Leaving Civilisation Behind

After an uneventful afternoon & evening in Johannesburg, where I made the most of having a phone that worked again by returning a few calls & doing some last minute emails, I headed to the airport the next morning & departed for Maun ("mar-un", not "mourn" as I was previously pronouncing it!), a township on the southern outskirts of the Okavango.

After getting my ticket, I took out my gym bag, packed just the stuff I needed for camping into it, then stuffed all my other belongings into my suitcase.

It was simultaneously slightly scary yet very liberating to leave my laptop in the suitcase!

Out to Oddballs

We flew out to the camp site in a tiny plane that had just the pilot & I in it. I couldn't help wondering what would happen if the pilot suffered a heart attach or something along the way so paid extra close attention to all the dials & controls he was using. I've flown a couple of flight sims before & don't remember crashing (much) so I'm sure we'll be fine!

Our 20min flight took us west of Maun, over almost dried up waterholes surrounded by elephants, antelopes & zebras, to the short, dusty Delta airstrip.

I walked over to check-in at Oddballs. With a name like that, I couldn't have stayed anywhere else (plus it was the only half-reasonably priced accommodation I could find out in the Okavango). There are obviously some very wealthy people who like to stay in this part of the world!

Where are the Rains down in Africa?

Normally at this time of year, the rains would have happened in the mountains just across the border in Angola and these would've flowed down the river causing a massive delta area that's about the size of the state of Victoria (maybe not quite that big, but it's BIG). June & July are normally the peak of the flood waters.

Unfortunately, this isn't a normal year and so everywhere is dry & dusty, except for one river flowing past the camp. I can only imagine what an amazing sight it would be if all the channels were filled with water! I'd love to come back when all the water is there as it'd be a totally different experience!

Still, only having one source of water has its advantages too. There's only one place that all the animals for miles around can come to drink so that means we pretty much know where they're going to be on a regular basis.

There's no mobile signal or WiFi available out in the Delta & it's so refreshingly nice not to feel pressured to answer emails, prepare proposals, clear red circles or even take phone calls.

At night, no one has their mobile out to do anything other than show each other photos or play music! What a joy!

I dumped my bags in my tent, a little square canvas room on wooden stilts that has an outdoor bucket shower & a flushing toilet attached, plus a view of the river & all the animals inhabiting it! What an amazing place!

MD & our first walk

I met my guide, MD (because his real name, "Molaodi", is too hard for my Western brain to pronounce correctly!), who will be my Managing Director for the rest of my time here.

MD was born in Maun & has lived his whole life here. He's as black as night with barely a few mm of fuzzy hair that grows in topological ridges all over his head. I'm pretty sure he's never used sunscreen in his life & he's dressed in sage green pants & a tan jacket, looking like he's ready for anything the savannah could throw at him.

Around 4pm, we went out on our first walk, yes, on foot, with nothing to protect ourselves except a 20cm knife. As that wasn't particularly comforting, my first question to him was "Am I going to get eaten by a lion?" He just laughed in much the same way that we Australians laugh at the Europeans when they ask whether absolutely everything in Australia is trying to kill you, or just the majority of animals, fish & insects.

"Let's go," he said and off we went, walking up one side of the airstrip. I was thinking, "This is an airstrip. Surely there won't be anything to see along here."

About two thirds of the way up, we turned off & started walking across the brown, crisp savannah grasses in single file. "Always stay close behind me," MD said, as if I needed encouragement! The only disadvantage of this arrangement was a constant plume of dust, billowing up into my nostrils & camera lens as we are often walking into the wind to hide our scent from the animals we're approaching. But apart from the dust, I'm quite happy to be behind him!

As we walked, he pointed out things that were so far off in the distance, I wondered whether he was in fact a mutant with an eagle's eyes! He spotted zebras, elephants, giraffes, antelopes & water buffaloes that we're at least 500-1,000 metres away. My 300mm camera zoom lens came in very handy as a makeshift telescope, particularly as it also has image stabilisation. At least I could see what he was seeing!

"Wait here!"

After about 30min of walking, we came to a clump of tall, green grass & he stopped. "Wait here," he whispered. "There's something in there, maybe a monitor lizard or a snake I think."

How he even heard anything in there above the swoosh thump rustle rustle, swoosh thump rustle rustle of our trousers & hiking boots is a complete mystery to me. I was hoping it was a lizard however & not a snake!

