We departed the campsite at 7 heading for Maun. We stopped for a shop stop here to buy 10 litres of water each for our time in the Okavango Delta. As this was our last stop in civilisation before my birthday tomorrow, I treated myself to a birthday cream cake. Yum!

We set off again at just before 11 reaching the campsite on the outskirts of town in good time. We had an early lunch while Steph made sure we had all we needed for the Delta and Ruan looked at fixing the petrol tank.

With lunch taken care of it was time to transport all our gear to the jetty and onto the motorised boats made for 8 people each. A long briefing followed before we jumped in our boats and headed the hour upstream to a local village housing the mokoro station. Mokoro is a Botswanan word for the traditional dugout canoe used by the local people in the Okavango Delta. It was two people to a mokoro and we waited while the locals packed the equipment into the mokoros before being 'punted' two hours further into the Delta towards our campsite. There was absolutely no natural shade from the intense sunlight so Kirsty's purchase of a cheap umbrella back in Maun was reaping rewards, well for her anyway!

On arrival, we unpacked and pitched camp before a quick briefing from one of our guides about, among other things, spending a couple of days without electricity and running water and the very real dangers of bush-camping. An hour later we reconvened for a game walk just before sunset. The hour long walk took place after a short mokoro ride to a neighbouring stretch of land and was very interesting as we saw many animal tracks and dung. Sadly though only one live animal - an elephant in the distance.

We returned to camp to enjoy a South African stew by torchlight cooked over the camp-fire with a few drinks.

The following day started early with coffee and a rusk before we returned to the mokoros to be punted to another island to begin another game walk at 6.30am. The game walk lasted for over three hours during which time we saw zebras, red lechwe, jackals, buffalo and elephants. We even saw a couple of skulls, one belonging to a hippo and the other a buffalo. It was an excellent morning as a walking safari was a completely different experience with a different perspective to anything we've done before.

Tired and weary, we returned to camp at 10.30 for a birthday breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Time was then our own as we readied ourselves to go swimming half an hour later. For this we jumped back in the mokoros by now knowing our punter Nellie and her sense of humour well and were taken to a clear area in the Delta, away from animals and reptiles and away from the reeds to have a swim in the cool waters. Some people even took to a mokoro to try and learn the art of punting.

Back at camp we had some free time in the afternoon when suddenly one of the local women spotted an elephant 20 metres from our camp. We all watched him in awe for the best part of an hour as he munched and slowly made his way along our camp and further into the Delta. With no fence or any boundary security at all, wild animals invading camp was one of the real dangers of bush-camping we had been briefed about but this elephant seemed to pose no danger and was fascinating to just watch.

Lunch was served at camp, a delicious cous-cous salad, which as birthday boy, I got to try first! After an afternoon of lounging around the campsite - the sun making us all somewhat lethargic - we clambered back in the mokoros at 5 to visit another area of the Delta which took on the appearance of a lake. On the opposite side of this lake to our mokoros were three hippos in the water who, sensing our presence and feeling threatened, slowly inched themselves toward us ready to attack should they need to. Kirsty was getting a little scared when they started grunting and headed towards us which the locals found quite humourous. Hippos are one of the most aggressive and territorial animals in the world and responsible for more human deaths than any other animal. Calming averting any danger though the locals punted us to another island where we enjoyed another deep-orange sunset, the norm in Africa. Arriving at the island, I received a birthday hat and wand made out of the Delta reeds, by fellow traveller Rebecca. Sounds strange but if you know Rebecca, it was all perfectly normal!

Returning to camp, just before dinner time it was birthday champers and card time and a quick rendition of Happy Birthday in my honour, all rather embarrassing! Dinner was then served, nshima (local food somewhere between porridge and mashed potato) with sauce, left over cous-cous, salad and sausages. Dessert was chocolate birthday cake, cooked to perfection brilliantly over the camp fire, nobody quite being sure how Steph managed such a delicious result!

As night drew in, we were treated to some song and dance from the locals before reciprocating with some songs of our own.