We've just returned from a 3 day Mokoro safari inot the Okavango Deelta in NW Botswana. The delta- a huge inland one that never flows to the sea-is the result of the pristine Kavango River which starts in Angola, flows through Namibia and into Botswana where it meets the Kalahari Desert and spreads out creating a lush wetland. Although we could not go to "really see the delta" (aka a bush plane over to a luxury lodge) we opted to boat in by makoro- a canoe like dugout which is poled up rivers and channels by guides- and camp for a few nights nights. Although sadly most of the delta is not protected (Namibia and Angola see it as wasted water which they would like to have) it is not developed and is a wilderness of abundant wildlife which moves freely without fencing. A place where elephants, giraffe, hyaena's, jackals and potentially even lions and leopareds roam while campers sleep :).
To get there, we had a 45min trip up river to Boro village where the poling station is and the guides and makoro's await you. Then you sit royally as our two polers Jo and Ratsini poled us for 2hrs. to our campsite. We had 3 guided walks while we were there, the first which revealed an elephant only a few hundred metres from our camp!
That night, we built up a huge fire and nodded off. I was awakened in the night by many sounds - jackals barking, several hyaena's near by yipping and most alarming, a loud splashing and chewing coming from the river which went on for about 3 hours. This could only mean one thing to me - elephants. You would be surprised to know that one of the sounds an elephants makes sounds alarmingly like the low growl of a lion! Definitely a hair-raising night in which mom interupted Dad's constant and louder-than-elephant snoring to tell him, "Brian, something's out there!" In which my dad replied "That's nice" and promptly fell back to sleep.
The next day my night sound interpretation was verified when two bull elephants walked within 100m of camp and trumpteted, drank and ate grass. When asked to go see the elephants my mom replied "I have seen enough elephants. They are too big and are no longer my favourite animal." The guides reassured us that no animals like fire and elephants don't want to come near you unless provoked.
We put that theory to the test the next night as the elephants arrived to splash about while we were still sitting around the campfire. And while I truly and logically belived they wouldn't come near us, it is another thing to hear the thrashing of a 6000kg or so beast a few metres away but be unable to see it! However, it is also a fantastic adrenalin rush and hugely satisfying to know that it is still possible to spend time in Africa in a way people have lived for 1000's of years-- with respect and caution for the natural world. Botswana it seems, has done a decent job, more than other southern African countries, at protecting wildlife, as it has protected the savannah and limited fences, That being said, recent years have led to cattle land expansion and fencing which killed ~99% of the Wildebeest and Zebra populations from dehydration because they could no longer migrate during droughts.
Botswana has been an overland safari dream but my heart still lies in Namibia.
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