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Day fifty seven (continued)
In order to be allowed into Botswana, we all had to walk through paraffin at the border, as they are very wary of Foot and Mouth disease in Botwana. This is because one of their primary industries is beef and it would be a disaster if they were not able to export this product.
We drove through Botswana throughout the day. We were able to change money at one of the towns along the way. The name of the currency in Botswana is the Pula.
The undoubted highlight of the day was seeing a herd of elephant just off the main highway. We estimated that there were 80 plus elephants in the herd. We watched them for a while as we had been unlucky spotting elephant prior to this. Further up the road we spotted another herd of about 30 and then lots of smaller groups as we drove along were also seen.
At one stage a stray elephant was grazing right next to the road. We pulled over to get some photos and it looked at us for a while before crossing the road.
We stopped just off the main road for a bushcamp at the end of the day. We had definitely noticed the weather getting colder the further south we had driven on the safari.
Day fifty eight
In the morning we drove onto Maun which is a large town in Botswana and in close proximity to the Okavango Delta which was the main reason we had come to Botswana. We booked three different flights to go out to the Delta as the planes were all six seaters.
We left after lunch and flew over the Delta to our campsite (Gunns Camp) where we would be for the next three days.The flight was fairly short (around 30 minutes) and we landed on a sandy airstrip.We then walked for about 15 minutes to the campsite.
When we walked into the main area of the camp site we were astonished to see a large bull elephant grazing no more than 25m away. He saw us and came even closer. I was spewing that my camera was in my pack which was back at the airfield on a trailer. The elephant did a mock charge which scattered most people. Its amazing how fast some people can be when they need to be.
After a while the elephant moved away and I never got a photo. We had steak for dinner (it is so cheap and you get huge steaks in Botswana) and a few drinks as it was Sarah's birthday. Heather made another banana cake with candles and icing.
Day fifty nine
During the night the campsite was visited by a lion. As the planes were so small, there was a weight restriction and a lot of us had not bought tents to sleep in and were open airing. Jess got woken up by the sound of the lion and crept into Vanessa and Tara's tent (one of the few who had a tent). I slept outside under the stars for every night we were there. It got quite cold but I managed to stay warm. I never heard the lion that night but I was woken by the sound of hippos and elephants just before sunrise.
We had breakfast and then our mkoro polers turned up to take us up river to our bushcamp. I was teamed up with Heather and unfortunately we struck the leaky Mkoro and a trainee poler. We had to make three stops along the way to bail out water. We sat in a couple of inches of water for most of the way.
We eventually ended up at a campsite deep in the delta and opposite Chief's Island which was supposed to have quite a lot of game to look at. I spent the afternoon drying out before we all went on a guided bushwalk at around 3.30pm. We were split up into four groups so we would make less noise.
My group saw a couple of elephants, a crocodile, warthogs, jackals, various antelope, baboons, zebra, wildebeest but no lions. It was a glorious sunset. When we got back to camp we learned that no one else had spotted lions either.
Day sixty
In the early morning we went on a 3 hour walk and saw basically the same stuff again as we went to a similar area as the previous day. I had really sore feet by the end of the walk. We packed up after lunch and got a new mkoro poler back to Gunn's camp. Much better.
In the afternoon we visited the Hippo pool which was near to the camp. We saw 8 or 9 hippo there. I got a good photo of one yawning. The locals were really apprehensive when we were at the pool as they were worried that the hippos might suddenly become aggressive and charge up onto the bank where we were clicking away. Hippos, believe it or not have the reputation for being the most dangerous animal in Africa and cause more deaths than any other animal. Basically they are very territorial, and the trouble occurs when they come out of the water to graze, usually at night. A local will come to the waters edge to gather water unaware that they are in the hippos territory. If they are unlucky, the hippo will return before they have finished getting their water and that's when the trouble starts.
Day sixty one
We got picked up by the planes the next day. I could see the hippos grazing next to the pool, as we flew over, and was impressed by the size of these beasts.
I felt a bit queasy coming back but managed not to have a chunder. Paul was green when he got out of the plane. We drove just out of Maun to Island Safari Lodge. There was a swimming pool there that was surprisingly arctic.
In the afternoon we had a barbeque by the pool with some music. We had composed a blues song about the trip called the whales blues which Paul and Dan played on guitar while we all sang verses. Everyone had a good go at the grog that night.
Day sixty two
In the morning we drove into Maun for provisions and then drove all day back towards Zimbabwe. It was not a very notable day.
We camped next to a railway line for the night. We sat around the fire for a while as it was our last bush camp for the tour.
Click here for Zimbabwe 2.
