After crossing the border overland from Namibia to Botswana, we soon realised we were in Botswana for one reason … The Okavango Delta! One of the most incredible deltas in the world, home to hundreds of hippos and crocodiles along with the Big 5 and many other animals and bird life. We reached the delta by speed boat from our campsite at Island Safari and then experienced the traditional way of travelling through the delta via "mykoros." These were very long, very thin hand crafted wooden boats that required a "poleh" (guide) to steer the boat with a wooden stick whilst standing up at the back, through the many reeds and lilypads in the river. They also had to make sure we didn't run into any hippos or crocodiles as we were in their territory now. I was seriously nervous about these mykoros because if we just happened to run into a hippo, there's hardly any chance of surviving. However to my pleasant surprise, the journey was absolutely blissful and very relaxing as you just laid back in the boat, whilst someone else did all the hard work and it was an excellent way to work on your tan!

Once we reached the island where we would set up camp, we did just that and enjoyed some lunch whilst we met the rest of our Botswana team that would help us get through the night. They showed us the hole in the mud that was the toilet, the "safeish" parts of the river where you could swim and the area in front of our tents where we would all sit around the campfire watching performances and solving riddles after dinner.

The greatest part of the day had to be swimming in a part of the Okavango delta next to the water lilys, in the clean, cool, totally unpolluted water. Water so clean that the polehs could drink it. Of corse, our guide Alex had to check their were no crocs or hippos in there first. It was about a 700m walk through the swamp ground and tall grass to get to the waterhole and at first I wasn't planning on swimming but once we got there, there was no way you could resist it. Most of us went in wearing our clothes because it was just so magical. The whole suspense of knowing that a hippo could have been in that same place that you were swimming the night before or even earlier that morning was truly crazy. It was a very "YOLO" moment for us all.

Despite our G-adventures tour leader Chris raving about each experience we had the opportunity to do every day being the most "incredible" and "amazing" experiences of our entire life, he was actually pretty accurate with the game bushwalk that occurred this afternoon. It was pretty insane to walk in single file, dead silent, for 2.5 hours following tracks of wild African animals. As we walked through the lush, long green grass (that came up to our hips) you didn't have time to think about the snakes or spiders or scorpions that could be just waiting to jump out and sting you because you were too focused on looking for the "real" animals. We found an elephant maybe 200m away from us who appeared pretty relaxed just chewing on some leaves, and then we climbed a termite mound to get a view of the amazing harmony between the zebra and wildebeest. It was such a special sighting, as our group of 6 was the closest to the 15 or so animals who were staring straight at us. It was truly insane to be so close to such wild animals that can so easily kill humans if they feel threatened or unsure. We were hoping to catch a hippo on our way back to the campsite however they all seemed to be sleeping somewhere else (which I'm honestly a tiny bit relieved about - after all they are the number 1 deadliest animal to humans in Africa!)

After dinner, the Botswanian polehs and other members of the team gave our G-adventures group a very special performance of traditional singing and dancing to which we had to give them one song in return. The gospel-like voices of these people was so majestic and heart-warming, it actually made you smile. The amount of passion and effort each and every one of them put into each song, was truly inspirational and they made it look so fun! Perfect melody and harmony from people who had been singing probably every day their whole life, was always going to be hard to follow especially with our generic song choice of "We Will Rock You". However we managed to pull it off … just … with a lucky save from our American Mike on the air guitar. An awesome way to end one of the most incredible days I've had in Africa so far.

Over the last 2 weeks I've learnt and adapted to sleeping with frog, cicada and other insect noises and I have also been able to sleep through the rain but waking up because you can hear hippos, lions and hyenas just outside your tent is a totally different experience. I would like to say that it was so incredible and unbelievable but I was actually f***ing terrified! They are 3 animals I don't want to bump into in the middle of the night when I'm off to the toilet!! Anyway, I survived the night and would highly recommend this back to nature, slightly thrill-seeking and completely out of the comfort zone Okavango Delta experience to anyone.

Catch you on the flip side!