Boat trips galore… isn’t this supposed to be an over“land” journey?

Well after our busy time spent at the waterfront in Livingstone it was time to move on further south, only a short day in Athena as we drove down to where Zambia borders Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. One of our quickest border crossing to date involves us putting the truck and its precious cargo onto a barge that crosses the Zambezi river at Kazungula. Its a bit different arriving in a new country on a boat and is great because you can clearly see the divide between the two places. Once off the boat and through immigration just a few more km's and we arrive at Kasane our stopping point for a couple of nights where we will go into Chobe National Park, Botswana's first declared wildlife reserve.

Our campsite on the Chobe river was a great place to relax in the sun, read a book or take a dip in the pool and also to celebrate Carlos's birthday round the fire with a bit of cake and cane. Just to mention August is birthday month for the trip with six celebrations and lots of cake to cram in, maybe September can be dieting month.

Carlos cutting his 40th birthday cake!

The next day we had our evening game cruise down the Chobe river into the park. Armed with a coolbox full of drinks for the sunset we boarded our motorboat to take us along the river banks and islands to get up close and personal with some of the parks animals. Chobe is known for having thousands of elephants as they have been protected for so long and that evening did not disappoint. We were able to see massive elephants feeding on the grassy islands knee deep in water, along with crocodiles, water buffalo, giraffe, monitor lizards and a few more large scary looking crocs. You probably wouldn't wanna swim here but would have been a good real man test hey Jason?

The group enjoying a sunset game cruise on the Chobe River

Enjoying a sunset cruise on the Chobe River

The cruise was excellent getting to view animals up close in the water and also from a far on the banks and in the rolling hills of Africa it really gives a different perspective, a few vinos and a cold beer went down well for what has to be probably the best sunset on the trip so far. Don't think you can beat watching a whole herd of elephants from big bulls to toddlers crossing the river onto an island with at times only trunks sticking out of the water like periscopes on a submarine. Cracking stuff but will let the photos do the talking!

Stunning

Best left alone...

Wading across the river

Very civilised game viewing - with a glass of wine in hand!

From Kasane we headed down towards Nata staying over night at a beautiful camp out in the bush down a sandy winding track, complete with a waterhole to try and catch a glimpse of some night time game sneaking a sip. The next day we continued down the seriously pot holed road to Nata and then swinging west out past the Makgadikgadi pans to Maun, whilst along the way navigating through foot and mouth/ veterinary check points where official try and pinch all our food for bbqs. With one of Botswana's biggest industries being its livestock they are quite protective of it and don't want meat and dairy products getting transported around the country even though we have brought them from supermarkets within her borders, its a weird one which involves a game of vac-packed meat hide and seek as we see up and coming checkpoints; luckily we're still winning.

Ok then so smuggling food aside we get to Maun the gateway to the Okavango delta, a brief description of the place then... the Okavango river which starts life in Angola before flowing down through Namibia's Caprivi strip before entering Botswana where it spreads 16,000 sq-km over the countries flat land creating an array of lagoons, islands and intricate waterways attracting a huge bird population and other wildlife.
We camped on the outskirts of Maun where we celebrated Paul's birthday (no.2) with the world's (Botswana's maybe) biggest balloons and steaks what more could you want? The next day was an early start for the group as we headed out in the back of sturdy old Mercedes trucks to tackle the sandy tracks that wind out to the poling station on the edge of the delta. At the poling station we load all our camping and food supplies along with ourselves into mokoros (dug outs) two per boat accompanied and powered by a local poler to expertly navigate us to our overnight bush camp. A mokoro is a dug out canoe traditionally hewn from either the ebony or sausage tree, nowadays quite a few are fibreglass to stem deforestation.

Birthday candles

Make a wish, Paul

Not quite Athena...

The Okavango Delta from above

Okavango Delta by air: Mokoro crossroads and one of the main channels.

Flying over the Delta

Relaxing in a mokoro

Poling into the sunset

All ready to go

Being punted along narrow reed lined waterways in the lying back on your backpack and roll matt in the morning sun is extremely relaxing and a great way to explore the delta, unfortunately it doesn't last all day as we soon are starting to set up camp on a nice tree shaded island to escape the mid-day heat. With camp set up and Nick, Di and Carlos on the wood finding mission for dinner the afternoon is a laid back affair with napping and reading books before a late afternoon / sunset mokoro trip and nature walk on another island.
The head polers are also guides who did an excellent job of educating everyone on the various bird life, vegetation and animals track seen on the walk.

Dinner on the fire (now with enough wood to bring Guy Fawkes night forward) followed by a few drinks and then some dancing put on for us by the polers which was brilliant and of course Brucie jumped up to have a go at the now legendary frog dance. Each dance was also a story of some sort acted out round the fire, cracking night.

Campfire in the Delta

Singing and dancing after dinner on our island camp in the Okavango Delta

Bruce and the frog dance

Striking down camp the next day after some of the group had opted to get up early and venture off on another nature walk whilst others had chosen a bit of extra kip; we headed back on another relaxing mokoro trip and then back to camp for hot showers and cheese toasties already made and waiting by Alison.

From Maun we quickly retraced our steps towards Nata where we stayed at a luxury lodge, albeit in their luxury camping section! Basing ourselves here allows us easy access to enjoy a guided trip out onto the Makgadikgadi pans made up of the Sowa, Nxai and Ntwetwe pans collectively the biggest network of pans in the world. We arranged an late afternoon trip to include sundowners out on the pan and set off in a couple of game viewing tracks to the north eastern parts of the Sowa pan, on the drive out we saw springbuck, various birds of prey and ostrich. With Jon looking out for leopard that has eluded him so far! The pans with their surreal colour and almost endless horizon make for some stunning pictures. Water provided by the Nata river which flows onto them creates a shallow lake that is home seasonally to Pelican and flamingos. Again another stunning African sunset to end the evening with over acacia trees mimicking exactly the front logo of our trip t-shirts.