From Maun to the Okavango

The truck.

The crew: Timon, guide, Enock, chef, and Ernest the driver.

The sandy road.

Loading and kitting up for the mokoro ride.

What a way to travel...

Oh- oh....

Yikes!

My new home.

The afternoon game walk.

Elephant poo, which is everywhere.

Beautiful end to the day.

Monday, October 9^th.

I was up early and did a couple of e-mails home before packing up the chalet. Then I went and paid my bills and had breakfast at the truck with the group. Every one was asking what happened to me, so I stood up at the breakfast circle and gave them a condensed version. I met the CEO (the Chief Experience Officer), Timon, the cook Enock and the driver Ernest.

We were off to the Okavango Delta bush camp. We were only allowed to bring a day bag, so we all organized our stuff and left the big backpacks on the truck. Then we drove to a plaza in town where I got a 5 litre water bottle and a few snacks for the next couple of days. We loaded everything up in the safari jeeps and drove 20 kilometres over a rough sandy road to the entrance point. There we were met by a group of local people and their mokoros. It took a while to load all of the equipment, our stuff and us into about 15 mokoros, and then we set off.

It was a two hour ride where all we had to do was sit back and relax. We were told that there were hippos and crocs in the waterways of the delta and about half way along we came across a pool of hippos. You could hear them surface to breathe. One came closer and got to about 20 metres away, and then charged. Thankfully it was a bluff, but that was scary enough!

We continued on and arrived at our campsite late morning. We spent the afternoon, avoiding the heat and talking, swimming and hanging out. It was my chance to meet a few of the people. Seems like a good group, a couple of Canadians from Ottawa, a couple from Chicago, four Germans and others, all totally 22 people and three crew.

Late in the afternoon we went for a game walk, but saw nothing. We heard a couple of elephants in the bush chewing on the trees, but couldn't see them. However, it was a nice walk through a very remote area of the world.

We got back as it was getting dark and we sat around while the local people cooked a dinner of steak, sausages and boiled potatoes over an open fire. Most of us crashed after dinner, which was about 9 pm. I went to bed in my tent without any tent mate, listened to some of the night sounds and slept pretty well.