Okavango Delta

Driving through Botswana very quickly felt different compared to Namibia as it is more farmland with chickens, donkeys, goats and cows grazing on the side of the road. The roads were smoother and very straight. We stayed overnight in Maun before heading on our excursion to Okavango Delta.

The Okavango Delta is a wetland which spread into a wide flat inland delta. We were picked up by a 4x4 and we drove two hours to the delta. We were met by our polers who introduced themselves before we got into the boats. The boats are called mokoro, which are long narrows boats and are rowed by polers. The polers use three meter long wooden poles that touch the bottom of the river to push the mokoro along in the water. We travelled through long reeds, long grass and lily pads. On our mokoro journey we spotted a few groups of hippopotamus in the open wetland areas. The journey lasted over an hour before we arrived at our camp. Thankfully this camp was premade so we didn't have to put up any of the tents. We shared stories while having lunch before having multiple games of uno in the afternoon.

At 5pm we meet together for our evening nature walk. The guides showed us the footprints of elephants and zebra. We spotted elephants, zebra, pelican birds, clover birds and antelopes. We watched the sunset over the delta before returning back to camp. After our dinner we sat around the fire listening to Crispen telling us about the Mozambique culture. They definitely have a lot of different cultural beliefs in comparison to us.

The following morning we woke at 5:30 for coffee before heading on a morning walk around the delta. We watched the sunrise over the delta and listened to the sounds of hippos, elephants and lions in the bushes. We spotted a group of zebra migrating through the water to another land inlet. There were a few impala and oryx grazing in the grass before we spotted a buffalo only a few meters away. This made our guides nervous and they quickly ensured that we headed back to our camp. At the camp the guides told us that the buffalo are the most dangerous animals to hurt humans. The guides told us stories about near miss injuries they had when the interacted with a buffalo.

They also told us that if an elephant kills a human the elephant will remember and feel guilty for this action. The elephant will bury the body underground and then they will return every few days or months back to the grave to pay their respects. If their fellow elephants learn about the elephant killing a human they may disown them from their elephant herd. We were all stunned by this information and it makes me even more fascinated by elephants.Lue lisää