Okavango Delta

A-M-A-zing! In short, Joost and I had a brilliant two days in the Okavango Delta. It really is a special place. We flew into the Delta in a small 5 seater airplane to a tiny airstrip that was attached to our lodge. As a side note, we only found out once we had gotten back to Maun two days later that there had been a plane crash in the Delta, I believe the day after we flew. Thank God we were not in that airplane, and how horrible for those who were. We felt quite safe with our pilot, although he looked even younger than Joost! Our lodge was just a 20 minute flight away and you fly quite low so that you get great views. Upon landing we flew right above an elephant, which was really quite special.

Our little plane and a German couple who flew with us

Joost got a great seat next to the pilot

The view from above

Now for the unbelievable bit, I was the first to get out of the plane only to be greeted by the man who was to be our guide for our time at the lodge and the first thing I said was 'I know you!' (no, it wasn't a chat-up line! – I actually believed knew him). It was our second time in Botswana, and our second experience with guides in Botswana....and believe it or not...we had the same guide!! Last year Joost, Jamie, Dia and I went on a 2 day safari through Chobe National Park and our guide for those two days, Ex is his name, had moved from Chobe work in the lodge where we were staying, Gunn's Camp in the Okavango Delta. What a coincidence!

With our regular Botswanan guide, Ex 

So here we are, in an amazing lodge with our own tented camp with a big bed, amazing private views of the Delta, access to a swimming pool and our own little en-suite outside shower area with bathtub and shower (though we were told not to leave anything outside as the baboons run freely around the tents and like nothing more than to take our stuff). I would be lying if I said this didn't beat camping!
The camp was unfenced so we were not allowed to walk around at night without our guide and had to lock the zips to our tent in a special way as the baboons had learned to unzip the tents by copying humans! I went swimming both days we were there in the freezing swimming pool, but it was nice and refreshing to cool down given the hot temperatures in the Delta during the day (approx. 35-40 degrees). Joost managed to enjoy a bath without suffering a visit from the baboons trying to join him, which apparently can happen.

Our bedroom in our private 'tent'

Catching some rays and enjoying the view of the Delta on our veranda

Joost enjoying the outdoor bath

Days at the lodge are spent with an early morning activity and a sundowner activity, each lasting about three hours, and the lodge holds a maximum of 12 people, so it's a very nice and personal setting. We ate impala as our main meal the first night, which I have to say was really delicious. The only downside to our stay at Gunn's Camp were the amount of small insects in our room on the first night. We soon learned how to deal with that issue using 'Doom', the insect spray that all the guests learn to rely upon at the camp. I suppose we ought to remember that for all the luxury we expect, we ought to remember we are effectively in swamp land!

Our morning activity consisted of the traditional mokoro ride along with a walking safari. The mokoro ride was really special and the morning walk lovely, until we were just about back at camp when our polers spotted a hippo blocking our path. Hippos are the big danger to mokoros as they tend to tip them over, an no one wants to come face to face with a hippo! Luckily our experienced polers poled us into the reeds to safety as they called for backup by way of the speedboat at the lodge that blocked the hippos path so we could quickly get past and get back to camp. Definitely a funfilled and exciting experience.

The morning mokoro ride

Spotting game from the speedboat sundowner safari

The Delta during the day...

...and at sunset

Our final day we had time for one last morning activity, which was a speedboat ride to Chiefs Island where we did another walking safari. This is where we had some luck. On our walk we spotted 4 lions, about 50 meters away from us!!! Oh my goodness, it was scary and amazing all in one. Instead of taking a look through the binoculars and turning around, we crazily decided to slowly follow them!! Don't ask, our guides weren't even armed. As we were within the conservation area of the Moremi reserve, guides are not allowed to carry weapons, simply a sort of 'flash bang' (just something that makes sound), so I didn't think following the lions was a great idea, but hey, what do I know. In fact, we were watching a lioness with at least two younger lions that slowly walked away, so we had nothing to worry about and we made our way back to camp. Pretty amazing to say the least! :-)

'Enjoying' the walking safari

And that was our end to our Okavango Delta experience. We then flew back to Maun to be greeted by Joost's parents and brother, whom we just spent the last 10 days with. Internet access has been extremely limited so we haven't been able to post this for ages, so there should be a few stories posted in succession. Coming soon, our experiences in the Kalahari Desert, the Namibian sand dunes, and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.

Christelx