It probably sounds a bit stupid but I’d never really thought about what the Okavango Delta was about until we actually got there. In case you haven't either, the Okavango River starts in central Angola and runs 1430km down through Namibia before hitting Botswana. The water hits the Kalahari desert and is swallowed up but not before it spreads out like a great fan across the flat landscape. The water branches and forms a 16000 square km maze of lagoons, channels and islands for a few months before drying up completely only for the cycle to begin again the next year.
The waters were still rising when we were there and in places were up to mid-calf and others well over our heads. The only way round is by mokoros (wooden canoes) and on arrival, we met our poler who would stay with us for two days. Obe is a 28 year old Motswana (not sure why people from Botswana are called Motswana but…!) who had grown up on the delta and had a wonderful way of talking. A slow drawl where his yes seemed to turn into a very deep “yyyyyyis”.
The mokoros are carved from a solid tree trunk, commonly sausage trees but Amarula trees are also used. More and more mokoros are being made from fibreglass in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly. Apparently the trees need to be 8m tall and 1.5m in circumference (about 80 years old) for the mokoros and the one we had was very unstable, sat very low in the water and leaked quite badly. Us and our luggage were piled into this mokoro and we set off with the water about 1cm from the edge of the mokoro. Lying down is easiest and its incredibly peaceful to be poled along through the reeds along channels that you’d never know were channels. This is the view we had from the mokoro.
These ladies were taking a rest from transporting all our gear (tents, pots, pans, food etc)
On our way into the Delta Obe spotted elephants and as we were the last canoe, he headed us off to see if we could get closer. We did but we also got very stuck and Euan and I were sitting in the mokoro hauling us along by grabbing fistfuls of reeds and pulling as well as Obe frantically trying to pole from the end of the mokoro. It was great fun and certainly not for anyone who is anti bugs or frogs! I had a wee green frog hitching a ride on my leg for most of the way.
We were camping on an island and out tent was pitched right on the edge of the water, away from all the other tents and we had a fantastic view.
Euan has taken the bush camping and lack of showers to heart and is starting to look like something out of the wild. Washing in the Delta its OK as there is semi-fresh water but its not really good for shaving (or so he says!).
We spent two nights in the Delta and it was just brilliant but man was it hot and there were killer mozzies in there too. I caught two biting me through two layers - a t-short plus a merino jumper. The water still had a way to rise and there was still a lot of grass out of the water which made some of the delta just look like a big dry patch of grass at times but the polers moving smoothly through on the mokoros gave it away.
There were some pools that had no hippo or crocs and we could safely swim in these and also have a go at poling. Euan was actually quite good at it, both in the canals and in open water.
I on the other hand was pretty terrible. OK in the canals but once in open water, the mokoro went round in cirles (fast). The one time I did go out into the open channels I had passengers (Euan and one other fully dressed kiwi girl) and I went in before I flooded the mokoro so badly we all ended up in the drink and had to save the mokoro from sinking. It was quite funny but I wasn’t allowed near the pole again.
We did a few game walks while in the Delta and thus far on all the game walks we've done, we’ve been lucky enough to always come across something. One even we came across two elephants that were tussling and our guides wouldn’t let us any nearer than below, so we were definitely too close to those that we were stalking at Flatdogs Camp in Luangwa!
We stuck pretty close to the termite mound (which are all apparently build facing west) and no, I’m not posing despite what it looks like. I had no idea Euan was taking the picture.
We came across a herd of about 50 zebra who spooked after we’d passed them and galloped in a big circle. It wasn’t until we got back to camp that we found out that the other group was in the middle of the circle as the zebra galloped around them. They said it was one of the most amazing and almost scary experiences they’d had since being on the trip.
Another evening we headed off to see hippos in a deeper pool nearby. They were so funny, bobbing their heads up and down every few minutes like periscopes, checking us out. Then they’d come a little nearer, bob up, look at us with their beady little eyes, pop down again and edge closer. They got a bit too close for comfort so we glided off.
