Back to the Grind

The family at Lake O'Hara last year.

Hello all!!!  Well life has gotten back to normal again as I’ve been back to work for three weeks now and Shan just did her first three days at work last week.  The kids have been back for almost two weeks now and we’re back into the swing of things with activities and playing. 

Our man's best friend, Ellie.

 

Shan and I have been talking a bit and thought it would be cool to show all those people that we got to share experiences with over our travels, where we come from.  So after sorting through a few photos, this is Revelstoke, where we work and play.

To all of you that opened your home, shared experiences or bumped into us along the way, please come and visit, it would be great to see you again!!!

Our home in the fall.

Our home in winter, yes we love snow!

Skiing on the local hill.

Tobogganing in the evening.

Coming Home!

Team Canada

You can feel the excitement building as the countdown continues and we are now down to hours till we head home.  Jenna started the countdown at 29 days and now we just need to make sure we’ve got everything and then it’s off to the airport for the marathon journey back to Kelowna.  35 hours in all with stop overs in Dubai and Seattle then hotel in Kelowna to get home for Jenna’s birthday!

We managed to pack all our stuff into our backpacks and the two new carryon bags we purchased yesterday and with Shannon doing some ingenious packing, we managed to get everything in minus a few things we left for Muma Flow.  We had a lazy day around the backpackers packing, reading and playing cards with the French and Aussis.  When it was time we got Gloria to take us to the airport and the epic travel days began.

Team Aussi!

We decided to wrap our bags to check in as it is a fairly commonplace thing in most of the airports we’ve been in over the last three month.  We haven’t bothered yet as we only have clothes and nothing of great value but we have heard so many stories of people losing stuff in the Jo’berg airport, we figured the $7 /bag was worth it.  Why push a good thing and let’s just hope that our bags come through on the other end... so far so good.

Sitting in the airport I think we all are looking forward to different things when we get home.  We’re all looking forward to seeing Ellie as there have been lots of different dogs on the trip but nothing like El.  I hope she still recognizes us when we get home but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Sounds like she’s been pretty spoilt with all the attention and bike rides so I think she’s had a pretty good summer too!  I’m really looking forward to my bike and getting some exercise and both Shan and I have big plans for yoga and the gym!  We’ll see if its just another resolution or if we can stick with it.  I know both kids are really missing their friends and the upcoming weekend will be full of catching up with all our friends and family.  It’s kind of like the old cliché about realizing what we have when its gone and I think we’re all  extremely lucky to have the friends and family that we do.

Team France 

As I look back over our trip it’s hard to believe that we’ve been gone 3 months!  Yet Iceland seems so far away and it’s incredible when we look back over the photos of all the crazy places we’ve been and the cool stuff we’ve seen.  I was sure glad we did the trip the way we did with crazy castles and museums in the north; insanely old ruins and beaches in south eastern Europe and then completely changed it up with wildlife and outdoor stuff in Southern Africa.  Just when we were starting to lose the excitement over what we were seeing, we moved on to something new.  It was great to have the kids there as they always reminded us of what we were doing out there and let us know when it was time to move on.  I think we’ve got a whole new level of communication between us all which is pretty cool!

When we talk to people about our trip, everyone always ask what was our favourite part.  I think all of our responses are that it’s really hard to nail down one thing.  Iceland was new and exciting being the very start of the journey, while England was amazing hanging out with Rich’s family, Puffin Island is up there as well as St. David with the castle and Jenna and Rich surfing.  London was cool staying with Jen and her family as well as Vimy Ridge and seeing that with the girls.  Paris was a bit of an eye opener and was a lot dirtier than any of us ever thought it would be.  Italy was cool with the beaches and Rome but I sure realize now how lucky we are in Canada with so few people around, where you can enjoy beaches and beautiful views without being two feet from your neighbour!  Croatia was definitely cheaper than the rest of Europe and we’d definitely go back to do some more exploring.  Turkey was stunning with so many different landscapes and history and Shan and I loved Gerome in Cappadocia where we finally got to do a bit of hiking without a pile of people around.  Finally, Africa was incredible in so many ways from it scenery and animals to its people and taught us all a ton about life.  I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to do such a trip with Shannon and the kids and to have met so many awesome people along the way.  Hopefully it’s just the start of friendships to come and we can visit them in future years.

