Sep 16, 2007 - Okavango Delta

Entered into Botswana today, it has the biggest population of donkeys! (interesting bit of info for you all :) Made camp just outside the delta for the night then headed into the delta the next morning. The delta is a huge expanse of water which has travelled from the Angolian highlands, spreading out to form the largest inland delta in the world! Got assigned our own Mokoro, a dug out canoe from a local tree. Kate and I went together it was very relaxing being polled into the delta looking at all the reeds and wildlife. Very hot though as...

Jul 8, 2007 - Maun, Botswana

After two nights and three days in the Okovanga Delta, we return to the safari camp. There are hot showers, a bar and plenty of warm blankets on the beds. We all sign up for a flight over the delta. The flight lasts about an hour and gives you an idea how large the entire area is. It also underscores how fortunate we were to see anything on foot. On the flight we see scores of elephants, hippos, buffalo, wildebeests, zebras, and giraffe. Its absolutely one of the most beautiful views we've experienced. Its all blue green and gold in exotic...

Jul 4, 2007 - Maun, Botswana

Maun is in the Northeastern part of Botswana and is the entrance point for the Okavango Delta which is a massive series of waterways and marshes formed by water that originates somewhere in Angola. In this area, the rivers drain into the Delta and are eventually absorbed into the sands of the Kalahari Desert a little further south in Botswana. We are scheduled to take a small mokoro, or dugout canoe (which is poled by a team of local villagers) out to camp for a couple of days where we will do some animal walks on the lands along the...

Dec 12, 2006 - Botswana (Maun)

First stop - Chobe National Park, well known for its incredible amount of elephants. We took a boat up the Chobe River game watching on dusk. Incredible watching the elephants and gained a huge new level of admiration for them. We had already watched them 'swim' across the river with only their trunks visable, then watched them as after they'd finished playing in the mud, they literally towed each other out. Here was me thinking they were stuck and would die of starvation stuck in a mud hole, but no, one elephant would grab hold of anothers...

Nov 27, 2006 - Maun

Awoke at 5am, everyone was getting ready for the walk. Pretty glad I was not going. Stayed in bed and just got up before the others returned for their walk. Was really nice to be alone and quiet for once. We left on our canoes at about 11am and canoed back to where we started from yesterday. Back into the 4x4's and to Maun. The delta was not as expected. We were more in the ends of the delta than the start. Did not really see that much. Not quite like planet earth showed. Shame really. In the evening Annabel organized a buffet at the hotel...

Nov 25, 2006 - Maun - 'Pikey eats, shoots and leaves'

Headed to Maun so that we could do our canoe trip on the Delta. We stopped to get some food and whilst there Pikey was text by the glorious 'Ronald', haven't heard that name for a while but he is still there. Pikey was told that he had to hitch out back to Chobe and meet another truck that was on its way to Nairobi (transit). One of the crew had Malaria. We were in the middle of nowhere and he had a broken foot, but hey this is overlanding!!. I went off to see if I could get him a lift back with a couple of lorries and buses. Arrived in...

Nov 24, 2006 - Maun

Well, finally I am feeling better and back in the land of the living. I don't remember ever being so sick in my whole life, I was giving serious consideration to tossing the whole thing in and heading for home. Except I wasn't sure if I could harness a donkey to take me the 700km to the nearest airport with out throwing up all over it... Its only taken me most of the first week of this safari to recover! And here I was feeling sorry for my tent buddy, he got the same thing 2 days after me but it started on a travel day so was sick in the...

Nov 11, 2006 - Okavango Delta, Botswana

Sitting in the back of the truck, I stared at the little mokoros (dug-out canoes) that were supposed to safely carry us through croc and hippo infested waters to our bush camp in the Okavango Delta. Surely this was some sort joke! We weren't expected to hand over our lives and belongings to some local with a leaky, hollowed-out tree trunk, were we? But then again, that's what we had been doing for the last month - trusting people we didn't know to guide us in various adventures! Anyway, we tumbled off the truck, and with my canoe partner...

Nov 10, 2006 - Okavango Delta

Definitely the highlight of the tour of Botswana so far, we have been in the Okavango Delta for 3 days, camping on an island, in the bush, suddenly no fences between us and the wildlife. The Delta itself is a huge inland delta in northeastern Botswana where a river fans out across a huge flat plain forming a massive marshy maze of islands and open lagoons (apologies for people who know already but I hadnt heard of it before planning this trip so I figure other people would be the same). Thee place is full of wildlife, including loads of...

Oct 4, 2006 - Head gaskets and lions

We arrived back form Xakanaka with high expectations of picking up Harry. However, events were not so straightforward and we spend another couple of days in Maun waiting for the injector pump to be sent up from Gaborone. Finally get the call and so we headed up the garage and pick up the new Harry! However, we barely get around the block and the cabin suddenly fills up with white smoke. Lifted the bonnet and a white haze enveloped us (and shocked a few passer-bys!). Zoomed (well, chugged) back to the garage, but of course it was 5pm on a...

Sep 2, 2006 - Maun

We're currently in Maun, Botswana. A lot has happened since our last update, unfortunately, we have had very limited access to the internet and could not update you as we travelled. Internet cafes here, if they even exist, keep very strange hours (closing between 5:30 and 6:00 pm) making it very difficult for us to find time to update you. We will have some down time in Victoria Falls and should be able to do it then (and upload some pictures as well). So, in summary, we have toured the Cape wine region and then flew to Johannesburg to join...

Aug 28, 2006 - Maun

Drove on to a campground near Maun, also part of a lodge so we had showers and flush toilets again - yeah! There were also many lovely birds in the campground. We had our first camping braai here - very good! Included the local and popular boerwoers sausage (mostly beef), lamb, and some steak - yum! Maun is the 3rd largest city of Botswana - a tiny, dusty collection of non-descript houses, shops, and tourist service offices. It is the gateway to the Okavango delta, so toursim is a big industry. However, the parking lots for the 'mall' was...