7/8, 9, & 10 -- Okavanga Delta

We got up early (5 am!) to fly to Moremi on the Okavanga Delta in a 13 passenger plane, piloted by Nicole.  We landed on a simple airstrip with a jeep positioned to scare off any beasts and traded places with the group finishing three days here. The airstrip is only about 15 minutes from the camp, but the staff needed time to get it ready, so we went looking for game. I spied a napping hippo just off the road, and then we came upon the rest of his friends, most of whom were napping closer to the water. A couple were swimming, but the water is too cold in the morning for most of them, though they all started making their way to the water soon after we arrived (we probably woke them up).

Typical termite mound here - taller than a person

Long-tail grackle?

Sacred Ibis

Hippo with a couple red-beaked storks
in the background

We also encountered a variety of antelope I had never heard of, the lechwe. They look a lot like impalas without the vertical stripes on their butts, and were very competent at running way in ankle deep water. We also saw elephants, baboons, and a big bird drying its wings on  the river side.

Lechwe female

Male Lechwe

Male elephant

Probably a cormorant

Around 11:30, we arrived at camp. We thought our last tent was pretty nice, but this one has a desk, dual vessel sinks, and a larger shower, which drains through the slatted wood floor. Great look, but I am hoping I don't drop anything small. The area is located on a concession leased from the Khwai people and limited to the tour company, of Wilderness Safari Tours, contracted to provide tours by OAT in this area. This means there are a limited number of vehicles and tourists here.

Home sweet tent. Probably the fanciest tent in the first half
of the trip.

Notice the dual sinks. Very classy

After lunch, we had a couple hours to relax, so I finished a book and downloaded and updated a BUNCH of photos.  Then it was time for a snack and another game drive. This time we headed west for a while, and frankly didn't see a lot we hadn't seen before.  Many of the elephants, impalas, and giraffes were far from the road and weren't that exciting. We did see some interesting monkeys and birds, and on our way home as the sun set, we saw a herd of zebras, lechwes, and tsessebe (large, dark antelope) grazing together.

Vervet monkey above and below

Giraffe playing peek-a-boo

Another roller -- totally my favorite

?

Zebras at sunset above and below

We stopped for a snack before getting back to camp and dinner.

7/9 -- Breakfast was served around a campfire before we headed out on an all-day game drive. We went to another concession owned by the Khwai tribe, but this one is open to everyone. We saw a ton of self-drive vehicles as well as those from other safari companies and they definitely did not get the concept of sharing the riches and limiting vehicles to three at a time. At one point, there were so many people gathered around a  leopard sighting and not leaving, that we left and came back later while the leopard was still there.

The first hour of the tour was mainly driving there, with a few interesting sightings along the way. Once there, nothing new was appearing so our guide headed to an island renown for predators. WOW! We had three separate lion sightings as well as the leopard mentioned above, plus our guide led us to a den of wild dogs (painted dogs) and we not only found the adults, but also a clutch of seven or more puppies.

The only ostrich we have seen

Southern ground hornbill

From left: Zebra, tsessebe, kudu

Grey heron

Bee-eaters

This lion is in trouble. Young male with a limp, getting the
leftovers of some unidentified beast ribcage.

Young male leopard. The other group spotted mom in the tree.

Interesting lineup above and below

The elephant version of a pushme-pullyou?

Hornbill

Painted dogs

Painted dog pups. the lump at the left is mom. Only the alpha
male and alpha female breed, which severely limits population
growth.

Jacana (or Jesus bird for the way it walks on water)

We ate lunch on the run, and visited the village that owns the land we have been touring. Because of termites, there are no wooden houses. In fact, most houses are built from the product of the termites, which gets made into both bricks and mortar. We saw a woman building a typical house, so we stopped and talked to her. She got a plot of land (40 meters square) and is building a home that I estimated is 12-13 feet square. This is where she, and her 2 kids will live. She expects to complete it in the next two weeks.

Village houses are quite small. The more modern house on
the left was probably built by the government for someone in need.