The trip home was pretty uneventful.  The immigration officer in Jo’berg was by far the nicest one we’ve met and said he just loves Canadians!  When I asked him why, his response was that we weren’t racist!  We managed to meet up with Papa and the kids from France in the airport and said our goodbyes, hopefully we’ll see them next year in Canada if all goes as planned.  The flight to Dubai went pretty quickly as we all watched 3 or 4 movies each and Alyssa got a bit of sleep.  It was dark when we left and arrived but the sun sure came up quick in Dubai with the time zone change.  The stopover in Dubai wasn’t too bad and we all got a few winks of sleep before cashing in our food vouchers from Emirates Airlines for breakfast in the airport, man it’s an incredible airline to fly with!  The flight to Seattle was the crazy long one where we managed a little time travel!  It’s a 14.5 hour flight but we only gain 3.5 hours, leaving at 9:30 am and getting in at 1 pm.  They flew over the Caspian Sea and then over the north pole flying over Alaska and the sun never set... I think it might take some time to recover from that one!  Ten hours to chill out in Seattle before we completed the last flight to Kelowna.  We managed to get through customs with no issues and by 1:30 am we finally checked into our hotel.  We were all fast asleep instantly only to wake up at 7am.  It might take a bit of time to acclimatize back to normal life as after 9 time zones and 40 hours of travel our bodies were a little messed.

Getting it all Together

The day started very early as we wrapped up the tents for the final time!  I must say I am looking forward to a bed again.  We’re getting pretty efficient at camp breakdown and we've all got the system down now!  The trip back to Joberg was pretty quiet and most people crashed for much of the trip.  We had a quick lunch break and managed to find a Seattle’s Best Coffee shop which was sure nice finding good coffee as I’ve been drinking instant coffee since Turkey.  Another thing I’m looking forward to when we get home!

The crew in the front of the bus.  Adults were allowed too!

We pulled off the highway to head to the hostel only to get stopped on the overpass by an ambulance who was transferring a patient onto a helicopter which was a little surprising.  They just shut down the overpass so we decided to take a little detour to the next exit to get around it.  It made us a bit later than expected but once we were back at Mufasa’s, the backpackers hostel, we had to clean out the bus and gather all our stuff that has been accumulating over the last three weeks.  It was amazing some of the stuff that was left behind.  One couple from Vancouver left their credit cards and health insurance cards and someone else left their ipad!  A number of people had things lined up as soon as we arrived so they ran off the bus.... Sure glad we had some time.  So far the only thing we’ve left behind is a bit of food in the fridge a few stops ago so if that’s all we lose over the last three months, I think we’re doing pretty good!

It was sad to say goodbye to Muma Flow but you could tell she wanted to get home to her family so we wished her well and off she went.  We were pretty lucky to have a woman like her to pull everyone together to form a pretty tight extended family!  It sure made for some comical times and had us all laughing for hours!  Later, we found out that she made as much as I make in one day for the entire trip from the tour company.  That was a 23 day tour where she usually started work at 4am and ended close to 9pm everyday.  I think she probably made more from tips than she did from the tour operator but wow, things aren't too equitable around here.

After everyone left and things settled down the four families; Team Aussi, Italiano and the Frenchies; all sat down to a nice dinner and a few beers around the fire.  Man, were we ever lucky to have had such a great group on both legs of the journey with us and we had so many crazy experiences, stories and laughs along the way.  The dinner at Mufasa’s made for a great last night together and we swapped emails and invitations to come visit in our home countries.  We also found a 16 seat safari bus you can rent for $400/day that comes with a driver and all the camping and cooking equipment.  That got the minds going for a future trip to areas we didn’t get to but would love to come back and see!  It was still pretty early when we all packed it in for the night.  The one great thing for tomorrow is we don’t have to get up early and break down camp!  

Our Final Game Drive

One of many throughout the day.

Today was our last game drive of the safari and we were all hopeful to get a look at the elusive leopard.  We thought about doing the night game drive last night but the kids weren’t overly into it and we figured we’d seen pretty much everything we had wanted to see.  That and driving around for four more hours after being in the truck for the last three days didn’t seem overly appealing either.  The Italians headed out for the full day game drive today but again, the 10 hours in a truck through the heat of the day wasn’t all that attractive of an idea.  So with the truck almost full we headed out on the half day.