He cautiously stepped over to the grassy clump & gingerly made a few noises, rustling around the edges a little, then a little more, & then a bit more in a different spot.

All of a sudden, an animal leapt from the grass & started running for its life, fortunately in the opposite direction to MD & I. "Leopard!" he yelled as I frantically got my camera into position & started snapping as fast as possible.

"You are very lucky!" he said to me afterwards in what was probably the understatement of the year. The last leopard sighting around the area had been a few months earlier when one had jumped down out of a tree & up until now, that had been the only one all year!

And now I'd seen one within the first 30min of my very first walk in the Okavango! Yes, I'm definitely feeling very lucky! It's going to be hard to top that!

We saw a few other animals that day, but all were from at least 100-200m away, which is normally about as close as you can get to animals when you're on foot. I'm feeling eternally grateful for my 300mm zoom, but also wishing I had about a 600mm lens, not that I'd like to lug that all over the savannah!

Back to Camp

Back at the camp that night, we compared notes (photos) & I quickly became known as "Leopard Guy", much to everyone's jealous disgust!

The other guests & I chatted for a while before dinner as we admired the setting sun & drank gin & tonics.

There was Derrick & his wife who were from Cornwall & had already been travelling around Africa for a while. Derrick showed some amazing wildlife photos he'd taken from previous game drives with just a point & shoot camera.

Yaz, the vet nurse, and her mum, Julie (a carer) were also from the UK but a little further north in the Midlands. They were visiting a few places around Africa & had a few stops ahead of them.

Johnny & his new wife Naomi were from Sydney & were visiting Africa as the last stop on their honeymoon, having visited Paris, London & Cape Town previously. As we found out a little later, it was also Johnny's 30th birthday the next day! We found this out as the camp staff came out singing a Botswana birthday song & carrying a birthday cake. We wanted to know whether anyone else could have a birthday the next day!

There were a couple of older guys from Grenoble in France, immaculately dressed for a safari! One spoke English quite well while the other really had to think about each word, but both seemed to appreciate what little French I could muster. They were probably gay but who can tell with the French!

Lastly, was a couple from Spain. The wife also spoke French quite well, or at least it seemed that way to me, as she was able to converse with the French guys quite fluently.

So we formed an interesting, eclectic bunch of random people from all over the world, sitting down to dinner together. Some might say we were Oddballs! It was great!

Attempted Karaoke

After dinner, Yaz went through her extensive playlist of African-related songs: a grand total of two! I tried in vain to get everyone to sing them but it's always difficult without the words so the best we could all manage was "A whim away, a whim away", "The lion sleeps tonight" & "I bless the rains down in Africa".

Unfortunately, everyone lost interest after we couldn't produce any more African songs so went back to chatting. I found my African background music & put that on instead, which seemed to suit the mood a little better anyway.

Night Visitors

During & after dinner, people periodically took it in turns to take up the torch & see if there was anything between us & the river. We saw a surprising number of animals including a hippo, a small cat of some sort (caracal, which my mind always wants to call "cervical", or maybe a civet) & a lone water buffalo.

Out of all the different animals, the one the guides worry about most is the water buffalo. Apparently, it's not just the African version of a cow!

If they're in a big herd & they charge you, they're a little more predictable but it's basically game over unless you can hide behind or in a big tree. If there's one by himself, he's very unpredictable & if he charges you, it's also probably game over, unless you can hide.

Because there's basically nothing more than a highly protective log on the ground keeping the animals out of the camp, the camp manager went & got his high-powered weapon (a torch with relatively flat batteries) & pointed it straight into the eyes of the water buffalo. Luckily, they don't like faint torchlight & he eventually turned away.

Afterwards, Johnny, Naomi, Yaz & I sat around chatting some more & drinking Amarula or Savannah beers (Yaz reckons they're great in case you're wondering), while the staff waited for us to get tired so they could go to bed. When it reached 10pm & we showed no signs of slowing down, they came over & suggested we go to bed ... please!

I didn't really sleep too well. Possibly because I was constantly either too hot or too cold, maybe because I wasn't used to the bed, or maybe it had something to do with the lion growling periodically throughout the night. Surely a lion couldn't break through that incredibly strong canvas tent material, could he?