Asides

Okavango Delta photos part 2

Our last stop in Botswana was the Okavango delta. This beautiful area is one of the defining landmarks of the area. Water flows down the Okavango river from Angola, and then eventually breaks out into an inland delta, forming hundreds of waterways and islands. This area floods annually, and then the water subsides as it empties into Botswanas deserts.

There are many safari camps out here, some of them being “wet camps” (on the water with water activities only), “dry camps” (on land with game drives etc), and mixed camps. We chose a wet camp to experience something totally different than what we’ve done so far. To get here, we had to take a short 35 minute flight in a tiny 11 seater plane. I’m not big on heights, and really don’t like taking these teeny planes, but it was kind of the only choice. Since the planes are so small, there are strict luggage restrictions on weight and size of what you bring. We spent a ton of time agonizing what we could pack and what we’d need to leave behind, especially since one of my camera lenses alone weighs almost 10 pounds. Surprisingly, when we arrived at the airport, it turned out we were the only two people on our flight, and we totally could have brought all our stuff. Oh well.. too late.

The flight was short, and I was pretty nervous for a good chunk of it, but the views of the delta down below were stunning. Soon enough, we were descending to land. As we were landing, I noticed that the airstrip, like everywhere else around here, was covered in elephant poo. It’s crazy to think that even the airstrips here have elephant’s wandering around. After a short drive, we hop in a boat and made our way to the lodge.

The lodge is beautiful. Everything is set on wooden catwalks above the water with phenomenal views of a huge lagoon. The next few days would be chill time. A perfect way to relax and decompress after weeks of traveling. We actually got massages almost as soon as we arrived, and we’re relaxed to the point of feeling like jello. The endless supply of cocktails, beer, and wine doesn’t hurt too. I even invented my own cocktail here which I think I’ll call the Okavango Russian, which is essentially a White Russian, but with a local sweet liquor called Amarula (made out of an African fruit) instead of Kahlua. Hanging out at the lodge, there are monkeys running around the catwalks and darting through the trees, and a constant soundtrack of chirping birds, punctuated from time to time by the deep laughs of distant hippos.

All of our activities here were water based. One day we went out for a 5 hour boat ride in the delta. The boat went through huge beautiful lagoons that would turn into narrow channels, surrounded by papyrus forests on either side. Our guide taught us about the various plants and colorful birds that we passed by. The guidebooks had said there would be other wildlife (besides birds), but unfortunately we didn’t really see any except for a few crocodiles and hippos here and there. Hippos, though cute and harmless looking, are actually super dangerous animals. They have massive canine teeth which they only use to attack other animals since they are vegetarian. They are fast swimmers and can be very territorial. One of our guides had his boat attacked by a hippo which chomped at the engine, easily crushing the plastic engine housing in its jaws. They’ve been known to bite right through a boat’s aluminum siding as well, or ram boats to capsize them. One of the hippos we saw, started thrashing around and jumped out of the water, breaching like a whale… which is apparently something they do as a show of strength and to scare away other animals. For this massive hippo, and the rest, the guide would try to get closer to them, wait until the hippo submerged, and then full throttle zip by where the hippo was as fast as possible.

One day we did a Mokoro trip. Back in the day (and these days as well, though less often), the locals here would navigate the channels of the delta in Mokoros, dugout canoes that they would push along with poles like a gondola. Our guides took us around in the Mokoros for a little bit, and we even got to try pushing them ourselves, but unfortunately they only let us do that for like 30 seconds each.

At one point, when we were in the motorboat, one of the narrow channels we were going through had somehow gotten completely overgrown with papyrus, and there was no way for us to squeeze through. Our brave guide went to the front of the boat, smashed the papyrus down as much as he could, and then gunned the boat full speed at the papyrus island, launching it over all the messy tangle of reeds. I hadn’t expected to do any off-roading in a boat. Crazy.

After several great days here, we went out for our last sundowner. Each evening, we would take a short boat ride around the lagoon, and then stop somewhere to watch the sunset while having gin tonics. And then, luckily, on our last one, we saw elephants. Lots and lots of elephants. As more elephants passed by, they just kept coming and coming, and endless line of them. Unfortunately, we had to keep very far away from them. Apparently many of the villages here are hostile to elephants, harassing them, and sometimes killing them, so the elephants here are understandably not relaxed around humans like in other places we had been. But still, even at a distance, it was amazing to watch these giant animals wandering past us. It really made our last night special.

The next morning, it was time to go. We boarded our teeny tiny airplane, which unfortunately had an extra stop this time on the way to Maun, meaning double the take offs and landings. We did get to see some elephants from the sky though! And then, it was time to say bye to Botswana. Off to Johannesburg!

