Okavanga Delta

On day eight of being in Africa we moved on to the Okavanga Delta.  Located within the Kalahari Desert which covers much of Botswana, this large confluence of channels collect the water from the three major rivers coming from Angola.  This becomes the largest delta in the world covering 6,000 square miles with its channels, swamps, lagoons and many islands of grasses and small trees.  Because of this unique terrain the wildlife is abundant. 

Our camp is within the Khwai Concession which is 445,000 acres.  A concession means it is not a national park but that it is jointly owned by villages and the profits from these parks advances village life.  In this case it is the Sankoya village.  We are at the Moremi Tented Camp.  It is part of the Wilderness Safari system of privately owned lodges and camps, of which OAT is a primary partner.

Just as the land here is not at all like the previous locations, neither are the facilities.  Our cabin is now a tent on a raised platform extending from a boardwalk.  Between cabins the boardwalk dips down to ground level to allow the animals to cross. Going to our cabin the first time we could see elephant spoor.  These are the footprints.  The grey sandy soil is great for leaving tracks. 

We were just settling in when Elephants came marching past our deck and right after that the Warthogs scampered one way and made a quick change to the opposite direction and back again.  Eventually running past all nine cabins.  Cape Buffalo lounged in the shade of the large bird filled tree next to ur open air lounge and dining room.  Animals feel safe near the camps because they know the lions do not like to be near people!

Our routine continues with an early morning wake up, continental breakfast, game drive, brunch, a ‘ten toes up safari’ (rest time), high tea, information, afternoon game drive, dinner, and escort to the cabin.  Here we actually seem to have some free time so I was able to catch up a little.

The second morning we slept late, 6:30 with breakfast at 7:00.  This is because the morning game drive included a Mokoro ride.  Much like Venetian gondola for two, Susie and I lounged on the floor of a dugout canoe while a poler guided us through the channel for an up close view of water lilies, reeds and hippos.  Hippos and elephants create the channels by wading through the waters.

Our afternoon game drive ended this camp visit on an exciting note.  On our first day we watched a male lion sleep and saw the lionesses calling to each other and meeting up to start a hunt.  This night we watched the lion brothers sleep.  Suddenly one sat up, looked me dead in the eye, stood and took a few steps toward our car.  Kay and I, who were closest to him, lunged for the other side of the vehicle which put us ten feet from the lion’s mouth instead of only eight!  He almost laughed as he yawned and stretched out to return to his nap!  

We then got word that the other car had found the leopard!  We raced to that site and while our friends watched the leopard from the front our driver, Sixteen, thought he was getting signals to circle behind the tree to see from the other side.  I never knew that leopards hide in fallen trees and brambles.  Like a mad man Sixteen put our car in gear and lowed down anything in our way.  At one point he and Colleen were standing up in front trying to raise a branch above the level of our roof.  When he did another part of the tree attacked Kay and I.  The leopard in the meantime walked off.  We followed him.  He was carrying a porcupine in his mouth as he trotted down the road, across a field and back into Gullivarian brambles of fallen trees, mounds of brush, small trees, and lots of thorny Acacia. Nothing stopped Sixteen.  Before it was over, Kay and I were brushing thorns off our clothes and car seats.  We went over logs, under tree limbs that at their ends brushed the ground. We drove over small trees mowing them down.  We bounced and bumped through the forest undergrowth for about twenty minutes before we could no longer track the leopard.  All the while we shouted warnings to each other, “Branches right!” “Duck!” “Did that get you?”  We were having so much fun that it almost didn’t matter that we never really saw the leopard except from the distance and from the back.  I think this is the only picture any of us got!

We settled down a little as we plowed through the high grass and got back to the road.  Then the call came from the researchers that they had found two Mama Lions and four cubs sleeping in the shade.  Again we raced off over the tall grasses, skipping our Sundowner Drinks. The cubs were waking up and became playful.  They kept checking to see if Mom was up yet until one of the lionesses walked away to keep an eye on them from behind a bush.

Our evening ended again with a Boma. A Boma is the gathering place for communal celebration or council and the Braai is the bar-be-que pot luck itself.  I think I mentioned this before.  Our first attempted at reciprocating entertainment of native songs and dances by the staff was met with great surprise and a sad demonstration of our singing skills.  In an effort to improve we met before tea and learned a little dance and practiced marching and saluting while singing Yankee Doodle.  

 Unfortunately this was no great improvement.  Kay, our hostess, joined in our dance because she has been to the U.S. and even worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.  ‘To the right, to the right, to the right…”

I know you will forgive these condensed versions of our days and nights.  As I write this we have already moved on to another camp.   More about that tomorrow.  It is now about 10:30 p.m. and I still need to take my solar heated shower, and crawl beneath the mosquito netting and get some sleep before the 6:00 a.m. wake up.  Suffice it to say that each day is full of adventure, each camp is different and although the routine is pretty much the same the experience keeps changing.

Good night from Zambia!