Chapter 3 - Into the Okavango

Early the next morning we bounced into town in the truck and split into two groups to fly into the Okavango Delta. The first group will fly in at 9am and we will go in the second group at 10. We while away the time drinking real coffee at the cafe over the road from the airport and watching the goats and people go by. Maun is a real outback town - it's dry, incredibly dusty, there are 4WD everywhere, people park all over the place and yet will sit and wait patiently for the goats to cross the road.

Finally the time came for us to go. Our pilots were two Kiwis who looked about 14.... and they were both only 18 anyway, getting their flying hours up. As I got in we were reminded to watch our heads -of course when they said this I lifted mine up and clouted my skull on an air vent - had an egg-sized lump within minutes! So a slight concussion to go with a severe feeling of trepidation about going on this little plane!! My fellow passengers keep patting me on the knee and asking if I'm ok... do I look that pale? do I look like I'm about to faint? probably...LOL

However once we're off and in the air it's all worth it.

The Okavango Delta is one of the world’s largest inland water systems. It's headwaters start in Angola’s western highlands, with numerous tributaries joining to form the Cubango river, which then flows through Namibia (where it's called the Kavango) and finally enters Botswana, where it is then called the Okavango.

Millions of years ago the Okavango river used to flow into a large inland lake called Lake Makgadikgadi (now Makgadikgadi Pans). Tectonic activity and faulting interrupted the flow of the river causing it to backup and form what is now the Okavango delta. This has created a unique system of water ways that now supports a vast array of animal and plant life in what would have otherwise been a dry Kalahari savanna.

The delta’s floods are fed from the Angolan rains, which start in October and finish sometime in April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July, taking almost nine months from the source to the bottom. This slow meandering pace of the flood is due to the lack of drop in elevation, the rivers drop a little more than 60 metres over a distance of 450 kilometres. The delta’s water deadends in the Kalahari – via the Botetle river, with over 95 per cent of the water eventually evaporating.

During the peak of the flooding the delta’s area can expand to over 16,000 square kilometres, shrinking to less than 9,000 square kilometres in the low period. As we fly in we can see the delta below us, vast swampy areas with rivulets snaking through them. Utterly fantastic. This is what it looks like from the air.

We start our descent into the Gunn's Camp airstrip. I've forgotten how scared I was in the exhilaration of the flight. There are zebras to the left of the runway and as we make our final approach baboons and warthog scatter. One warthog remains, strolling along the side of the airstrip to greet us.

The plane reloads and disappears in a cloud of dust. We stroll across the airstrip to the water, where there are three mokoros, traditional canoes, waiting to take us to the camp. Two to a mokoro, we set off through the reeds and waterlilies. We feel like we're a million miles from civilisation, it's utterly peaceful and beautiful as we glide quietly through the reeds, with just the occasional comment from the polers as we go along, pointing out birds, waterlilies and frogs.

We arrive at the camp about 20 minutes later, where the rest of the group are waiting for us. We're next to the Moremi Game Reserve and the whole area is unfenced, so Craig explains the camp safety rules:

• watch out for warthogs in the toilets - they like to sleep in there and pull the pipes out to get water. Make sure the gate at the entrance to the toilets is shut well!
• If you need to go to the toilet in the night, wait on the balcony first and listen. If there's an elephant or hippo between you and the toilets, there's a gezunder in the tent!
• make sure all doors are zipped tight or the baboons will get in and ransack your room.

sigh. we really are in Africa!! We sit on the balcony after lunch, looking out onto the delta.
Michael spotted about 7 elephants off in the distance, probably about a kilometre away. About 4pm we set off in the mokoros again.

Our polers keep a watchful eye out for hippos or elephants, taking us through completely new channels if they see anything untoward. Although we were heading for the hippo pool, there are none there, and so we head towards the crashing of elephants. The hippos will have been scared off by the elephants, and will be hiding somewhere in the reeds.