We hadn’t gotten more than 500 meters from the camp to be treated to a pair of smaller elephants and the usual kudu and impala.  The day proved to be full of everything and we got a glimpse of a number of hyenas on the way to the main camp for our morning stop over.  Once you get into the park

We managed to find hyenas today.

you are not allowed

A klipspringer on a boulder (at first we thought it was a painting).

to leave your vehicle without getting a big fine so when Tilda had to go to the bathroom, Brendan had to think quickly on his feet.  There was some road work being completed where they have two armed guards making sure the workers stay safe with all the cats around the park so he grabbed his bag of biltong to go bribe the guard into taking Tilda for a pee!  As Duncan said, “that’s the first time any of us have been escorted by an armed guard to the bathroom!”

Elephant Jam.

Hippos hangin on the beach.

Kudu

The afternoon was filled with hippo out of the water, crocodile, and elephants everywhere with small babies, giraffe, rhino, you name it and we even got a good look at two huge male lions.  They were just lazing in the shade but must have been four meters long; they were ginormous as Alyssa would say!  We finished up the day by guessing what animal we’d see next and as it started to get really hot in the truck, we made it back to our campsite.  So unfortunately, no leopard but it wouldn’t have been any different if we had done the full day as they saw all the similar animals as we had.  What an awesome way to finish off the safari with just an incredible number of so many different animals!

The girls got to help Muma Flow tonight with dinner so after a swim to cool off and showers all around, that occupied their evening for a bit.  The rest of us decided we needed to finish off all the drinks in the cooler so before and after dinner we focused on that! 

We saw a pooh flicker too.

It was a pretty festive, laugh filled evening as it was our last dinner before everyone went their own way tomorrow.  The Germans spent most of the afternoon in the bar so Tauti was feeling pretty good by dinner time and it was incredible how talkative he was and how good his English improved when he relaxed a bit.  I had a great chat with him and it’d be great to have those guys come up to BC one of these days.  We swapped emails and who knows, we may have to make our way to Germany some day.

Our German friends.

Muma gave a heartfelt talk and acknowledge the kids for how well they have been and what great ambassadors they will make.  She thanked us all for coming to Africa and I’m sure there will be some tears tomorrow as we’ve all grown very close to her.  Muma has definitely made the trip for a lot of us with her bold, feisty spirit and great sense of humour.  At dinner Brendan gave us a very short speech asking us how we like the trip and then informed us we had a nice early morning as two of the older Aussi women have a tour planned for 1pm in Johannesburg... I think we were all a bit put out for the 4:45 am start especially after the later night around the fire.   But then again... it’s not a holiday!

Buffalo.

Crazy birds.

The Long Road Home

After the incredible experiences in Zimbabwe, Chobe and the Okavango Delta we had a fair distance to make up to get back to Johannesburg.  The next few days are pretty much exclusively travel days, heading back toward Kruger National Park in South Africa.  Once there we spend two nights then it’s back to Jo’berg and home from this crazy adventure.

Ines and Alyssa on the drive home.

To everyone’s chagrin, the alarms were sounding at 5am so we could hit the road and beat the heat.  It has suddenly got much warmer here and the days heat up pretty quick.  Even the evenings and nights are warmer and I really don’t need much more than my sleep sheet and light overbag to stay comfortable which was sure not the case when we started out on this safari. 

Botswana is definitely more affluent than Zimbabwe and we passed a huge diamond mine as well as a coal mine that was situated right next to a big coal powered power plant.  The people in the cities are often dressed nicely, houses are bigger and nicer (still very small to North American standards) and you can tell there is more wealth here.  The other notable observation here is the amount of garbage along the side of the road is way less.  In Zimbabwe there was garbage everywhere and even South Africa there was way more garbage.

The first night’s stop was Palapye which is 100 km from the border with South Africa.  The next day was the border crossing and a stop at Polokwane where we had a great grassy area to set up our tents.... no dirt for one day!!!  This was the same place we stayed on the way up so we had that campsite pretty dialled.  The third day was similar to the tour up with Blyde River Canyon views, the potholes and the great pancake and biltong places along the way.  We set up the tents for the last time in Kruger National Park for our final two nights of the safari.

Blyde River Canyon.

I think everyone is getting really sick of all the dirt and dust around the campsites, I know I sure am!  Pretty much every campsite we have been to is just dirt so when you walk or a car drives by you get a stream of dust across the camp.  All the houses have dirt around their homes too which is meticulously raked or swept every day.  We were told it is so they can detect if snakes have slid across the area and into their homes.  Makes sense, but it still is really annoying when you’re camping in it every day!  It also supports Shannon’s thought that she really doesn’t want to be here in the summer when all the different snakes are out and about.

