Chobe National Park and The Okavango Delta

We arrived in Kasane at possibly the worst campsite yet; sand everywhere and looking out onto wasteland. By early afternoonm all tents were pitched encircling the kitchen area, and we headed out to the Chobe River to go on a river safari.

Chobe National Park is home to the greatest concentration of elephants in Africa and we were not disappointed. There must have been hundreds, not phased by the passing boats at all, and were actually content to carry on grazing, even with us moored up right next to them.
The hippos were also in abundance both on land and in the water. When I first arrived in the Masai Mara 9 weeks ago I was amazed to see hippos, now I see them every second day or so. It's the same with elephants, seeing them no longer offers the same sense of wonderment. I imagine in 3 weeks time though when we leave Africa for the snowy Himalayas, I will miss them. They, along with magical sunsets, thorny acacia trees and road side wees are a part of daily Africa life.
The next morning we drove to Maun for our Okavango Delta trip, the greatest attraction in Botswana and photos of which appear on many Southern Africa tourist brochures.
The delta is created by the water flowing down from Angola in the wet season, flooding hectares and hectares of land which supports a vast number of wildlife. The shallow waters are navigable by mokoro, a dug out canoe made from the ebony or sausage tree logs. They seat two passengers, a bit of luggage and they are propelled by a poler, a person who stands at the back and glides the mokoro through the water using a ngashi, a long wooden pole.
Our poler was called E-man, short for English man, although confusingly he is not English at all. He joked he was born in England and was white until his parents brought him to Africa and forgot to pack his suncream. To clarify, he wasn't born in England at all.
For an hour we glided through the delta, sailing narrow passages through the reeds etched out by previous mokoros, past lily pads floating on the water and skirting around.....yep, you guessed it. Hippos.
We arrived at an elevated island and set up our camp for two nights, collecting firewood and digging a hole for the toilet. It was around 35degrees and felt even hotter under the shelter of our big baobab tree with the fire burning away. After lunch, getting increasingly hotter, we headed to a safe spot to swim. I was still concerned about crocodiles and parasites living in the water but as the other five in our group splashed around, and I was getting hotter stood on the side, I waded down the narrow reed channel out to the clearing where we could swim. Adam kindly swam under the water behind me, gabbed my leg and laughed as I screamed in fright thinking I was being attacked.
After dodging several mokoros as they made their way through the delta, we headed back to camp where everyone barr me had a siesta. I sat on the side of the water reading my book.
As the temperature got moderately cooler at 4.30pm we set off on a walking safari, finding antelope, elephant and zebra and sitting to watch the sunset before walking back to camp to make dinner. Not having to cater for lots of dietary requirements we were free to make what we liked and we cooked amazing rump steak, mushrooms with chilli and garlic, corn on the cob and curried sweet potato mash. It was delicious. We finished off toasting marshmallows over the fire and drinking hot chocolate with a shot of Amarulla.
The beef in Botswana is fantastic and a 200g piece of rump in the supermarket cost around 55p.
The next morning we set off at 6.45 for another walking safari, the heat starting to feel oppressive only an hour or so into the walk. Our guide had said we'd be out for 2.5-3 hours and back in time to cook a late breakfast. We walked and waded through the delta, dry land giving way to flood plains necessitating the removal of boots and socks. No sooner had we put our socks on over muddy wet feet, it was time to take them off again as we hit another flood plain.
We startled a herd of elephants and had to make a quick retreat as they set off walking, in search of peace. We sat a safe distance away and watched as twenty of them moved on. By this point we were feeling hot, tired and hungry. The walk ended up being four and a half hours long in 40degree heat with no shade. I wasn't interested in any animals, I wanted the fry up we were making.
Arriving at camp at 11.30 we set about frying mushroom, sausage, eggs and tomato, before trying to snooze, failing miserably due to the heat, sweating our body weight in the hour we were in the tent.
In the afternoon Brad baked sweet potato and lemonade scones in the Dutch oven on the fire. They were perfect, I doubt they'd turn out that good if I tried them in the oven. We ate them still warm with marmalade and then headed out to swim and cool down.
In the evening our guides took us back out in the mokoros for a sunset cruise to a hippo pool. We took essentials- a 3L box of wine, with us.
We spent the evening cooking spinach, tomato and aubergine pasta and making popcorn to eat whilst watching Frozen on Adams laptop. After our guides sang songs for us we were too tired to watch the movie and so Tony will have to wait a little longer to see it.
Declining the offer of another early morning walking safari we stayed in bed until 7am and then started making French toast and packing up camp. We glided back through the delta, Tony stopping to pick me a water lily en route which E-man made into a necklace for me.
We booked a late afternoon flight over the delta, wanting to see how the water levels and environment changed the further in we went. I was feeling fine until we started speeding down the runway in our five seater plane and then I panicked. I didn't even have to Tonys hand to hold as I'd told him to sit up front with the pilot so he could get better photos. It's a good job I wasn't sat up there or I'd have been grabbing the controls in front of me.
About 15minutes into the flight I started to relax a little, getting used to the turbulence and the stomach lurching. We saw giraffe, elephant and rhino below us, many of the elephants swimming. Upon seeing the rhino the pilot did a u turn, tilting the plane steeply to one side so we could return to see them again. You could feel the G force pushing us back into our seats.
Coming back into the land the plane did a little jolt and the pilot jumped into action pressing buttons and pulling the steering wheel. I was definitely scared at this point with my heart in my mouth. Upon landing Tony said I was shaking. It was fun though. Not sure we'd get a Boeing 757 pilot doing a u turn quite like that so not sure I'll experience it again.
We're really glad we got to see the delta from the air as we got to see the watery environment much further in than what we had travelled in the mokoro. Although it's not long after high waters, the water levels are already quite low all across the delta, evaporating under the fierce sun.