Okavanga Delta - Day 2

I woke up early again for the second bush walk we had planned in the morning. Lions had been heard roaring in the distance. As I walked down to the campfire which had been kept burning and its red glow was now echoing a sunrise of the deepest reds and oranges. Hundreds of birds filled the sky with their morning flights. Egrets shone bright white in the sunlight. We could see a hippo feeding on the lush grasses on the other side of the waterway along with several buffalo. We then walked down to the waiting canoes for our bush walk before breakfast. We crossed the waterway in the welcome cool and refreshing morning air. We walked past the hippos in the lake that shone as they yawned and vied for position in yellow early morning sun. We walked through the cooler bush and scrubland. We saw a few antelope ? specialised for life in the often waterlogged delta. We also saw buffalo running in the distance. As we continued on our walk we came across a large herd of seven or eight giraffe all congregating close together and eyeing us warily before loping off into the trees. This was another wonderful encounter with these gentle and stately wild animals. We returned to the lake to view the hippos for the last time before reboarding our canoes to return to the camp. We had some breakfast looking out across waterway and then packed up all our gear back onto the canoes. We got back into the canoes for our return through the delta's majestic waterways. This time I swapped places with Lauren and sat in the front of the canoe. I trailed my hands in the water as we swept past the grasses and the lilies with open billed storks taking easily into the air as we approached them. A malachite kingfisher flew across the front of the boat in a bright flash of fluorescent blue. We met some tourists coming in the opposite direction which created a temporary waterway traffic jam. I watched the one of the local female guides expertly and lithely paddle the canoe in front of us. Again, this evoked a sense of an earlier and wilder Africa. We saw the darters and the Jesus birds in abundance and saw vultures circling in the sky in the distance. I began to experience the relaxing hypnosis of this timeless place. The rhythm of the boat through the water made for a joyous experience. My only regret was that I couldn't spend more time on the water in this place of natural wonders.
All too soon we were disembarking from the canoes, loading our gear onto the safari vehicles and bouncing along the rough, riven park tracks back to the Sedia hotel. Once again we got wind blasted on the main road.
I had some lunch with Lauren at the hotel which caused some hilarity when Lauren was talking to me with a mouth full of ice cream and I couldn't understand a single word. There was then just enough time for a quick dip in the pool and a shower before heading to the local airport on the truck for our flight over the Delta. The heat of the day was almost unbearablle and I had to drink continuously to avoid dehydration. We checked in at the small local airport and passed through the security procedures. There were eight of us on the flight (Grant, Jemma, Lauren, Monica, English Brian, Irish Beian, Monica and myself). As we took the airport bus out onto the tarmac we had the choice of two small six seater propeller planes. Four of us got onto each plane. Lauren, Monica, English Brian and myself got onto one of the planes. The young male pilot went through a quick debrief for the flight and we were soon taxiing out onto the runway. We trundled down the runway behind the other plane before picking up speed and rising slowly up into the sky. It took a while to adjust to the wind buffering this small plane up and down. We soon reached our cruising height of only 500 feet to get as close a view of the Delta animals as possible. There was a beautiful vista below us of green trees stretching out to the horizon on both sides, interspersed with deep copper coloured, reflective waterways and small lakes. Before long we began to see antelope and buffalo. We saw many hippos huddled together in the waterways and many out of the water feeding on the grasses. I saw a waterhog and two giraffe pass quickly by below the plane. Lauren and I shouted out thr animals we saw and pointed to where we saw them. Then we began to see large, light grey elephants amidst the trees below. Then we saw a small group of about five rhinos far to the left. The pilot turned the plane so that we could get a close up of the dark grey coloured rhinos on the right hand side. As we approached the rhino we saw lots of elephants including a large heard. It was amazing to look down on all these animals and have a perspective of the density of large mammal life in this vast Delta of waterways drawn out like veins across the sun baked and sandy landscape. We continued to see many hippos, crocodiles and other mammals as we passed over the waterways. We also saw more giraffe. The other plane with our fellow travellers came alongside us at one point and then flew above us to come down on our left hand side. As we returned back through the Delta we passed over the camp where we had canoed the previous day. I could see a walking party heading out to the lake with the hippos. We also flew over the staging post filled with canoes where we began our canoe trip on the waterways. It was really special to get an aerial perspective of our canoe journey the previous day. We then returned to the airport after a 45 minute flight and landed with a tyre squeak and a small bounce in the cross winds. It had been an exhilarating experience to fly through the wind turbulence in this small plane and to witness such an abundance of mammal life below us. We all excitedly recounted what we had seen on the flight as we returned to the airport on the airport bus. We then got taxis back to the Sedia Hotel. A few of us ordered food in the hotel restaurant. The evening remained extremely hot and I guzzled down fruit juices and mineral water to try and quench my unquenchable thirst. Lauren joined us for her meal later in the evening and we chatted while she ate her dinner before retiring to our tents to try and get some sleep in the oppressive heat of the night. It took me a while to get to sleep in my tent with its rolled up sides to try and maximise its coolness and try and capture any breeze. I then woke up in the early hours with things on my mind and couldn't get back to sleep.Read more