Everyone is still holding it together but we can all feel the trip is winding down and there are more thoughts about home as we spend eight hours a day in the truck.  Shannon was bored and can’t read in the truck so she started a “to do list” for when we get home.  I’m still holding out and trying to stay focused on working on the blog, getting my book read so I can give it to Duncan, drinking a few beers, and swapping tales with the crew.  The kids are still entertaining themselves with card games, reading, magic tricks and ipods and Jenna has found the back seat open so has taken up residence there to get a few more hours sleep throughout the day.

Blyde River Canyon

It has been an interesting experiment taking four families from different areas along with a number of couples and single people, throwing them in a bus and asking them to work together to do all the jobs necessary to make the trip work.  It kind of reminds me of the TV show Survivor except no one get voted off the bus at least not on our bus but I have heard that it does happen from time to time!  The dynamics of child discipline and just couple interaction has been great and everyone is still stepping it up to get everything done.  There have been some entertaining dialogues back and forth between Brendan, the tour leader and Flow but so far no-one has killed each other!  The German contingent of Simon, Tauti, Reuben and Alessandra have been awesome with the kids and have been a lot of fun to have on this leg of our journey. 

It’s been pretty crazy observing interaction between black and whites in South Africa.  Some people are very open and often you see younger people mixing but there is still a lot of bigotry out there.  One woman at a grocery store just budged in front of a black man in line without saying a word like it was completely acceptable.  The looks you get from whites when you hold open a door for a black woman is pretty funny too as it is when the black woman finally figures out what you’re trying to do for her.  It’s definitely not the norm. 

Hearing some stories around the fire from Flow of her life with her white partner of 10 years and the family not accepting her after all that time is pretty nuts too.  In her other job where she lived with a family cooking for them where she was expected to put her dishes and cutlery where the pet supplies were and not with the rest of the plates and cutlery.  After hearing the stories and observing the interactions in public you realize how recently Apartheid has ended and how reconciliation and forgiveness is still in its infancy here.  I can’t see it changing for a few more generations but you’ve got to hope things will get better with education, acceptance and time.  It has been a pretty incredible experience to see it first hand and has been the topic of conversation often between Duncan, Michel (aka Papaa) and myself.

Mokoroing Back to Maun

Our last morning on the delta started with coffee and a morning hike to see what we could see.  Jenna opted for the sleep in option while the rest of us took one more look around before heading back to Maun.  We managed to see some zebra, antelope and three hippo in the pool a short trek from camp.  Our guide “Doctor” was an interesting old guy with a missing half of pinky finger which we were later told that was the custom to amputate the top knuckle on your left hand!  He was a frail little guy and always wore a suit jacket that was about four sizes too big.  He spoke some English and was one of the better guides on our trip.

Three hippos in the hippo pool.

Back at camp we had to break

Heading home with the family.

down everything and load the mokoros.  Once again we weren’t allowed to help so we just sat back and watched.  Once everything was packed, Bettie loaded us back on the boat for the relaxing ride back to the poling station.  On our way out it was interesting to see some people going in just for the day, wow that would be hot; while others had huge tents over twice the size of ours which looked to totally overload the moroko.  You could tell who had big money and who was on the budget trip like us!

Muma Flow

The boats were waiting at the poling station and once we said goodbye to our camp family we headed back to the lodge.  It was sure nice to have a shower and wash cloths as things were pretty dirty.  The only downfall was as soon as you left the shower and walked in flip flops back to camp your feet had that real nice gritty, dirt feeling.  We hung out by the pool and took it easy for the afternoon but I’m always amazed how the time flies by.  Next thing you know its dinner and we’re all heading for bed.  It’s pretty funny at 8 pm everyone shutting it down to get up before 5 the next morning.  We’re definitely not the party group! 

The boat ride home.  A little more noisey than the mokoros.

Our crew in the Okavango Delta for two nights.

Getting water on the way back to Maun.

Life in the Okavango Delta

Hiking in the delta.

The day started by one of the guides walking through the camp saying...time to get up...get up!  So we rose and headed to get breakfast.  Not 15 minutes later he said we will be leaving in 5 minutes!  Apparently he changed his mind as to our start time so everyone starting running around trying to get ready for our bush walk. 

|Not sure who is watching who here!