When we headed back to our camp, we got to cross a scary looking wooden bridge. The Okavango Delta floods and recedes each year as upstream waters hit this low-laying and relatively flat area.  In 2009, the floods were so high, that even snorkeled vehicles could not cross the rivers, so OAT built a number of wooden bridges which are still used when  needed. The flood was so high that it took 2 years to recede and a lot of trees died because they could not tolerate the long inundation. As a result, large sections of the delta have dead trees that look like the product of a huge fire.

At camp and relaxing, we heard Sammie yelling "cheetah sighting! come to the parking lot". We hustled over and drove lickity split to an area about 10 minutes away and saw a cheetah on a termite mound, surveying a nearby impala herd. I think we may have scared  him off, and we followed him to another mound, which he left much sooner.

Back at the camp again, one of our guides led a discussion of the challenges between the needs of the growing population of Botswanans and the territorial needs of the animals that bring tourism and the problem of getting either population to  make changes. It seems to me that the humans are more adaptable than, say, the elephants who are led by a matriarch who knows where things have always been. To remove elephant territory and make it safe for people requires killing the entire herd, which doesn't do good things for tourism, which is helping bring prosperity to the country.

7/10 -- We started today with a ride in a mokoro, a traditional type of canoe -- normally dug out of a tree, but now made with fiberglass to preserve the trees. It is flat-bottomed and poled to make navigation in the often shallow waters of the delta possible. Our mokoro seemed really tippy, though that  may have been the style of the poler. It made me feel like  I constantly needed to shift to  balance it. We sat on seats with backs on the floor of the canoe, which made sitting more comfortable, but they were not attached and both swiveled and leaned back. It took me a while to find a comfortable position. On a similar canoe trip in Nepal, we saw tons of water birds, but today, here, there was not much to see. I had been looking forward to this but it was a bit of a disappointment.

Getting ready to go

Red-beaked stork above and below

Kingfisher -- they hover like hummingbirds while searching
for prey, then dive in.

After canoeing, we had a short game drive but there was not much to see and it would have been hard to beat yesterday. We got a 'backstage' tour of the camp -- each staff member is provided with a separate cabin, electric fences guard the solar panels and several other sections to keep the elephants out and freight cargo boxes are used to store the bar supplies, dry foods, linens, etc. Most food is delivered monthly and there are 3 large freezers and a walk-in fridge to keep it. Produce is delivered weekly. Each 3-day OAT group gets the same menu, which  is evaluated by OAT HQ twice a year.

After lunch, we focused on deleting useless photos from the camera memory cards because we are blowing through disk space at more than twice the normal rate. We re-joined the group for another talk about the ecology and challenges  of the delta before heading out on a last game drive here. It started out VERY slowly.

Starling - iridescent in the bright sunlight

Hippo with egret hitching a ride

Hamerkopf (hammerhead) nest is huge for a robin-sized bird

We finally wound our way around to a space with a lot of spread out elephants, some of whom started  crossing the low wet spots to an area near where we were parked. We discovered that there were two tiny elephants (literally days or weeks old) as well as a pair that looked like twins (rare) that were maybe a year old. Before the little ones started crossing a young adult set about spying - she acted like she was grazing, but the food never got to  her mouth. She eyed us suspiciously, but apparently saw the truck as a safe entity and went on her way. However, Go (our guide) decided to reposition the truck so we could make a fast getaway if needed. This move put me on the side that the elephants were closest to.

We spent about a half hour recording process of moving the littlest ones across, and several times the aggressive stance of the guardian  mamas frightened me. We were all keeping very quite (elephants hear better than see) but one prolific photographer's camera beeped like crazy whenever she prepped or took a shot. Then, at a tense moment, the CB radio they use to communicate status and  location went  off  LOUDLY and kept coming back with more questions or information. We got incredible photos, but  I aged several years in those few moments.

Above and below: the littlest one trekking across the lowland.

The twins join the trek

The guardian who looked unhappy even before the CB blared

Back at camp, we had dinner and entertainment by the staff. We were expected to reciprocate again and did substantially better than we had a Baobao camp with our comedy routine of YMCA. Now it time to prep for our transfer to Kafue National Park in Zambia.