We left Nokanyana, and made our final drive to Maun, the main tourist hub of Botswana, where many people start their adventures. It was a 2.5 hour drive along sandy (not deep sand) and gravel roads. It struck me again how used to all of this we’ve become. Just 3 weeks ago, driving this same road would have been nerve wracking and somewhat stressful, but now it felt easy and effortless, driving through the tracks and navigating left and right to find the least bumpy parts.

We got to Maun and checked into our hotel. Now it was time to clean out our car since they were going to come pick it up. Gotta say, it felt really sad to be returning the Land Cruiser. It had been our ride, our home, our source of food/drink, our bed, and had gotten us through some crazy times in Africa. In some weird way, it kind of felt like this whole time it was the three of us doing the journey, and now one of us was parting ways. I checked the mileage and we had driven 2,231 miles across Southern Africa. We had crossed deserts, seen the coast, driven the entire Caprivi strip, and navigated some of the hardest roads in Botswana. Our car had survived an insane tire blowout (we have had so many people here including locals that have seen *everything* ask us what the fuck had happened to our tire cause it looked so nuts) and the roof rack breakdown. We cleaned everything out (except for 8 leftover beers that the guy who picked up the car was super great full for) and handed over our turtle.

We had dinner at the hotel (probably the best steak I’ve had in Africa so far), and then briefly checked out a local bar. At night, we slept in… an actual room. This was the first time in weeks that we didn’t have a cold night… until now we had always either slept on the roof of our car, or in tented accommodations which are also open to the outside air. It’s amazing what some walls can do to keep you warm ?.

The next morn I got up early af for the morning game drive. We hopped in the Jeep, and he guide drove us in the freezing cold through almost darkness. We came upon a huge troop of baboons playing in the trees. They were going nuts, jumping from branch to branch, swinging around, and play fighting.

We drove some more, seeing most of the usual suspects, antelope, giraffe, etc. It was kind of a mellow game drive, and I thought to myself that maybe this would finally be the one uneventful drive. I mean, driving around looking at antelope, giraffes, etc is still pretty awesome, but it looked like we weren’t going to see anything more rare.

As usual, I was wrong. After a bit, we came upon some wild dogs. Yes!! I can’t believe I got to see wild dogs for a second time this trip! They were mostly laying around, and then, all of a sudden, the whole pack jumped up and was on high alert. They raced off into the bush, yipping. Watching them all race off was thrilling. And then, we didn’t see it, but they made a kill somewhere. Soon we saw them racing back and forth, again and again, by our car. Our guide explained that they had a den on pups somewhere, and after they hunt, they eat their food, race back to the den to regurgitate the food for the babies to eat, and then back for more food, again and again so the pups are fed.

Later, we stopped for a breakfast in the middle of the bush. It’s always magical to eat out in nature, just listening to the animal sounds and taking in the scenery. Afterwards, we drove some more and found a big group of hippos by the river. Some of the really big ones were mostly submerged in the water, with just their eyes and snout poking out. There was one baby hippo playing near the edge of the water which was really adorable.

After driving some more, we found the den of the wild dogs and watched the little pups running around and then drinking from their mother. It’s crazy how amazing the animal sightings here have been.

After coming back to the lodge, I went for a swim at the small pool. After some time, an elephant and her baby came by, crashing though the trees and eating everything in sight as they do. As they continued eating, they got closer and closer to the pool until they were just around 20 feet away. It was definitely one of those moments on this trip that totally blew my mind. Here I am, in Africa, in a pool, drinking a beer, and watching wild elephants just several yards away from me. Insane.

That night we went for our last evening game drive, and came back to the lodge for another delicious meal by the fire. This lode had been by far the most amazing place we had stayed. I’m gonna be sad to leave this place. So special.

The next day we left Savuti. The drive out of there going south was sandy and bumpy and kinda rough, but nothing compared to the route that we took in from Kasane. We drove super slowly and cautiously because of the roof tent fiasco, but the repairs we had done in Savuti held tight and the car made it ok. Within several hours, we arrived to Nokanyana, a lodge just outside Mababe, near Khwai and the Moremi game reserve.

When planning this trip, I had a hard time choosing this piece of the stay. We could have either stayed directly in Moremi, or here. Most people do Moremi, but our agent had told us that this would be a better option because Moremi was overcrowded and just bursting at the seams with tourists and safari cars everywhere. In the end, I am super glad with the choice I made. This place is amazing! Right on the Khwai river, it’s super picturesque, and in a really chill area. It’s fairly undeveloped here with only 3 small lodges in this area. The lodge is also unfenced, so we have wild animals cruising through whenever and again need to be escorted by a guard to our tent at night. There are elephants just wandering through camp, literally next to the accommodations, sometimes blocking pathways through camp, which is incredible. The main deck of the lodge has a view out to the river and elephants cruise through there to drink all day long. Our tented accommodation itself is super nice and pretty fancy. This is definitely the best place we’ve stayed so far.