We heard the elephants long before we saw them. As we came quietly around a bend, there they were - an older bull and a young bull elephant bathing and playing in the water, about 20m away from us. We sat and watched them - swinging their trunks across the water to splash the other one, just mucking about. There were three others on the left, one to the right on an island and two in front. It was a bachelor herd, so lots of beautiful ivory tusks gleaming in the afternoon light. After these two finished playing and emerged from the water, we poled over to a little island and stood watching the herd, with our guides telling us all about them.

A young male headed towards us - we bunched into a tight group and stood still until he decided we were ok and ambled away. It was a breathtaking experience. As we poled back to camp in the dwindling light, we could see where the elephants had been - it looked like a tank had been through it!

As the sun set over the delta, we enjoyed a meal prepared by the lovely cooks and sat chatting around the campfire. Craig called us into the kitchen to see the Spotted Genet - one of several that visit on a regular basis scrounging for food.

Africa - Next installment

OK, last night before I fell asleep I managed to get up to our first stop for the trip, Ghanzi. The next morning, in the freezing cold (well OK about 5 degrees!) the intrepid amongst us got up at about 5.30 (we were woken by a phone call from the credit union calling to find out what was going on and assuring me that it would all be sorted out when I got home) and went on a game drive. We saw a number of animals before it was light enough to take photos, primarily elan I think. We drove for quite a while and saw lots of things in the distance, but then pulled up where they keep their lions. Tautona, the name of the lodge, means Big Lion in Setswana. The ones we saw first were not fully grown but quite big, and we went into their enclosed area with them and could pat them on the head. They were gorgeous, but weren't all that keen on all the attention - they were a bit playful and several people felt lion claws and teeth in their legs! The next enclosure had some smaller ones - they were very cute. I think they were about 6 months old, and the smallest of them, Dozi, was scooped up and offered to us to hold. I don't think any of us could resist - certainly not me!

After playing with these ones for a while we went to visit their parents, two big females and a male, and their four newest cubs who were playing outside. These ones were more amenable to being handled, although they got tired of it fairly quickly and made these very cute growling noises. Despite their youth they have very sharp and big teeth and claws!

In the back area are three cheetahs, and these are definitely not tame! We went in with one of the workers who led us quite close. There came a point though where the nearest one bared his teeth and growled loudly - we figured that was close enough!

For the rest of the photos go to the web album.

After breakfast we set off again. We have crossed most of the Kalahari now, and the light and the landscape are stunning. There are thousands of goats and donkeys, and many small round huts in tiny settlements.

The stop for tonight is at Sitatunga Camp, just outside the 'outback' town of Maun. It's very dusty and basic, but we scored the only double bed in camp! No windows however and it's cold tonight! There was another group who had just come out of the Delta who were busy in the showers, so we waited until later, made sure the donkey boiler was working, then had passable hot showers. Early start in the morning as we are flying into the Okavango Delta - which will be the next instalment.

Africa Blog - part 1

It's been an interesting couple of weeks, as I go through the roughly 6000 photos I realise just how much we've seen and done in that time. I'm sitting here at 6.20pm in Gaborone, Botswana; the sun's down, it's dark outside and the peacocks have finally stopped screeching!

The trip started really well. The first day in South Africa my debit card was skimmed and my bank account drained of all money then frozen by the credit union. Great start to the holiday but fortunately Michael's account was untouched although he used the same ATM. I still kick myself because I knew something was wrong but i didn't want to offend anyone, so I let myself be scammed. I've learned my lesson! Joburg airport is a nightmare. Ostensibly they are improving it but there is construction everywhere, getting through immigration is painfully slow and the only security we saw was a very disinterested police officer at a desk.. unlike other major cities there were none anywhere near the ATMs, which should have set the alarm bells off. However we made it through and went to a really nice B&B in Joburg - they picked us up from the terminal. There is a high fence topped by a multi-strand electric fence and barred windows, back to base security and we're quite glad of it! The headlines in the paper the next morning told if the police breaking a gang who were kidnapping tourists from Joburg airport and murdering them. Maybe I was fortunate that I just had my card hijacked.

