Okavango Delta

Okavango Delta

As with many good stories, our adventure starts out at the local pub. We arrived in Maun (mau-UUn) after hours of driving through farm grazing land, where the cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats and donkeys graze along side the highway, with a few of the roadside victims seen along the side of the road. We had been told that if we are unfortunate enough to hit an animal, do not stop, since the locals will demand at least $2000 Pula and can be quite upset.  This only seems fair of course, and we would have stopped and tried to compensate, but the problems begin when several farmers arrive at the scene - all insisting that this was in fact their animal, not the other farmer's ... that's when it gets interesting. Thank goodness we did not need to deal with this situation, and learnt to slow down to snail's pace when we saw these herds grazing. The donkeys were the hardest to predict and often would show their stubborn characteristic and remain on the road, while we drove around them.  The most valuable advice, however, is to strictly avoid driving at night.

There were also many local people on the side of the road (a common sight in our travels), waving their arms in what we would interpret as a “slow-down” fashion. We later came to learn that this gesture was a hitchhiking request indicating either “local” (hand down) or “long distance” hand up. We had called Maun ahead of our arrival (organized travelling by our standards) and had pre-booked a room at the Okavanga River Lodge, a casual lodge located on the river and run by a South African couple, Neil and Kate, with their 18 month old son, Jasper. The restaurant/bar was obviously a locals hangout, and on our first evening, after a few cold beers, we chatted up a couple of local tour operators (Tiaan and Rick) who helped us informally plan and charter Inner Delta fly-in safari. Tiaan was had just opened up a Bush lodge, on an island in the Delta which had all the basic luxuries, but not the 5-star price. Rick was owner of Kunda Safaris, and was well versed in the mobile safaris and transportation. Between the two of them, we were well on our way to a Delta experience at a more reasonable price. There was lots of good chin-wagging on these guys side, including crocodile sword fighting, swimming with the crocs, fighting tiger fish, and local bush lore. There’s something to be said about visiting an area outside of the tourist loop.

The next day, we organized a boat tour of the delta flood waters to the Buffalo gate (which is a gate surrounding the Delta to protect the wildlife from the gamelife and to also help deter the spread of foot-mouth disease). It was a nice meandering river setting, with water lilies, reeds and bird life. Along the river, were many San communities again tending to their herds, swimming and fishing along the banks. We stopped along the bank for a leg stretch break and watched a local woman washing her laundry in a metal container at the rivers edge.

We left the Lodge and headed for our chartered flight to Tiaan's Buch camp, on Monkey Island. Because of our numbers (6), we needed to charter two aircraft – a brand new Cessna 206 and a tin can 3-seater with wings. Luckily with the 2 flights (there and return), we all got to experience both aircraft. Unluckily, we also had to pay close to double the price for the 1 hr flight. On both ways, the boys were thrilled with the opportunity for all of them to Co-pilot, and Ben explained how he has some experience with Flight Simulator (a video game!). As we had heard, the flight over the Delta is really the only way to get an appreciation for what this area is like and how the delta works. The 1430 km Okavanga River rises in Central Angola, then flows southeast across the Caprivi Strip and enters Botswana. About 18.5 billion cubic metres of water annually spread like an open palm across the flat landscaping, creating a series of shallow flooded pools, lagoons, streams and meandering channels. It varies in shape and size as the waters flood in and eventually disappear. This year had the highest water levels in the last 40 years, thus resulting in several camps that were flood out and private Delta airstrips that were seen from our flight, under water.

From our flight, we were boated into the camp through classic Delta scenery of vast reed beds and papyrus-chocked lagoons. Upon our arrival at Monkey Island, we were greeted by the four full time local San staff, with cocktails waiting. Our experience in the Delta was really made extra special by the fact that we were the only family on the Island and Socx, our local guide, was a wonderful person with a genuine love for the kids. Socx had been born and raised in the local Delta village, and obviously had spent a lot of time in the Bush and the waters of the Delta. He explained some of the amazing details of the Delta, village life, and wildlife. He was also extremely creative and made water lily necklaces and lily hats for the kids, and showed them how to start a fire with two sticks of wood, carve, and make a bow and arrow. He talked about growing up in the bush, and how to survive with only what nature has to offer. It was our very own survivor show episode!

However, life on the island was far removed from ‘surviving’. We were treated to separate safari tents, fully set up with beds, linens, duvets and pillows. There were separate natural bamboo walled washrooms, open-aired flush toilets, showers and hand basins. A common dining room and bar area, where great food would show up when we sat down, was another luxury feature to the camping experience. We spent many hours exploring the waters, and listening to the hippos that had based themselves inside the floating papyrus forests along side the island. Of course, there were many monkeys on the island (this time keeping to themselves) and at night we were visited by the local wildlife (hippos) with their tracks seen along the island paths. The kids spent a morning fishing off the boat, for the tiger fish or Bream, and learnt the skill of casting their lines, proper reeling in and changing lures. Disappointingly, there was no fish caught (the floods cause the fish to move to other areas outside of the channel), but David is convinced he had a big one on his line, which we explained was the classic fishing story (The One That Got Away). We sadly left the Delta, much sooner than anyone of us wanted, but promised to return again with more time for further exploration.