Okavango Delta - the Venice of Africa

Day 50, 18 March 2011

After packing up camp we headed off to the Botswanan boarder (C -they have the happiest immigration officers in the world there!). After a quick shop in a very dodgy supermarket (C- at a place called ‘shikawe’, renamed ‘fikawe’, as in where the f**ck are we?) we got to the ferry crossing.

Miraculously, our guide Jennie, managed to reverse the truck onto the tiny ferry (that sank at least 3 inches when the truck loaded) and we made the river crossing. We then had a long, hot, and very bumpy drive to the Umvuvu Camp in the Delta where we met our mocorro drivers. I think that traditionally the mocorros were made out of wood, but they’re now made out of fiber glass – essentially it’s a canoe pushed by a stick in the water.

After lunch we loaded the boats and set off into the Delta. It was pretty cool. Each boat has a driver who stands at the back with a long stick and ‘poles’ you through the reeds. We called it ‘Venice in Africa’, but you also have to add that there are 1000s of bugs flying around, landing on you – down your top. My fears of spiders, frogs and grasshoppers had to dissipate very quickly (it was kind of taken over by the fear of falling in and being eaten by a hippo or a croc…).

Luckily I didn’t get a rash from the grass, but poor C’s hay fever flared up from the clouds of pollen and he was sneezing like buggery. After what seemed like a lifetime, we made it to the bush camp (a rustic toilet and no showers) and set up our tents. We then were taken off on a sunset mocorro to see the hippos. We eventually found a few and saw the sunset and made it back to camp in time for dinner.

Day 51 19 March 2011

We were taken out quite early on the Mocorros – unfortunately we were the pioneers, at the front of the group so we copped the brand new spider webs, bugs and pollen. C had taken a few antihistamines and he added a face mask so his sneezing wasn’t too bad (but he looked like a bandit). I was over it after the first 10 mins – but we went around and around until we got to another island. We did a game walk but didn’t manage to see much – a lot of fresh dung and tracks. We endured another long Mocorro trip back to camp then we packed up and went to the next camp. It was frighteningly hot when we made it – luckily this camp had permanent tents, toilets and showers so after dumping our gear we had lunch and cooled off in the shower. We could have swum in the delta, but apparently there is a worm here that gets into your body and eats your organs – not nice.

We had a lazy afternoon a yummy dinner and a few drinks while we played Texas hold’em Poker. (C –James, you would have been disappointed with me, I was the first out!)

Day 52, 20 March 2011

We had our last mocorro trip early this morning, thankfully there weren’t as many bugs, and got back to the truck about 9am. After bumping all the way back to the ferry, we waited about 30 mins for our turn and made the trip back. We stopped at ‘Fikawe’ again and crossed the boarder back into Namibia and drove towards camp. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to the planned camp because it was flooded so we went back to Rainbow Camp.

You’ll be happy to hear that C shaved his beard off. It was getting to annoying for him (and I’d had enough of it. C- which reason holds more weight?). Everyone on the tour thinks it looks funny because they don’t know him without it, but it looks normal to me. (C- although W is now eyeing off my hair and claims it is too long and needs to be trimmed.)

We had a few drinks and snuck off to bead at a reasonable time. (C -there were some Swedish girls at the camp, the seem to keep a few of the boys going until some ridiculous hours - ?a benefit of being married?).