The water in the Delta will apparently stop rising around the end of August but by then, most of the grass that you can see in the photos will be underwater. Elephant poo doesn’t float and you can see big piles of it underwater. The elephants carve huge tracks through the Delta, from island to island and they stick to these tracks. Something about any who get separated from the group knowing which tracks to take. Having been in the Delta and trying to pole through the canals, some of which don’t look like canals at all, I’d get hopelessly lost. The flight that we took on the day we left the Delta showed the number of canals and vast expanse of water to get lost in.
The flight was an experience in itself. Our English pilot had a bit of an attitude. I asked early on where he was from (Dorset) and a few minutes later he followed up with a commentary about how he was entirely fed up with being asked where he was from, did he always dream of doing this as a little boy, what was his name and so on. Idiot. Anyhow, we were a chirpy bunch of five and he said “Oh, a lively group so a lively ride". We didn’t realise he was a bit of a gung ho pilot and a short while into the flight I wondered if he was having employer issues and was beyond caring if he got sacked. Charlotte wondered if he was a failed RAF jet pilot with a grudge. Either which way, he was doing things he should never have been doing having just told us that he wasn’t allowed to circle or dive bomb animals and was meant to be maintaining 500ft!
The Delta from the air is impressive and, with the waters still rising, will only become more so. The water had risen the two days we were there and was almost sitting (it was very very still water and didn’t lap at all) at the door of our tent when we packed it up. You're never believe that the below is mostly water.
This shot shows the mokoro tracks and termite mounds still above water.
Something odd the pilot did was fly incredibly low over some of the water. So low in fact, that the wheels were running through the water. It was great fun until it went on a tad too long and I really thought he had a problem with the plane and started to s*hit myself. He flew like this a few times and at the end of one pool, took the plane vertical up to over 500ft then banked hard right. My stomach was still close down by the pool.
By the end of the flight, we’d seen so many animals, albeit from a height. Great herds of buffalo, countless giraffe, elephants, zebra etc and it would have been great to stay up there but my feet were so sweaty from the aerobatics that I didn’t think I could take any more stunt work and was kind of glad when we saw the runway.
The waters were still rising when we were there and in places were up to mid-calf and others well over our heads. The only way round is by mokoros (wooden canoes) and on arrival, we met our poler who would stay with us for two days. Obe is a 28 year old Motswana (not sure why people from Botswana are called Motswana but…!) who had grown up on the delta and had a wonderful way of talking. A slow drawl where his yes seemed to turn into a very deep “yyyyyyis”.
The mokoros are carved from a solid tree trunk, commonly sausage trees but Amarula trees are also used. More and more mokoros are being made from fibreglass in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly. Apparently the trees need to be 8m tall and 1.5m in circumference (about 80 years old) for the mokoros and the one we had was very unstable, sat very low in the water and leaked quite badly. Us and our luggage were piled into this mokoro and we set off with the water about 1cm from the edge of the mokoro. Lying down is easiest and its incredibly peaceful to be poled along through the reeds along channels that you’d never know were channels. This is the view we had from the mokoro.
These ladies were taking a rest from transporting all our gear (tents, pots, pans, food etc)
On our way into the Delta Obe spotted elephants and as we were the last canoe, he headed us off to see if we could get closer. We did but we also got very stuck and Euan and I were sitting in the mokoro hauling us along by grabbing fistfuls of reeds and pulling as well as Obe frantically trying to pole from the end of the mokoro. It was great fun and certainly not for anyone who is anti bugs or frogs! I had a wee green frog hitching a ride on my leg for most of the way.
We were camping on an island and out tent was pitched right on the edge of the water, away from all the other tents and we had a fantastic view.
Euan has taken the bush camping and lack of showers to heart and is starting to look like something out of the wild. Washing in the Delta its OK as there is semi-fresh water but its not really good for shaving (or so he says!).
We spent two nights in the Delta and it was just brilliant but man was it hot and there were killer mozzies in there too. I caught two biting me through two layers - a t-short plus a merino jumper. The water still had a way to rise and there was still a lot of grass out of the water which made some of the delta just look like a big dry patch of grass at times but the polers moving smoothly through on the mokoros gave it away.
