WEATHER: Hot, Hot Hot 36C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting into a Mokoro (canoe) and not falling out
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of one – is that 2 days in a row?
BUYS OF THE DAY: Didn’t buy a thing – this day is shaping up to be okay
WORD OF THE DAY: Mokoro
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Stork, ellie, hippos, cows, donkeys
CAMP SITE RANKING: Bush camp – no facilities, oh except a camp chair converted into a toilet seat so that will give it a 1 out of 5 stars for the facilities but a 5 out of 5 for ambience
We only had 250km to travel by road today. We then had additional travel on a ferry and then in a mokoro (canoe) to get us to our ‘wild’ bush camp tonight. Up at 6am, 7am breakfast and a 7.30am departure. After a fairly big night, I am glad I stuck to beers most of the night. Besides the 3 MASSIVE vodka’s that Pam mixed for us over dinner, I stuck to the angel drink (beer) and only dappled the devils drink (vodka), so this once again was my savior and we felt all right waking up at 6am. We really did have a lot to drink last night; it would have to be around 8 beers and 3 large vodkas, so we are quite surprised how well we feel. High five us!!!!
It only took 40 minutes for us to get to the Namibia border and then only 30 minutes to get processed through there, through the Botswana border and out the other side. I think that has to be the quickest crossing we have had since arriving into Africa and in the history of African border crossings!!! We only had to drive around 15 minutes to get to the ferry that was to take us the 10 minute ride over the Okavango River to the other side. We are now in Botswana proper and it seems really sandy, we are driving on a sand road, no bitumen at all, but the sand would give the Whitsunday’s a run for its money. The colour is awesome and it is so fine. We are passing a lot of villages, they are small thatched huts, and fenced in with handmade fences usually a few in a compound. The strange thing is that there doesn’t seem to be many people about. It is hot, so I am guessing that they are staying out of the heat and get a lot of things done early in the morning and late in the afternoon when it is cooler. There are a few people around and a few children as well and it is good to be able to get back into the swing of waving. I have missed that the last week, and I still believe it has therapeutic values in a wave. It is a shame that it can’t be bottled and sold somehow.
We got to our truck stop at 11.30am. This is where Ben and the truck were going to stay for the next 2 nights while we ‘wild’ camped in the Delta. We had overnight bags packed to take with us and after a delicious lunch we helped the guys pack the speed boat that was to take all the food and prep stuff to the camp, and we were to follow in our mokoro which are traditionally wooden canoes, but the government has banned the locals from using the trees now (looking after the environment), so these ones were made of fiberglass. I am not a canoe / small boat person at the best of times. I lost count the amount of times that Drew bugged me to go out on the water back home which was always a blatant flat out no, so for me to be getting into a mokoro now was a pretty big deal and to find out it was going to be for 2 hours, made me a little nervous inside. Lisa was a rower back in the day, so I know she will have the balance to keep in the canoe, I just hope I literally don’t rock the boat and we fall out with our cameras. That was probably my main concern, not so much the falling out, but the electronic equipment getting wet and how to get back in again would be of a little concern as well now that I think about it. The mokoro’s are a flat bottom canoe and are about 8m long and there is what they call a poler, which is a guy that stands on the end of the boat with a pole and he is the one that steers and drives the canoe. So there were 2 people to a canoe and we got Ken as our poler for the next 3 days. Poor Ken!! He spoke pretty good English, so we were going to get along with him just fine. Before getting into the mokoro’s we were given the safety tips, which pretty was not to immerse your limbs in the river, as crocodiles or hippos could bite them off, no sudden movements as this could up end the canoe and tip out our poler and no standing in the mokoro. Yeah well I think we would be okay on the last one! We loaded our day bags into the front of the mokoro, Lisa got in first and then I followed to sit in the front. They had converted the mattresses that we sleep on into chairs for the journey, so it was actually quite comfortable. Some of the mokoros already had seats in them, but we were okay with our soft mattress seats. So at 12.50pm, Ken pushed us off the river bank and we were on our way up the Okavango Delta. Even though the canoe was a flat bottom, it was still quite touchy when you moved. So then when I moved I tried to make the weight ratio balance by moving the other way, which gave us a rocking motion and a very concerned Bernie! Lees came to the rescue and told me to distribute my weight eg: legs and arms even on each side and to just go with the motion of the canoe rather than trying to right it myself as I was just making it worse! Funny how when I did do this it actually worked! I was still a little twitchy, but after about 20 minutes I was starting to get the hang of it. It wasn’t like I was doing anything though, poor Ken had the job of pushing us along, but we were heading downstream, so he has this in his favour going literally with the flow!