That afternoon, we went on a guided game drive. Was pretty chill and enjoyable. We ended with a sundowner right next to the Khwai river. We had our drinks while watching the elephants come strolling in to drink from the river. A dozen elephants came through. Then another dozen. Than even more. One of the guys in our group stopped counting once he reached 60, so we don’t know how many there ended up being in the end. What a magical sunset with all of these elephants.

Eventually, we came back to camp, we’re fed a delicious dinner, spent some time by the fire, and then went to bed with the sounds of barking hippos, whooping hyenas, and the crash of trees/bushed being knocked down by elephants all around us. Just laying in bed and listening to all the insane sounds of the wild outside is such an experience.

On our first full day in Savuti, we woke up, had breakfast and set out to drive around. Driving here… was hard… and confusing. Like I mentioned, there are no roads here. Just a bunch of sandy tracks heading in all directions. We had a “map” of the area, but trying to figure out what set of tracks was what on the map, was basically impossible. The gps didn’t help at all as there weren’t really any landmarks to navigate to, and we weren’t sure how to enter lat/lon coordinates into it. So, we just kind of set out driving in random directions.

The driving wasn’t easy (did I mention deep sand?). And we would keep coming upon random hills that we had to gain speed to be able to climb without losing traction. After a while we gave up. Trying to self drive around this area was too difficult. We plugged in the camp to our gps and headed there. Somehow we ended up in a riverbed, and then we couldn’t figure out how to climb our car out of it. This place was a maze. In the end, I was able to find a place to climb out of the river and we made it back to camp. We decided to leave the game drives here to the professionals.

After a relaxing afternoon (and more gin tonics), we went out on a guided game drive. The guide is driving us, and then nonchalantly mentions “lions”. We look and there are two gigantic male lions laying around. A few yards from them was a gigantic dead elephant. The lions had camped out there, munching on the elephant for several days now. The stench from the massive rotting carcass was absolutely putrid. The lions just lay there sleepily and contentedly, probably full and happy.

We drive on. Once of the things I had wanted to see the most on this trip are wild dogs. These are incredibly rare, and for a while had been hunted almost to extinction. There are only 6,000 of them left on Earth. But they can be found here and there in some parts of Botswana still. These animals are insane hunters, chasing their prey in packs and have a 80% success rate when hunting which is wild seeing as other animals like lions only have a 25% success rate. If I got to see just one of these animals on this trip, I would have been thrilled.

Well, I got my wish, as we pulled up to a pack of wild dogs. There were 5 or so adults and 12 tiny wild dog pups! Crazy! I couldn’t believe it! We stopped and just watched them for ages. The little puppies playing with each other and interacting with the adults. It was a magical moment and we were so close to them. I felt like I could have watched them forever, but eventually we continued onward.

A little bit later, our guide spotted a hyena cub. Just sitting there by itself. Cute little thing, it looked like a tiny baby bear or something.

Eventually, we circled back and passed the two male lions again. This time they were chomping on the dead elephant. Pretty disgusting site, I gotta say… lotsa blood and guts. But lions gotta eat too.

At the end of the drive, we stopped for a sundowners in the middle of the bush. The guide made us all gin tonics, and we just stood there, next to the car, sipping our delicious drinks, and watching the sun set. Incredible.

The next day, I did one of the most difficult drives of my life. But I’ll get to that later. We woke up in the morning, and put away our rooftop tent for the last time. We had booked this trip doing roughly half camping and half lodges, and this was our last time camping. Camping had been a blast, and it was a little sad that our camping adventures had come to an end.

We took a morning drive along the Chobe riverfront, taking in all the scenery and wildlife. After driving for a bit, we Mae wrong turn and came to a dead end. We turned back, and after driving a few minutes, spotted a bunch of safari vehicles. We join them to see what’s happening, and spot a lioness wandering about. A few minutes of watching her, and all of a sudden we see two young lion cubs come out of the bush. And then another lioness. Wow, it’s our lucky day! If we hadn’t made that wrong turn, or had come here just minutes earlier or later, we totally would have missed this. After some time of us sitting there mesmerized, the lioness walked towards our vehicle and came within 10 feet or so, which was incredible. And then, just when it couldn’t get any better, 3 even tinier lion cubs come out.. practically babies. These tiny things were just insanely adorable. They walked around, meowing from time to time, looking super cute.

