We departed Chobe and headed back into Namibia and down the Caprivi Strip, which is now quite safe but only four years ago was considered quite a war zone with mines on the side of the road (don’t stop and go for a pee too far off the side) and possibly buried in the elephant dung on the road. Once through the strip, we headed back into Botswana to go to the Okavango Delta. We started our little adventure early in the morning and boarded a large lorry that was kitted out with bench seats in the back and a tarp like cover to kept he sun off. We took this truck from the camp site, across the boarder and into Botswana. From there, we drove out into a very desolate area where we finally stopped at a camp site/hostel on a river. Here we boarded a flat bottomed speed boat similar to what you would find in the swamp areas of Florida and bounced around on that out into the various channels of the delta. It was absolutely fantastic ploughing through these channels with walls of papyrus on either side so dense that there was nothing to see beyond them but more green and more papyrus. The channels were often narrow and twisty and we wound our way around for an hour and a half until we reached a house boat. For all I know, they drove around in circles and dumped us at a house boat 500 yards from the camp. Can’t quite figure out how and when they knew to take each various channel. Saw loads of Fish Eagles (phenomenal bird) and herons and other smaller birds as well as a number of crocs lazing in the sand. Once at the house boat, we settled into our little cabins for an evening of relaxation. When I say “little” cabins, I truly mean LITTLE – there was about six inches between the narrow beds and about a foot at the end of them for our stuff. One wall was a sliding glass door and windows so we looked right out onto the channel. Personally, I was just thrilled to have a proper pillow and pillow case as I have been using a pillow from United’s business class for the past 10 weeks (not that it is bad but hell, double the size doesn’t hurt!). Before completely settling in, we went for a nice sunset cruise through more channels of papyrus and enjoyed a very decent bottle of wine and watched several more fish eagles take flight. All sorts of birds were perched in the reeds and various trees we passed and as we went by, they scattered about, littering the sky with their bodies and calls to each other. Had a fantastic pasta dinner out on the deck with gas lamps and looked up at the stars, which were uninterrupted by the usual lights from various human buildings. I don’t think I have even seen stars reflect off of water and it was one of the most gorgeous things. The river was flowing by quite quickly (with occasionally crocs) and the stars lights rippled in the gentle currents. We couldn’t even pick out Orion very well as there were too many stars in sky to find it. Words cannot describe how lovely it was. Then again, most nights out here have been quite lovely in regards to clear sky and unbelievable star gazing. Slept like a babe that night with the sliding door and windows open, a nice breeze coming through and mosquito nets protecting us from the incessant buzzing of those little buggers that never seem to sleep.
The next day, we again boarded our flat bottomed speed boats and headed off to a little land strip somewhere along the delta. From there, we boarded another open topped, flat bed, bench seated safari type jeep and were taken across a very bumpy road and through a small mud and stick hut town to the edge of another swamp/river area. Here we boarded canoe type boats known as Mokoro (Mekoro if it is plural). Traditionally, these boats were made from the trunks of sausage or ebony trees but because of population growth and the ability for these trees to grow back quickly enough, they have switched to using fibreglass Mekoro fashioned in the exact shape of the tree truck ones. It felt a bit Disneylandesque as we were ushered into our various Mekoro and introduced to the man (Poler), for they are all men, who would be pushing us through the swampy reeds. Jules and my Poler’s name was Pointer (still not sure where they come up with these names). Pointer was a fairly short, sinewy young man with a broad flat nose and flared nostrils, shiny eyes and a lovely faded burgundy women’s velvet hat (including small bow). I must say, at this point, that some of the clothes they manage to find and wear are more than interesting. I think the entire world’s hideously outdated and never to be worn again clothing gets shipped to Africa. It is not uncommon to see a woman walking down the street in the middle of the day going about her shopping errands with a basket of something on her head in a pale pink satin (cheap type) slip dress with yellow plastic shoes or silk, sparkly evening blouse with an African print cloth wrapped around her waist as a skirt. And, clearly, as you can see from above, it is also not uncommon for a man to show up in a ladies hat, or even shirt for that matter. Well, after that rather large tangent, I shall return to Pointer and his poling prowess as we moved through the reedy channels of the swamp. Once settled into our fairly unstable feeling Mekoro and our seats of old school chairs with the legs cut off, Pointer pushed us off shore. Pointer’s role, as a Poler, is to power and steer the boat. He does this by standing in the very back of the boat and pushing us along with a 7+ foot stick with a fork in the bottom. The fork helps to keep the pole steady if there are lots of sticks and things at the bottom that the pole would otherwise slid off.
After a short 10 minute pole through the reed channels, which seemed to be getting smaller and narrower as we went, we arrived at our next camp on an island type area. The camp was quite charming – everything was open roofed and enclosed only by bamboo walls. The bathroom was an enormous open area with showers and sinks placed amongst the tree trunks, using limbs as holders for the towels or shower heads. We were each given cabin tents with cots tucked back behind bamboo walls for privacy. Once settled we headed back out for a tour of the area in our Mekoro. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon laughing and joking with each other as we were pushed by our Polers through the lilies, which were EVERYWHERE, and papyrus. Loads of birds flying about and calling to each other, my favourite is called the Go-Away bird because when he called is sounds like “Blaaaahhhh” and is quite funny, and of course, the ever present hippos.
These hippos though, were particularly amusing, enclosed in their small pool in the middle of the reeds, popping up and down, blowing water at as and eyeing us sceptically unsure if this should advance and scare us off or if we were OK and could stay a bit longer. They would pop up one or two at a time, make a big show of blowing water, twitch their ears, eye us and then go down with an equally loud gurgle only to come up again a minute or so later as if to say, “Are you still here?” It is quite a different feeling to be in a small boat next to them than it is in the larger safari boats, or even the canoes we had on the Upper Zambezi. This time we had no motor or swift wide river to help get us away.
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