Okavango Delta Safari

Having flown to J'Burg and driven 1500 km across the endless Kalahari to Maun, Botswana we embarked on a flying and makoro safari in the famed Okavango delta.

The Okavango a "pan" or depression that floods annually and supports abundant wildife in the middle of the Kalahari desert. The delta is fed by monsoon rains in Angola and was in full flood. During this time dust turns to marsh and life springs from the dusty, parched plains. The plains obsorb the entire river and it eventually dries up and never reaches the sea.

Enough geography. We took a bush plane into Gunns Camp in the central delta. From here we spent three amazing (and expensive!) days doing walking and makoro safaris into the game reserve. A makoro is a wooden dugout canoe that is poled through the shallows ny local gudes. The boats travel in 3 to 20 inches of water to avoid the large number of resident hippos!!

After poling to an island in the delta, we went on several walking safaris. It was one thing to see elephants from a Land Rover but another all together to be in the line of stampede of these incredible beasts. Other highlights included warthogs nesting under our tent platform and a hippo grazing ten feet from our tent for several nail biting hours. Hippos are the most feared and hated animals in the area for their aggressiveness...

After three days we flew out again over this magnificent wilderness. Wild!