In the Okavango delta

After breakfast the next day, and after our tents, etc. were packed, we headed down to the water, to a motorboat that would take us into the delta. There are crocodiles in the water near that campsite, I think, but I didn’t see any. After we were all on the motorboat, we rode for maybe 20 minutes into the delta. The area of the delta near the campsite is relatively open, but then the delta becomes reedy, and channels actually have to be cut to allow the boat through. The reeds amazed me. They were a few feet tall, and so densely packed that you could only see water for a couple feet surrounding the motorboat, and then the mokoros. Beyond that, it looked just like a field, kind of like tall grass on solid ground. Beautiful. So, once the motorboat reached its destination, we transferred to mokoros, which are flat-bottomed and small, and kinda reminded me of canoes. Instead of paddles, though, each mokoro had a man at the back who was a poler. He had a pole that he would dip into the water and push against the bottom of the delta to move and to steer. Kyla’s and my poler was named risk. No joke. He was also very young, and a little shy. It took him a day to warm up to us and start talking.
The polers poled for about and hour and a half, I think, and we got to see more fields of reeds. There were also lilly pads everywhere, and a lot of sharp plants. We had been warned to keep our hands inside the mokoros, but sometimes the plants would dangle into the boats, so I got a few scratches. And the polers generally tried to follow narrow paths through the reeds that I think were made by hippos or elephants (did you know elephants could swim? I didn’t), but I think my poler was a little inexperienced, so we did a bit of off-roading into the reeds over the next couple days.
So, this journey ended at a small island that we dubbed “tiger island”. I think it has a name, and I think the name sounds something like that, but it isn’t actually tiger island. There are no tigers on this island. There were, however elephant and hippo footprints, and we did hear a couple hippo in the water less that 150 m away the first night we were there. We set up our tents and then lounged for a while. Most of the wildlife sleeps during the day, so we weren’t going in search of anything until 4 pm. A hole in the sand behind a bush was dug for us to use as a pit latrine, and a kind of toilet seat-thingy was brought along with our luggage so we could use the bathroom.
At 4, we headed for another island to hunt hippos, etc. on the way, we saw a fish eagle. Actually, we saw a lot of these over the days we were in the delta. When we got to the island, our guides, who were also our mokoro polers (they stayed on tiger island with us while we were in the delta) showed us around, pointed out elephant, hippo, and leopard tracks, taught us the difference between female and male elephant droppings (the female’s are in a nice, neat pile, while the male’s are spread) and the difference between hippo and elephant spores (hippo’s are greener and really spread around). The polers also pointed out a couple plants used for weaving baskets, one of which grew into a tree and produced a kind of edible fruit and seed. I actually have one back at ha thaba bosiu. A cross was carved into it, courtesy of on of the british blokes. I named it kris (kris kross’ll make you jump, jump). One thing I thought was interesting were the number of downed trees near our campsite, and on other islands. Elephants scratch themselves against the trees hard enough to knock them over. Durn.
After wandering around this island (we didn’t see any animals other than birds) we returned to camp, ate dinner, talked around the fire (I miss fires now), slept. I was awakened early in the morning by my tent being shaken. I thought it was george waking us up (he liked jokes and pranks, so this was something he would do) but it turned out that it was some animal, not sure which, brushing against the tent. I thought it was kinda cool, perhaps in a slightly unnerving way.
When we finally got up that morning, and after breakfast, we went with the polers to the hippo pool, as all of us were keen to see hippo. We found them, and sat very quietly watching them for a while. There was an adult male, an adult female, and a baby. One of them got pretty close to us and reared its head and neck out of the water with its mouth wide open. It was a beautiful and powerful image. I would never want to mess with an angry hippo. In fact, the polers decided it was time to leave after that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the hippo, but some of the people I was with did. We had discussed setting up a group site on flickr and if that happens you’ll be able to see it. It was something out of national geographic.
After leaving the hippos, we went quickly for a walk around another island. This is actually where kriss, my nut, was picked up, and then back to camp for lunch and a rest before going out again at 4. after lunch, we hung out for a bit reading heat magazine (a trashy celeb magazine from England) and thoroughly enjoying it, and then some people decided they wanted to try to pole in the mokoros. I was not one of them. Mike, Stephen, Andrew, clare, kyla, george, and Alfred went out, and this quickly turned into a tip the mokoro contest. Kyla, in her effort to tip mike’s mokoro, was dubbed the “evil American witch”. I just watched all of this. Once everyone was thoroughly soaked, a mud fight ensued using mud from the bottom of the delta. Kyla left the water at this point. I was increasingly tempted to join, as it looked like loads of fun, but never did. I just sat at the water’s edge. The fight actually turned into a WWII re-enactment of germany (Alfred and george) vs. England. I think it ended in a truce, as America refused to enter, but I’m not quite sure. After everyone rinsed as best they could in the delta, we had a couple races. One of the guys discovered that the grass near our site is really prickly. He ended up have to get a few splinters removed over the course of the next few days. Then we went out again at 4 to visit another couple islands. This time we saw elephants, which was nice. The head guide actually tried to chase one of them our way (sounded crazy to me, but I guess he knew what he was doing?) with no success. Hopefully some of my pictures will be ok. After that, we returned to camp. I think this was the night which included some of barbara’s funny jokes. The main one involved her confusion over the term “shag” which she, being southern, thought of as a dance but which the brits knew as something else. I won’t tell the full story out of consideration for the delicacy of some reader’s ears, but hilarity ensued. I went to bed crying from laughter. Barbara also announced a slight crush on the elder of the polers. She actually had her picture taken with him the next day. It was cute.
The morning we left the delta, we saw loads of monkeys in the trees near out campsite. I think they were vervet monkeys. Oh, I forgot to mention the alarm clock bird. He was really annoying and started making sounds like an alarm clock every night before we went to bed. He was also known as the go away bird. Anyways, we packed up and left tiger island. We had an uneventful trip back to guma. I think some people saw more fish eagles, but I missed them. We got back to guma early enough to hang out for a while, but I’ll leave that fun-ness for the next blog, as this one is already about three pages.
Oh, so I know I said I’d stop writing, but I just have to reiterate how wonderful I thought the delta was. I can’t decide whether this or the dunes was the best part of the trip. The delta was just so peaceful. We saw no other people in the delta the entire time we were there. It was just our group and guides. And there were no people trying to yell at each other from a half mile away. It was really nice just being in a small group of people with whom I got along, and hearing no one else. Hearing nothing else in fact, besides the sounds of nature. Hippos and water, and even the annoying go away bird really beat yelling people, donkeys braying, taxis, etc.