Given yesterday’s amazing flight over the Delta, we were all very excited about our upcoming journey. Sadly, the flight to our lodge was rather disappointing. We did not see much wildlife, but perhaps understandably so as we were much higher up and also did not veer off course for anything. Flying over the waters of the Delta was still spectacular and everyone was lost in their own thoughts as we made our way to the camp.
Our lodge, on the other hand, was something to get excited about. Built on a lagoon about an hour’s flight from Maun, it had its own air strip and the lagoon all to itself.
But unfortunately things didn’t get off to a great start. As our boat neared the lodge, we were greeted by singing African staff. It was all too overwhelming for the 75-year old Gabi who, when stepping off the boat, tripped over the first step, stumbled and landed face first into the next step. With blood pouring from her nose and screaming that her wrist was broken, we were all pleased we had Cynthia, a doctor, with us. They managed to patch her up, but the diagnosis was not good and Gabi flew back to Maun later the afternoon for x-rays.
It was with a somewhat muted atmosphere that the rest of us went on a sunset cruise. While the sunset and surroundings were beautiful, there weren’t many animals about. We managed to spot a fish eagle which is quite cool and the most amazingly colourful kingfisher who wasn’t bothered one bit that we were so close.
The funniest animal incident came later in the evening. Cynthia, Elles, Adrie and I were walking to our cabins when Cynthia spotted two eyes in the bushes straight ahead. She shone her torch straight at it, but the animal was fearless. Cynthia and I were keen to investigate but Adrie and Elles were climbing on top of each other from fear… As we walked down the boardwalk to get closer, it retreated into the bushes and by the sounds of it, this was a large animal. We were all more than a little disappointed when the ranger told us the next morning that it was nothing more than a cow. Our brush with death in Botswana was nothing of the sort.
Our second day in the Delta included an all-day excursion to try and see many of the animals that live here. Having flown over the dozens of elephant herds yesterday, we were positive about spotting these gentle giants up close.
After breakfast we got back into the speedboat and started our journey to one of the many small islands in the Delta. The journey there took about 2.5 hours so we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the beautiful view.
Apart from the occasional bird or lizard, the journey was not too exciting and we all got a bit bored in the boat after a while. But we kept reminding ourselves this was a Monday morning and we’re sitting on a boat travelling on the small rivers of the Okavango Delta!! The scenery was beautiful and we loved the calmness of it all.
We finally arrived at our first stop and got into the mokoros for the short ride to the island. A mokoro is similar to a canoe but instead of paddling ourselves, our guide maneuvered the mokoro by standing in the stern and pushing with a pole, similar to punting. Local people still use mokoros as a means of transport, although today they are made from fibre-glass, not wood as was the trend years ago.
We started our short walk around the island, looking for elephants. We saw lots of elephant dung, elephant footprints and elephant bones but, sadly, no elephants. We did see about six hippos swimming in one of the bigger lakes. Our guide, Salvation, decided to go through them at speed which clearly annoyed the hippos as one of them started chasing us. He followed the boat and started jumping through the water like a massive and overweight dolphin. He was not happy. We decided to leave them in peace and started our long journey back.
On our return journey we again saw lots of birds, including a fish eagle and a Pied Kingfisher catching a fish. We stopped in the waters in front of the lodge to watch the sun go down. It was lovely.
The following day we had an early start as we had a long road ahead of us to Nata. Kim and Gabi were heading back to Australia so we were down to only seven people in the truck, leaving us with lots of space. The ladies on board made the most of this situation and sang and danced to Abba tunes all the way to our next destination.