Okavango Delta – June 17th – 19th

The Okavango Delta is Botswana’s most popular tourist destination. Every year, more than 11 cubic kilometers/4 cubic miles of water
flow from the Okavango River into the Delta, irrigating more than 15 000 square kilometers/5790 square miles of the Kalahari Desert,
making it the largest inland delta in the world.  The delta is home to more than 2000 plant species, 450 bird species, 65 fish species, and an estimated 2000,000 large mammals (I’m not sure if they are including the tourist in that statistic or not).  Because the area is a basin the water comes in through the Okavango River and stays; it does not continue to the sea like most rivers.

We had a great time in the Delta if for no other reason than we got to relax a bit and we didn’t have to be in the truck for hours on end.  We flew into the Delta in the morning and then went straight to our lodging which were amazing.  It was a camp with luxury tents.  The best part was that there were no other camps around.  We really enjoyed the isolated feeling.  It was also great because there were a ton of animals around.  During the night, we could hear elephants, lions, hippos, and baboons.  After a few hours of downtime, we went for a game drive.  The next day we did a game walk in the morning.  This was a great way to see the land up close.  We did see any animals (thankfully since that could have been very dangerous with us being on foot and all), but our guides taught up about tracking by studying the feces and footprints.  We had some more downtime and then we did a mokora ride which is like a canoe.  The mokoro were originally dug out of an ebony tree but due to conservation most are made out of fiberglass now.  The ebony tree takes over 100 years to build while a typical mokoro would only last five years.  They seat two people and is propelled by a poler who stands at the back with a ngashi (long pole).  The next morning we flew back to Maun and headed onto our next destination.