Circling the Okavango

Friday 5^th August

We’ve had no wifi for the past week so I haven’t been able to post any trip updates. We have wifi again now and it is nice to be back in touch.

It has been go, go, go all week with some long travel days, but also some fantastic game drives. Tuesday was spent mostly travelling from Nata to Guma Lagoon camp. I must add that the night at Nata Lodge was the coldest night we have had on our trip and we were glad to have the 2 extra blankets on our beds. Not too happy to be up at 6 with very low water pressure in the showers and freezing cold. We were on the road by 7.30 and stopped around 10.30 in the town of Maun for 7 of us to do a flight over the Okavango delta. We were all amazed at just how much water there is in the middle of Africa, though it will dry up quite a bit in the next couple of months. It was hard to get photos of any animals as we were quite high up and they were just dots on the ground. I enjoyed the first half hour of the flight but let’s just say I was glad when we turned back, and I won’t be doing any more light aircraft flights.

Just some of the Okavango delta waterways.

Hard to get good photos of the wildlife as the plane was usually well past it by the time you got the camera in focus.

Our camp again was in tents with ensuites. This time we had running hot water though it was not much more than a trickle and the lights were again all solar powered and quite dim. The tents were quite comfortable though and had a lovely view over the lagoon. We awoke the first morning to the most magnificent sunrise across the lagoon.

This was our transport for the last 30 minutes of travel to Guma Lagoon. It was really deep sand and the truck groaned its way through. I don't think a clutch would have a long life with this use.

How's this for a sunrise?

These ladies are from the Herero tribe. Our driver told us about their colourful dresses and unusual hats so we were keen for a photo - at a price.

Wednesday we had a mokoro canoe ride through the network of waterways off the lagoon. It was very peaceful out there with the polers driving us through the water – our poler had the hardest time with our mokoro sitting very low in the water. I was a bit worried about what might happen if we met a hippo in the water – I was assured that the polers had a good view and would see any problems ahead. Thankfully we saw no hippos – and also no crocs. We stopped at a small island for a nature walk where the guide talked about some of the plants and birds in the area. The rest of the day was just spent resting around the camp.

Our mokoro ride - our boat sat much lower in the water than these ones so I made sure to keep my hands well away from the water.

These are day lilies - when we first headed out they were still closed, but on our way back they had all opened and looked beautiful.

Yesterday we again moved on and into Namibia. We did a short game drive on the way there along the Kavango river. There wasn’t a lot to see so we talked our guide into taking us out again in the afternoon. It was actually a lovely drive and we saw more zebra, hippos, giraffe, kudu, impala, sable antelope and bush buck. There were probably a few other animals that I forgot to mention. We were all hoping that we might see a cheetah but not this time. Another tented camp and another cold night. We had to watch out for hippos on our walk back to our tent after dinner. We didn’t see any but certainly heard a lot of hippo noises in the middle of the night.

African Fish Eagle

Giant Boabab tree - this one is apparently thousands of years old.

Rob loves the Kudu 

I think this one is a Marshall Eagle

Bush buck - we hadn't seen this one before.

Out for a sunbake and a stroll.

A tower of giraffes.

This giraffe was chewing a bone - apparently they get minerals (mostly calcium) from old bones. It looked like he was smoking a cigarette.

With his friend - who I am sure was smiling at us.

A sable antelope - these were beautiful animals. These will take on a lion - they back into a thorny bush, lower their head to the ground and with an upward lift will skewer an attacking lion.

Today has been a long day on the road as we headed along the Caprivi Strip and back into Botswana. The scenery along the first part of the strip was quite stunning – all the colours in the trees and bushes reminded me of Bright or Mt Macedon in Autumn. All the orange, yellow, red and different greens were a beautiful picture. By the time I decided I would get a photo of the colour we had moved further along and the colours had changed. I’ll have to look for a photo opportunity tomorrow. In terms of the country of Namibia (or the bit we saw) it is pretty much the same as the areas in Botswana we have seen but the thing I noticed in Namibia is the rubbish. The homes/yards seemed quite clean but the outskirts of the villages were just littered with rubbish. Botswana and Zimbabwe on the other hand were quite clean.

On our drive today we had our last picnic lunch by the roadside. On our long travel days we usually stop at a town on the way and the guide buys the makings of lunch. Today was bread rolls, roast chicken and salad. It is lovely to sit outdoors in the African bush with our fellow travellers and chat about our experiences. We have all got used to the 2 hour call for bushy-bushy and quickly checking our surrounds for hungry lions. Our group has been great fun and even though for some of them English is their second language, we can all share a joke and laugh about the same things.

Picnic by the Zambezi River.

We didn't see any but weren't about to take any chances.

Tonight and tomorrow night we are in a hotel with proper bathrooms, air conditioning and television. Not that we will watch any TV as we have an early morning game drive tomorrow starting at 5.45am so we are off to bed now at 9.30pm.