Safari Tails Pt. 2 - The Okavango Delta
Trip dates: March 29, 2017 - March 31, 2017
Our next safari camp was in the Okavango Delta. For people who have heard of Botswana, it's often because of the Okavango Delta. The Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site that offers a unique, wetland scene in a generally peaceful, relaxing atmosphere. Generally, it is known more for the many varieties of birds than for big mammal sightings (especially compared to say ,Chobe). When we were there, the grass had grown abnormally high (our guide said it was the greenest it's been in the past several years!) and visibility was not good for seeing animals, but the overall experience we had was still great. The sunsets here continued the streak of beautiful sunsets we'd seen in Botswana.
The particular camp we went to, Kadizora Camp, is only accessible by airplane or boat outside of the dry season, so we got to take a 4 passenger airplane there! Once we collected our hand-written boarding passes in Kasane airport (just outside of Chobe), we sat around waiting for a while before being led out to our plane.
It was quite warm outside and the airplane has no air conditioning - just windows while on the ground and you have to wait until the plane reaches higher altitude to cool down. But you do get really nice views since the plane doesn’t get very high and we had a little bit of an aerial safari on the trip!
We arrived at our own private airstrip about 1.5 hours later. It might sound nice, but the airstrip was just a long patch of flat dirt, so nothing too crazy. Our guide was there waiting to get us and bring us to the camp!
Kadizora was a really beautiful camp - their common areas were well appointed and cozy and the tent rooms were large and comfortable. Our room opened right up to the river and plains and we saw an elephant after we arrived, which was pretty cool!
With both Chobe and Kadizora, when going back to your room at night, you needed to walk with a guide who had a high powered flashlight because the pathway back is still considered a part of the bush. We didn’t have any incidents on our walks, but apparently, there was an elephant that kept coming back each night to eat marula, a local fruit growing on trees near the staff tent. Our guide was kept awake by it and in the morning, you could see the big elephant foot prints, crushed trees, and dung that marked his path. Too bad we were so tired we slept through it both nights we were there!
The food here was also quite good. We had a little more buffet style than we had in Chobe, but it was all delicious. At this camp as well, we were the only guests for almost the entirety of our visit so dinner was always just us and the managers.
One thing that wasn’t as fun was all the bugs. We always ate outdoors and the first night, we were out in the open (as opposed to being in an open tent). There were little moths and bugs that kept landing on the butter, the salt, the lantern, on the plates, in my wine - everyone else just ignored it and I guess you get used to it when you’re out there, but it was still kind of gross (sigh, first world problems).
Our first game drive here was our first experience with off-roading into the bush, since in Chobe, you are supposed to stay on the path. It was pretty fun getting to just drive off through grass and bushes and into ponds, though there was all this spear grass that kept getting stuck on us! You’d only notice it when you tried to lean back and it’d stab right through your shirt.
We didn’t see as much while it was light out as we were chasing a pride of lions that had been spotted on the morning drive, but we never found them. Such is the nature of game drives and sightings - sometimes nature gives you a crazy show, and other times you enjoy the ride and learn about birds (because you will always see birds!)
Our most interesting sighting on our first drive was on the way back when Lishan spotted a family of hyenas! She really earned the nickname "Eagle Eye Elmo" many times on this trip. There was a young hyena but we couldn’t get his picture since they kept moving out of sight of us. We tried to go back the next day to see if they were still around, but couldn’t find a trace of them.
The following morning, we headed out again and immediately saw a group of elephants that just took down a big tree and were munching on the branches. Elephants are super destructive to the environment as they blaze a path through the bush, since they need to eat hundreds of kg of food per day.
We also spotted 3 big herds of prey all congregating near a water source - zebras, impalas, and wildebeests (gnus). It was pretty cool seeing them all together in one place, even if they booked it as soon as they saw us.
When driving around, we also came across a big bull elephant blocking the path. He turned to challenge us, but then sauntered off when he thought we weren’t worth the attention. It was a brief heart-stopping moment, but he didn’t get aggressive at all. It was crazy that before we turned the corner, we had no idea this massive animal would only be 50 feet away. It's amazing how quietly elephants and other big animals can move in the bush.
Also - Lishan didn’t touch on it in the Chobe post, but since we took a picture of a cool bug that landed on me, it’s worth mentioning that there are bugs everywhere and you have them on you, all the time. You kind of feel almost like a animal having to constantly brush them away or just deal with them landing on you all the time. If you don’t like bugs, maybe don’t go on safari in Africa :)
As part of visiting the Delta, one of the most common activities is to take a trip on the river in a ‘traditional’ dug out canoe, called a mokoro. The modern ones are fiberglass and actually a lot lighter than the traditional canoes, but they’re also cheaper and less impactful on the environment (the real canoes are made from an endangered type of tree). We had a paddler, who grew up close to where the camp was, that took us out and told stories about the region and about his childhood growing up in the Delta.
It was really peaceful (well, except for the grass constantly whacking me in the face and the engine sound of a passing boat). The sound really carried across the river, as we could generally hear hippos grunting and splashing around even when they were far away. It’s good that you could hear them because hippos are very dangerous in the water. Our paddler said if a hippo came at the boat, we should jump out as that would be our best chance at surivival! Luckily, we didn’t have to test that out.
Interestingly, many of the pathways through the Delta that go through the lilies and grass are made by hippos. They provide a good route for the mokoro but also provide a way for hunters to trap hippos, as they know that a hippo will come through at some point. We also learned that hippos are the most dangerous when you're between them and water, so using the pathways of the hippos is also how you can get yourself in trouble if you don't know what you're doing.
Our final day, we did a short bush walk with our main guide and another camp worker who actually grew up not too far from where the camp was. The worker shared stories of how the people trapped local animals (including elephants, hippos, and different antelope) as well as which local plants could be used for different purposes. We learned more about termites than we ever needed (or wanted). Due to the height of the grass and low visibility, we didn’t walk very far but it was a nice change of pace from being in a car all the time.
Before we went on the bush walk, I thought I would be scared but it wasn’t too bad at all! Our guide was well versed in the bush to know what to look out for and gave us clear directions on how to behave (walk in a single file line, if anything happened don’t scream, stay together, etc.).
When it was time for us to leave Kadizora, we went back to the airstrip to get picked up for our next flight. We had to arrive a little earlier though, so that we could scare off any wildlife hanging out on the airstrip. When we got there, a giant hose that had been pulled up from the ground and onto the airstrip. Our guides sighed and told us that elephants could hear the water inside the hose and would pull it up from the ground to try and get at the water, then just leave it when they couldn’t figure it out. The poor guys had to grab it and drag it off the airstrip quickly so we could also drive around the airstrip to scare away other game before our airplane came in for landing.
And with that, we were off to our next stop: the Kalahari Desert!