Eventually we were able to pry ourselves away, and drove on eventually leaving the park. For the next part of our journey, we needed to drive deep into the park to Savuti. Savuti is a legendary place here, deep deep in the park far away from any roads or towns. It is pure wilderness. Aside from a handful of lodges, it’s just a bunch of dusty sandy tracks. Unless you fly in (cheating!), the only way to get here is a 100+ mile long stretch of sandy track. When reading about our trip, every website, every guidebook, every forum post cautions that this is an incredibly difficult drive through deep sand.

Driving here, the two things you need to worry about are water crossings and deep sand (well, also tire punctures, running out of fuel, dangerous animals, etc lol). We were here during the dry season, so water crossings were not going to be an issue. But deep sand was a problem. The sand was slippy, making cars slide all over, and there was a real big possibility to get stuck if you lost your momentum, and your tires would just dig themselves deeper and deeper. Sure, we had the equipment we needed (a huge jack, sand ladders, a shovel, etc) to dig ourselves out if need be, but we are ally hoped we wouldn’t end up having to shovel sand in the brutal African heat.

So we set off. Up until now, nothing that we’d undertaken had really phased me, but this drive was really stressing me out after the countless warnings about it. And they were right. The drive was hard. The sand was deep. The car would slide left and right depending on the tracks sand ridges below it. The road was somehow soft and slippery while at the same time bumpy and rough, causing the car to frantically shake like it was about to come apart at the seams. At a few points, there were hills we needed to drive up, and I was worried whether we’d get enough traction to make it to the top. After one of these hills, there was a even a little sign saying congratulations for making it up, lol. I drove and drove. I felt like 110% of my concentration was on the road and tracks in front of me, I was just in complete focus. The drive took several hours, but felt like it was an eternity.

But incredibly, after what seemed like ages, we reached Savuti camp. We coudn’t believe it. We had done it. I felty like they should have handed out trophies when we pulled up. We were totally elated. For a minute. The elation didn’t last long. A traveler nearby pointed at our car quizzically and asked “You’re roof tent is sideways?”. Huh? I turned back, and holy shit. # of the 4 bolts holding the giant metal frame of the rooftop had snapped off, and the whole thing was skewed diagonally, holding on by one last bolt. Oh no. This was not good.

If this had happened anywhere else on our trip, it would have been bad, but probably not as bad. Towns and supplies would be nearby. But we were in literally the most desolate location on our whole trip. What were we going to do? Driving 100 miles out with this giant thing, that weighs several hundred pounds, hanging by one bolt would be horrible idea. We were utterly crushed and in shock. We drove the last several yards to the lodge, feeling completely defeated.

We got a warm welcome at the lodge, and told the manager what had happened. She didn’t seem too concerned and said she’d have some of her guys take a look at it. In the meantime, we got a tour and a rundown on everything. This camp is not fenced in like all the other places we have stayed, which means animals are free to roam in and out. We got instructions on what to do if we are confronted w/ a lion or another predator while walking through camp. During the talk, I did wonder a bit if this was a bit hyperbolic, but later that night (after we had gone to bed), we heard that two leopards cruised through the middle of camp, literally right next to the area where we ate all of our meals. We saw the fresh leopard tracks the next morning. We are free to roam around during the day, but at night, a guard will walk us to and from our room to ensure we are safe, and there is an air horn in the room that we can sound in case something crazy happens.

The lodge is pretty fancy. Much nicer than any of the places we’ve stayed so far. Nice rooms, and a great spread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All alcohol included, so the gin and tonics just keep on coming. After dinner, we return to our room to find that they pt hot water bottles in our bed to keep us warm and cozy all night long. Amazing!

Later, before our dinner, the manager told us that they had been able to stitch together the roof rack. Two out of 4 connections were now bolted in, and they had used strong wire to attach the other two sides, even having to drill holes through the roof frame to make the connection. It’s impressive how inventive and resourceful they are here. In the middle of nowhere, we were able to get our damaged vehicle fixed. We were absolutely thrilled.

Just another night in Africa

The next morning we got up and went driving around the park. After driving in it the day before, I was a bit more used to the crazy deep sandy roads. It was a beautiful morning, just driving around and looking at the animals.

Eventually, it was time for us to leave and we drove to a nearby town Kasane. We had booked a riverboat tour for sunset, and spent 3 hours cruising down the river checking out all the animals on the banks. It was so peaceful and nice, and it was cool to see all the animals from a different vantage point. We saw crocodiles, lots of hippos, and massive buffalo.

Eventually, we came back to camp and since this was our second to the last night camping, we were going to barbecue. We went to the grocery store and wow.. compared to the massive well stocked stores in Namibia, this was a disappointment. The meat counter especially looked…. Questionable. But we bought some steaks anyway. When we got to camp, we grilled up the steaks. They looked good, it had a very very weird smell. I’m the end, we decided not to chance it. We tossed the meat, and it was a very disappointing bbq .