WEATHER: Hot Hot Hot 32C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Checking into our tented camp with ensemble beds!!!
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Sitting in the sun for a further 2 hours to get back to the truck
BUYS OF THE DAY: Botswana necklace for 9AUD
WORD OF THE DAY:
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Elephants, pumbas, baboons, cows, donkeys
CAMP SITE RANKING: Permanent tents with beds, great bar, flushing toilets and cold showers 5 out of 5 stars
Good morning from the wilds of Botswana. We weren’t allowed to leave our tents last night for a toilet run unless you had a buddy to go with you and you had to do a reccy to make sure that there were no eyes looking back at you when you unzipped your tent. Sean rekons he saw a hippo in the early hours when he popped his head out of his tent not far away, and had footprints in the sand to prove it the next morning, but we are not too sure, we think it could have been a cow – but he is adamant it was only 20m away and it was a hippo. Lisa and I are pretty good with the local calls after bed time and we both went last night before going to bed, so I finally had my first wild wee since arriving into Africa last night. Now there is a mile stone for you! So knowing that we weren’t really going to have another toilet stop, I had to do my second one of the trip this morning, too much information? Tough. Am I seasoned wild wee’er now? Do I like it now that I have done it? It is an emphatic no, but when you gotta go you gotta go. The guys were talking about their al fresco international calls, but that for me could wait till this afternoon when I had a proper toilet. I know just call me Princess, but it’s all about the baby steps.
Wakeup was at 6.30am and after a light breakfast we left camp at 7am. We were coming back to camp after our wild walk, so we were able to leave our tents up and we hopped back into our mokoros for the 30 minute pole to Huckleberry Island for our nature walk. Even though we went the same way yesterday the colours with the sun in a different spot just changed the whole delta, I have taken so many photos of this place, but they all look so different and wait till you see the sunset ones I took yesterday, looking back on them this morning they are just magic! We passed the group of hippos again, so we gave a wave as we poled past them to get to the island. We got the usual safety drill. If a WILD animal confronts you 1. Don’t scream 2. Don’t run – the animals think like us and they know we can’t run (umm okay..) 3. Walk single file 4. Keep 25-60cm between each person 5. There were 4 hand signals to watch out for, the stop signal, the wild animals running signal, the dangerous animal signal and the quiet signal. The guide was hilarious using the stop signal the whole 3 hours and we only saw like 3 animals. It was good to stretch the legs, and as I preached a few days ago, you just never know when you are going to see animals, it really is a luck game, so we were pretty unlucky that we only saw a troop of baboons, a family of pumbas and a single elephant as we walked back to the mokoros nearly 3 hours into the walk. Throw in a few birds I suppose, but I am glad I went; we just didn’t see many animals.
Back to base camp and a brunch that Simon had prepared for us and then it was time to pack up camp. We then poled, with our mate Ken, the 2 hours back to the truck. The post evaluation of peoples sunburn from yesterday was pretty high, everyone had a real red glow about them, and so heading back out into the burning sun for day 2 was an effort. Leaving at midday, everyone was a little more careful, lubed up with sunscreen, long sleeve shirts, hats and Lisa also shrouded herself with her scarf for a portion of the way, as her legs got quite a bit of colour the day before. So 2 hours poling back to the truck, with a stop to watch a herd of elephants on the bank. I really can’t believe how clear the water is here. It is amazing, you can see straight through to the bottom. It is awesome to just run your hands through the water, albeit briefly, don’t want to go losing a hand to a hippo, but the temperature is so warm, and when we are all so hot it is almost a tragedy that we aren’t allowed to swim in it, but once again we don’t want to get taken by some wild animal, so it keeps us in check and in the mokoro. The water lilies are all now open, they were still closed this morning when we passed them this morning, Ken made Lees and I lily necklaces, which were beautiful and there are heaps of dragonflies flying around. I had one land on my nose and another one land right at the top of my shirt and I just watched him as he kept rubbing his eyes, it was pretty surreal and I rekon he was there for over 5 minutes, he was so beautiful, an electric blue colour. Man I am in the Okavango Delta – pinch me please!!!