There were some pools that had no hippo or crocs and we could safely swim in these and also have a go at poling. Euan was actually quite good at it, both in the canals and in open water.
I on the other hand was pretty terrible. OK in the canals but once in open water, the mokoro went round in cirles (fast). The one time I did go out into the open channels I had passengers (Euan and one other fully dressed kiwi girl) and I went in before I flooded the mokoro so badly we all ended up in the drink and had to save the mokoro from sinking. It was quite funny but I wasn’t allowed near the pole again.
We did a few game walks while in the Delta and thus far on all the game walks we've done, we’ve been lucky enough to always come across something. One even we came across two elephants that were tussling and our guides wouldn’t let us any nearer than below, so we were definitely too close to those that we were stalking at Flatdogs Camp in Luangwa!
We stuck pretty close to the termite mound (which are all apparently build facing west) and no, I’m not posing despite what it looks like. I had no idea Euan was taking the picture.
We came across a herd of about 50 zebra who spooked after we’d passed them and galloped in a big circle. It wasn’t until we got back to camp that we found out that the other group was in the middle of the circle as the zebra galloped around them. They said it was one of the most amazing and almost scary experiences they’d had since being on the trip.
Another evening we headed off to see hippos in a deeper pool nearby. They were so funny, bobbing their heads up and down every few minutes like periscopes, checking us out. Then they’d come a little nearer, bob up, look at us with their beady little eyes, pop down again and edge closer. They got a bit too close for comfort so we glided off.
The water in the Delta will apparently stop rising around the end of August but by then, most of the grass that you can see in the photos will be underwater. Elephant poo doesn’t float and you can see big piles of it underwater. The elephants carve huge tracks through the Delta, from island to island and they stick to these tracks. Something about any who get separated from the group knowing which tracks to take. Having been in the Delta and trying to pole through the canals, some of which don’t look like canals at all, I’d get hopelessly lost. The flight that we took on the day we left the Delta showed the number of canals and vast expanse of water to get lost in.
The flight was an experience in itself. Our English pilot had a bit of an attitude. I asked early on where he was from (Dorset) and a few minutes later he followed up with a commentary about how he was entirely fed up with being asked where he was from, did he always dream of doing this as a little boy, what was his name and so on. Idiot. Anyhow, we were a chirpy bunch of five and he said “Oh, a lively group so a lively ride". We didn’t realise he was a bit of a gung ho pilot and a short while into the flight I wondered if he was having employer issues and was beyond caring if he got sacked. Charlotte wondered if he was a failed RAF jet pilot with a grudge. Either which way, he was doing things he should never have been doing having just told us that he wasn’t allowed to circle or dive bomb animals and was meant to be maintaining 500ft!
The Delta from the air is impressive and, with the waters still rising, will only become more so. The water had risen the two days we were there and was almost sitting (it was very very still water and didn’t lap at all) at the door of our tent when we packed it up. You're never believe that the below is mostly water.
This shot shows the mokoro tracks and termite mounds still above water.
Something odd the pilot did was fly incredibly low over some of the water. So low in fact, that the wheels were running through the water. It was great fun until it went on a tad too long and I really thought he had a problem with the plane and started to s*hit myself. He flew like this a few times and at the end of one pool, took the plane vertical up to over 500ft then banked hard right. My stomach was still close down by the pool.
By the end of the flight, we’d seen so many animals, albeit from a height. Great herds of buffalo, countless giraffe, elephants, zebra etc and it would have been great to stay up there but my feet were so sweaty from the aerobatics that I didn’t think I could take any more stunt work and was kind of glad when we saw the runway.
2 comments:
Euan, I am Loving the Beard, you look like hard as nails. Had I been on that flight, I would have decked the pilot upon landing. The little shit!!!!
Beard....mmmm..... food collectors I reckon. Euans got this little bottle of King of Shaves oil and its going to last the whole year. Great stuff to travel with as its so tiny and far beats those big shaving foam cans.
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