On our way to the delta entrance we stopped in town and I made it my mission to find a raincoat. After six shops the wild goose chase ended with one option - a transparent fluro pink hooded trench. I had no choice but to buy it if I wanted to stay dry. The second I got back to the truck and showed them my bright pink coat Botswana Barbie was born! We had some real fun with it over the next few days, especially with the fused-joint Barbie wave.
I had stocked up on biltong (a semi
dried meat similar to jerky - my dad's favourite) and was ready to hit the delta! This enormous wetland is one of the only deltas that does not empty into the sea. Instead it spills straight into the sands of the Kalahari Desert.
The region is actually on top of tectonic plates that shift constantly. This is why the sand plains of the Kalahari are so flat. Imagine taking a bucket of sand and shaking it - the top would completely flatten out. That's what's happened in the Kalahari and the Okavango Delta is an enormous oasis rising out of it.
Made up of clusters of little islands that the thriving wildlife swim between, the delta is defined by vast water channels painted green with tall reeds, lily pads, and the thousands of white lilies that open every morning for the sun and close again at night. Buzzing between the thick vegetation are swarms of giant dragonflies, while tiny white frogs cling to the reeds. The water's surface is decorated with small circular ripples around the busy water spiders. These fragile little creatures keep their bodies out of the water with just their wiry legs on the surface propelling them in lunges across the water. They're fascinating little insects.
We caught a motor boat up the river to a riverside village where we met our polers and laid eyes on our mode of transport - the mokoro. In teams of two we jumped in our flat bottomed canoe-style boat, carved of a single tree. They are beautiful boats and are such an authentic way to navigate the delta, but increasingly the polers are buying more sustainable fiberglass mokoros instead as the traditional wooden boats only last about 7 years and the trees used to make them can be 300 years old.
The polers are the men who push the mokoro through the reeds using a long hard stick till they find an unoccupied island to set up camp on. All your supplies are packed onto boats and for our group of 23 there were about 15 men and women who accompanied us to camp. This gave the trip a nice vibe. It was a real treat for them to be all together so spirits were high, and it was nice for us to have long chats with the local people. On the final night they sang songs and danced for us round the bonfire - they couldn't do it the previous night for risk of scaring away the animals. Since there were huge piles of elephant poo throughout our camp I was thinking that may not be such a bad thing though!
When we first arrived we set up camp and had the toilet dug in a secluded little grotto nearby. Home sweet home for the next few days, so we used the afternoon to explore our backyard. While we only saw one elephant on our island it was the smaller fauna that kept us enthralled. Enormous termites nests rising high out of the ground and arching towards the sun. Dung beetles devouring the wheelbarrow loads of elephant poop. Bugs and beetles with the most intricate markings I've ever seen. The micro wildlife of Africa is often as fascinating as the big game, if you're not too distracted by the elephants and hippo and giraffe to spot it - which can be hard!
Many people woke up early the next morning for a four hour game walk on a nearby island but I opted for a sleep in. As the others went on a short walk alternative I was left alone in the site with only the "Batswanas". It was wonderful to lie there and listen to them singing and laughing and chatting animatedly in their local tongue, thinking no-one else was around. Since the walkers didn't see much game and looked absolutely wrecked when they got back I was happy with my decision to stay. A breakky of bacon & eggs soon topped up everyones energy deficit though.
That afternoon we went for a walk to the most beautiful wateringhole I've seen in my life. While officially we were advised not to swim due to the real threat of hippos and crocodiles, we weighed up the risks vs the heat and dived straight in. Gosh it was divine. We made lily wreaths for our hair and just floated in the cool water looking up at a sapphire sky. When one guy in our group approached in a mokoro, trying his hand at poling it himself, naturally we had to capsize him. We didn't realise the heavy wooden boat would sink to the bottom though and it was quite a struggle dragging it out and setting it right again.
Later that afternoon I also tried my hand at poling. Epic fail. What these men and women make look so easy is actually like trying to reverse a semi trailer in a Coles carpark. We were treated to a sunset mokoro ride through the delta by the professional polers though and it was stunning. Sunsets in Africa are incomparable, but to see it reflected on the water was double the treat.
After the big song and dance round the bonfire that night we were asked by the polers to return the favor and sing to them. Unfortunately we couldn't think of a song we all knew so we opted to sing our national anthems instead. Those poor Batswanas who harmonise so well (save one over enthusiastic woman in their midst who was flat as a pancake and loud as a foghorn - the aural equivalent of putting anchovies in a salad) had to sit through the national anthems of America, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Britain, Holland, Belgium, and Australia. I think the Swiss sang a kids song though... Hmmm.
They'd created a monster, as once we got singing we couldn't stop and suddenly the list of songs common to us flooded in. Note: Disney transcends all borders. By the end a bunch of us were up learning the "Single Ladies" routine from a dancer in our group while the bored locals took themselves to bed!
Big snuggles for my Harvey Bear.
Xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment
Love to hear from you, please send me a comment!