We were dropped back at the airport for the 2 hour flight across Botswana to Windhoek, in Namibia, flown by the self-proclaimed 'Captain Fantastic'! He reminded us to check for all personal posesions, as anything left behind would be divided up amongst the crew. LOL.

We stepped down onto the tarmac and it was like something out of another world - the landscape is different, the sky is not as blue as ours but it was a spectacularly beautiful day. We negotiated a price for a cab to take us to out hotel and off we went. It's a fair way out of town and took us about 1/2 an hour to get in. When we got to the hotel we got our first taste of African hotelery! There had been power shedding (strange euphemism - when there is not enough power they turn it off for a few hours...) and so the machine that did the room keys was, of course, not working. The security guard had to come with us and let us into the room, and when we went out later we had to come back and find him to let us back in. High security!! So we went out anyway and cruised up the main street - unfortunately being Sunday almost everything was closed, but we found a few straggling stalls that had obviously formed part of a street market.

We wandered until we found an internet cafe to email the credit union about my debit card, and then to a petrol station to buy some water! For dinner that night we ventured to La Marmite (emphasis on the e at the end, NOT like the marmite spread!). The LP guide had recommended this as the place to get wonderful North and West African cuisine, and I had a Cameroon curry and Michael chicken kebabs. With wine and soft drinks this came to about $23 Australian! Early night as, frankly, there was nothing else to do.

Next morning we were picked up by the Nomad truck, and apparently we were supposed to be at a different hotel, where the rest of the people on the trip had stayed, but thankfully they found us. There are only 9 others on the trip, plus a German translator who had left her Germans in Windhoek so was basically the off-sider to the cook for the rest of the trip.

We set off for the Buitepos border, about a 500km drive, where we enter Botswana. We stopped at Gobabis to get supplies, which gave us our first opportunity to really see an African town. The most fascinating, I thought, were the Herero women. The Herero belong to the Bantu group, wth about 240,000 members alive today. The majority of the Herero live in Namibia, with the remainder living in Botswana and Angola.

Herero women wear very long, flowing Victorian gowns over hooped petticoats and distinctive head dresses. Multiple layers of petticoats made from over 12 metres of material are voluminous. Apparently missionaries who were appalled by the Hereros` semi-nakedness introduced this style of dress in the 1800`s. Now the Hereros continue to wear these heavy garments and it has become their traditional dress. The dresses are generally hand-made by the Herero women, and are an important part of a young lady's "coming of age". It is considered a privilege to be allowed to put on and wear the Herero dress. The hat is supposed to symbolize the horns of the cape buffalo, one of the mightiest animals of southern Africa. The sleeves are designed to billow like an elephant's trunk.

We cross the border into Botswana. It's really a pretty laid back border crossing, as you can see....


We have plenty of time to get used to travelling in the truck. It's not too bad after you get used to it, rough but we are enthralled by the Kalahari that we are crossing. It's not a sandy empty desert like the Namib, but has lots of small trees and grass cover. As we pass into Botswana the landscape changes, and the number of goats and donkeys steadily increases.

We arrive in Ghanzi, at Tautona Lodge, just before sunset. Into the lodge and find our room is ok, single beds and a tiny bathroom but somewhere clean to sleep. We have a few minutes to clean up then back in the truck to go down to where the backpackers are camped to see some dancing from the Bushmen. They arrive in their 4WD and get changed then dance for us.

The San, who were formally know as the Bushmen, are indigenous to Botswana (and Namibia) and have lived here for over 30,000 years. It is said that the word San meant ‘wild people who can’t farm’, however historically they didn’t have a collective word for
themselves. Now they call themselves Ncoakhoe meaning ‘red people’. They were nomadic people – primarily hunter gathers, moving to where the food and water could be found. It is estimated that there are 55,000 San people left, with 60% of them living in Botswana and many examples of their cave drawing can be found dotted around.