The Delta is an amazing place. Once I had got rid of my fear of falling out of the mokoro, looking around and seeing the crystal clear water passing us by, the small fish you could see swimming, the beautiful water lilies, the amazing reeds that in some places we would have to part with our arms as Ken steered us through was very ‘safari’ like. The sun was blazing on us though, and this was probably the only complaint we had all day. There wasn’t any shade, river or mokoro wise and not a cloud in the sky, it was a perfect day, but the sun had some bite to it and we all knew we were getting burnt. But the serenity of our surrounds was amazing. It was so peaceful except for the tweets of the local birds, the calls of the hippos and the cows that we passed knee deep in the water eating their lunch. They didn’t even flinch as we passed them. I wonder if they know how deep it is out there and if they ever get stuck? As they say from the movie The Castle ‘ah the serenity’………
We saw an elephant also knee deep pass about 100m in front of us at one stage and we also stopped to watch a hippo, which did a great performance of giving us a massive yawn and turning for a full frontal yawn. Now I know it’s not a yawn, it is a sign of aggression, but all trip we have wanted to see one, and I was lucky enough to get the first of the yawn (whatever) with his mouth open, but I didn’t get the frontal, but I was happy with the side shot, it is an awesome close up. It is all about luck with a yawning (whatever) hippo and after 6 weeks, it was worth the wait.
After 2 hours in the mokoros we arrived to our wild bush camp. Wild bush camps are exactly that, no showers and no toilets and we are in the wild. We were a little spoilt that there was a camp chair that had been converted into a toilet seat, so it sat over a hole and when you had finished your international call you just scraped some sand into the hole and wallah you were done. This is the only thing I hate about camping is the toilet facilities and to date I have not had to take a pee in the bush the whole trip. I know that this will change today, as I am drinking so much water as it is so hot, so I am just going to have to suck it up, drop my pants in the bush and let it all hang out. I think the fear is that as I am doing my business and some-one comes along, OMG, how embarrassing. This is camping and this is TIA.
When we arrived our tents were already set up and a fire was getting stoked, all the gear had been unpacked from the speed boat. It is amazing how much stuff we need as a group to carry for one night, but I am pretty sure that Simon wouldn’t want to travel with nothing less than what he needs, so there was a lot of crap. Going with that is the staff also required for us as well, with 7 mokoros and the main guide to total 8, there was quite a posse of us.
We had some free time till 5pm when we all loaded back into our mokoros and headed out to grab ourselves some sunset shots in Botswana, on the Okavango Delta. AWESOME. Good ol Ken got stuck poling us (does that sound rude) and we spent just over an hour back in the Delta and we got to watch a group of hippos huffing, puffing and making the ‘hippo’ noise, which is quite distinctive and not what you would expect a hippo to make. It sounds like a group of old men laughing to give you an idea on how it sounds. If you know Sean, ask him for his hippo rendition, it is right up there with his baboon call. Hilarious. The sunset was absolutely AMAZING. The colours were amazing, the sun was an amazing, and it was an unbelievable red ball setting into the yellows, pinks and blues of the Delta. I really can’t put words on the serenity, as all 7 mokoros were quiet, all taking in this amazing experience. There seemed to be a pecking order in the group of mokoros and we ranked the second to last, so as we made our way back to the camp site, we had Sonya and Rolf behind us, when Ken click clicked to their guide and they passed us and we floated there for a few minutes when we asked him what was up and he had lost the bottom of his pole in the water. It wasn’t a huge problem (apparently) as the water was that clear he could see where it was, he just had to try and get the mokoro lined up, for him to be able to re-attach his top bit of his pole. So as the time ticked, the sun was setting, the weather was turning cooler and we were floating alone on our own, with the hippos getting active and we could hear them all around us, we were thinking of how long it would take us to be saved when Ken got the connection and we were on our way again back to camp. Thank goodness, we were worried on what dinner we were going to miss out on, and we talked about meatballs and pasta so you can imagine our joy when we were getting spag bol for dinner.
There was a great fire raging when we got back and all our chairs all set up around it, so after dinner, Pam bought out the marshmallows and they got roasted over the fire with Killer and the main dude telling some stories about Botswana. The night wasn’t too cold, but to have a fire to warm up was really great and we were all in bed by 8.30pm.
What an awesome day – we are in the Okavango Delta and it is everything I expected and more.
Oh yeah, for the record, I had to make my first domestic call in the wild just before bedtime. Lisa was kind enough to come with me and as we found our patches to do our squat (not too close of course), we turned off our head torches and when we were done there was a feeling I had conquered my last mountain. Peeing in the wild bush. Too much information again I hear you say – tough but that is what I call a friendship. Love ya Lees xx
No comments:
Post a Comment