd of buffalo and a teeeny frog plus some horns…great walk.
After lunch and a siesta we enjoyed another mokoro trip on the water – stunning – a huge elephant enjoying his food! We did get a shock when the girls mokoro ahead of us appeared to vibrate – the poler said he had hit a hippo – our worst fear – but all was well – phew!! We saw plenty of game: zebra, buffalo, buck, birdlife, flora and frogs. We managed to catch some fish for dinner. We also enjoyed another swim in the shallows before heading back to camp.
Back at camp we could hear and then see a cuckoo. The sunset was spectacular and we enjoyed our fish dinner and a beer to wash it down with.
We could hear bees buzzing and found some wild honey in a fig tree. More amazing sightings as we poled our way back.
We arrived back at main camp where we were greeted by a ground squirrel. There were plenty of other small things to enjoy and photograph. We enjoyed sundowners and dinner with a group of doctors. Nial confessed that heh ad been dreading the trip with our ‘loud’ family as he perceived us at the time airport – fortunately he said he’d actually ended up having the best tine! We are still in touch today. Another magnificent experience which we c=hope can be repeated regularly.
We went to visit our guide’s home which was a harsh reality check to remind us the poverty that many live in and how serious the AIDS situation is – our guide was covered in lesions as he was HIV+. The walls are improvised empty cans with mud. They had made a makeshift boa game in the sand – you really do not need much to make do!
Go to: Okavango 1995
Go to: Okavango 1998