We had 20 minutes at the truck to grab a change of clothes, say hi and bye to Ben and then back in the mokoros again to take us further upstream to our camp for the last night in the Delta. We could leave our sleeping bags, tents and mattresses at the truck, as George has upgraded us to permanent tents! Yee ha grandma!!! This ride was only 20 minutes, and had us pulling up at 3.30pm – how cool to not have to put a tent up this afternoon. So after the guide showed us all the facilities, we had free time till dinner. A few of the crew wanted to go for a swim, so they were sped boated to a ‘safer’ spot of the Okavango, where it had a sandy bottom, and they could see better if something dangerous was in the water!! Then some of them got a chance to try poling themselves and I am happy to report that no-one fell into the drink! Well done guys. I was happy to be photographer and watch from the river bank.
The bar area was a dirt floor, with heaps of magazines to read and games to play. I played a few games of chess with Sean, (which I let him win, just between you and I) to which one of the polers challenged Sean and in the first game he beat him in 3 moves (makes me feel better) and then the second game was a tussle to which Sean lost that too! So then Filter (chess champion) challenged George to a game and GG lost as well. Needless to say I didn’t bother to play Filter; he would have kicked my butt!!! Instead Lees and I played a few games of Speed (which I let her win, just between you and I) till it was time for me to go and help with dinner. I was cook tonight. I am now in Team A, so I have had to say good-bye to the Dic Dic’s (my last team) and we are now called the Arse Muffs. Now this isn’t as rude as you think, Manu bought some rolls in Botswana and they were literally called arse muffins on the label, so we have just taken that for Team A’s name. Pretty cool right? Team B is Barbara Streisand (which is the tour song and Dave’s fav song) Team C is Chooi ( Cheeta in Swahili) and Team D have rolled over the Dic Dic Dic’s name (small African deer like animal) from the last tour. Jill, Sonya and I are happy with Team Arse Muff, being all ladies – so pleased to meet you!
Manu and I were pretty tired after dinner, so we decided to head back to the tents for an early turn in. I was going to read for a while. Once again we have been warned about the animals here, and for some reason Manu was already jumpy, but just as well, cause as we were walking she screamed and I freaked and we saw a black snake the size of 3 pencils right in our path, lucky we had our head torches on as we would have stepped right on him if we hadn’t. So we are a little freaked out now, when we got to the tents, which are located right on the river, we heard a massive splash and some movement which freaked us even more, Manu was about to run back to the bar, when I told her I’d walk her back to her tent and make sure she got safely zipped up inside, luckily we were next to each other, as I may not have been as brave if it was further away. With Manu in safe, I ran to my tent, with Manu shouting if I was in safely, not that she would have saved me should the hippo have come for me, but it was sweet all the same. I was safe in my tent and you could still hear the animal outside splashing around and then the unmistakable ‘old man laughing’ of the hippo. I rekon we would have been only 5m from where he was. I am not sure how much time passed; I was still reading when we heard footsteps. Manu yelled ‘who goes there?’ to which a reply came Miyuki and then Manu yelled for to run to the tent as there was a hippo around and she had already unzipped the door so Miyuki could just dive through and it was immediately zipped up again when she was in. It was so funny to hear, as Manu was telling her to run quick, hurry up and the urgency of the zip up and down was hilarious! Poor Miyuki didn’t know what was happening, but did as she was told. Big brave Manu was a mess and it was hilarious!!! We did hear hippos all night, and it was kinda cool, as long as we were zipped up safe and sound in our tents, what harm could become of us? How lucky are we to get a great night’s sleep in a bed and not just any bed, an ensemble – pure heaven and a great way to finish off 2 days in the Delta.
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