Botswana: Border to the Okavango Delta mokoro trip: launch to the island

Botswana is a beautiful country and the Batswana are known for their friendliness, generosity and hospitality. From the moment we arrived in the country we were greeted by huge, eye-crinkling smiles, waves, and 'welcomes' by those whom we encountered. We did feel welcome.

Botswana has been ranked one of the least corrupt countries in all of Africa and has a fairly progressive and democratic social policy. Botswana's economy is largely dependent on diamond mining; however, with their diamonds expected to be depleted within 35 years Botswana is going to be relying more and more on tourism. Botswana operates on a 'high cost-low volume' tourism policy which has enabled it to maintain large expanses of untouched natural beauty in its rural areas and wildlife parks. The high costs of accommodations and the strong economy make it difficult for tourists without a healthy pocket to travel throughout the country on a budget (thus our 3-day in-and-out trip into the country).

While the political and economic state of Botswana are impressive, the country is not without tragedy, as it has been hit exceptionally hard by HIV and AIDS. Approximately 40% of the population of Botswana between 15 and 49 years old are HIV positive, and since the proliferation of HIV the life expectancy in the country has declined from a projected 70+ years, to a devastating 33 years. The government is actively fighting this disease through education programmes and in 2002 became the first country in the world to offer free antiretroviral treatments to its citizens. It has set a goal to be HIV-free by 2016. While I think that 2016 might be a bit premature, the initiatives taken by the Botswana government in combating HIV are laudable and hopefully will see great decline in infection rates in the years to come.

We hadn't made reservations for a campsite, and we hoping to find one that offered mokoro trips out of the site, but were unable to find one. It was starting to get dark so we settled on the nearest site, Swamp Stop, in Sepupa, opting to continue our search in the morning. The site fee was double what Lonely Planet advertised, which seemed typical of most sites we stayed at during our trip, but we had a quiet corner lot where we set up Girlfriend and made dinner of spiced lentils and tomatoes (our trip staple) and punyapunya.

We were up before the sun and had a candle-lit breakfast of tea and oatmeal before packing up and leaving at the crack of dawn back towards the border where we caught the Okavango River ferry at Mohembo to the inner delta and drove the two hours south to Mbiroba Camp, two km outside of Seronga village. Mbiroba is run by the Okavango Polers Trust and is the usual launch point for mokoro trips into the delta. We arrived there by 10am and were fortunate to have secured two polers to take us on an overnight mokoro trip, leaving that day. We caught a ride in the back of a pickup to the mokoro launch point where we met up with our polers-KG and Letter- and we were off!

Mokoros are long canoes traditionally carved from ebony or sausage-tree logs, but due to the rapid depletion of these trees, many mokoros are now crafted from fibreglass. The mokoros are propelled by a 'poler' who stands in the back of the mokoro and uses a ngashi, a long pole hand-carved from the mogonono tree, to propel the canoe.

Since the boats are small, travellers are limited in the amount of luggage they can bring on the trips, so for our overnight on the island, we each brought along a change of clothes, sleeping bag, minimal food to last us 24 hours, our cameras and a tent. Mattie and I boarded one mokoro with KG and Emily and Adam were in the other with Letter. English proficiency is variable with polers, and we were fortunate that KG spoke decent broken English, while Letter spoke and understood very little (although he more than made up for it with a torso that would make Bruce Wayne jealous).

We were surprised by how shallow the water in the delta is, and also by its cleanliness. The water was crystal clear and you could see to the bottom at almost all times, your vision only disrupted by reeds and water lilies that stretched from the muddy floor bed to the pristine surface, reaching for the sun. Locals drink water straight from the delta, and despite our better judgement we all decided to give it a try after a few hours of drifting in the hot sun. It was delightfully cool and tasted of water lily. It was absolutely delicious, and we found ourselves cupping mouthfuls from the delta throughout our trip. We couldn't help it-and neither could you if you've ever tasted water-lily water. Although, the flavour might have also been laced with elephant diarrhoea (a condition that KG said is a common killer of elephants; they get a bug from water they drink and die of dehydration due to the diarrhoea it causes. I didn't want to know how much diarrhoea it must take to dehydrate an elephant. I preferred to enjoy my exotic water in ignorant bliss. None of us became the least bit sick from the water.)

We encountered elephants rather closely as they gorged themselves with delta water, one was so close that as we passed he treated us to the preliminaries of a "mock charge"-an elephant's warning that if you don't F&#% off and ship out quickly he'll think nothing of trampling you. A mock charge consists of the flopping of ears and an occasional trumpet to let you know that the big guy means business. The four of us were delighted by the term, and over the course of the trip developed mock charges of our own.

Poling through the delta was absolute nirvana. I felt neither conscious or unconscious of where I was, and just existed, blissed out on the serenity of the delta. The only surrounding sounds being the light trinkle of the mokoro through the water and dip of the pole as it propelled us along and the crickets, croaks, whirrs, chirps and buzzes of the animals and insects around us. It wasn't like my other Africa moments, where I was completely aware of how amazing everything was; on the delta I found myself in a state where I wasn't even thinking-I was part of my surroundings. The tranquil serenity of it all had me hypnotized and I just let myself float; both acutely aware and blissfully incognizant of the beauty around me.