 Before we could start our walk we had to go in the mokoros to reach the island we would be visiting. There is something so tranquil about gliding through the water while sitting in a boat only a few inches above the water.  There is no motor, only the sound of the poler putting their pole in the water every few seconds. A walk on the island in the delta definitely was an adventure!  You can only imagine my surprise as we were told there were dangerous animals such as elephant, buffalo and lions and we were on foot with only a native guide who didn’t carry a gun!  The fact that Alyssa had a really bad bleeding nose in the middle of an open field that lasted at least a ½ hour didn’t exactly put me at ease.  It was pretty amazing walking in the true wilderness of Africa and seeing animals such as elephant, zebras and wilder beast.  It was so peaceful walking along as you didn’t hear people or automobiles.  After awhile everything seemed okay but I still prayed we wouldn’t see a lion!  Our guide was pretty funny as he would always ask us why something was the way it was then he would tell us we were wrong.  After a number of these types of questions Alyssa thought she would try and stump him by asking him a question about mountain caribou, it was pretty funny and he was a good sport.  The walk lasted about 4 hours before we headed back to camp. 

Weaving in her spare time.

The afternoon was ours to spend as we wished so I took advantage of the time to relax and read my book.  Alyssa, Kevin and surprisingly Jenna, went with a number of other people to the “swimming hole” which was a shallow area in the water where the crocodiles apparently don’t go.  Somehow this did not appeal to me.  One of the polers had collected palm leaves on the morning bush walk and was now making bracelets.  It was amazing how fast she created little works of art.  A number of the lady polers brought some of their crafts to sell.  I bought a couple of bracelets and Jenna picked up a really nice little basket.  A number of us at camp decided at one point to try poling a mokoro on our own only to realize it is not as easy as the polers make it look!  I had the hardest time trying to keep it going straight.  Kevin didn’t really have any problems, the girls did pretty well and only one person ended up falling in the water.

Its a lot harder than it looks.

Later in the evening we went for another mokoro ride to the hippo pool.  It was such an amazing experience gliding so quietly through the water while the sun slowly started to set.  We were greeted at by a loud noise as we entered the large body of water where the hippos were.   A number of us jumped at the noise but thankfully no one fell out.  The hippo was across the way and we settled our mokoros in the reeds while we watched the hippos.  They can be quite dangerous so we were being respectful of the space they needed.  It was very peaceful other than the noises the hippos made.  Before the sun fully set we made our way back to camp where dinner was waiting us.  What an amazing day!

The hippo welcoming us to his pool.  Wow, was it loud!

Poling at sundown.  Alyssa has taken some pretty amazing photos.

Think he's done this a few times before.

Entering the Okavango

Selfie leaving the poler's station with Bettie in the background.

The morning was a sleep in day compared to our trip standards as we had to make the delta tour meeting for 8 o’clock.  We are taking all of our tents and sleeping mats with us so we had to pack up everything as usual, throw our big bags in the truck and head off with our day packs, sleeping bags and anything else we wanted to bring into the delta.  It was a pretty big pile of gear but these guys have done it before and didn’t seem phased by all the gear.

The town created for the polers into the delta.

From the lodge we jumped in a motor boat for 50 minutes to head to the poling station where we were to get our mokoro and poler for the venture into the delta.  It was a gorgeous trip up the twisting narrow river and we saw a ton of bird life.  There is nothing but small farms along the way to the park so we also saw our fill of cattle, goats, donkeys and the odd horse sitting in the water, eating all the lush aquatic plants. 

Poling out into the Okavango Delta.

Once up to the poling station there were people everywhere as groups were coming out at the same time as we were going in.  We unloaded all of our gear out of the truck and waited for the chaos to work its way through.  The town has been constructed solely for the purpose of tourism into the delta. 

Crazy stork in the reeds.

The polers sign up if they want to take a crew into the delta on their mokoro  The head woman organizes who is going with which group so once they finished their meeting we were given our polers and we were off.  There are men and women from early twenties to sixties that take you into the delta.  Alyssa and I had Muma Bettie, who was at least in her late fifties who spoke very little English but stopped to chat and laugh with other polers throughout most of the trip.  Shannon and Jenna had Alicia who was probably in her early 20’s.  I felt kind of guilty as Bettie ran around loading her boat but she had a place for everything.  They pull the sleeping mats open and jam them into the boat to form a great seat with a back rest which made for a very comfortable, relaxing push upriver.

After our swim with Alyssa's weaving.

It was pretty cool heading up to our camping spot.  The area is nothing but reeds and a bit of open water where the main flow is.  The polers have done this trip many times and take a short cut so they don’t have to pole so far.  It’s created a bit of a super highway and we passed a number of boats coming out as we headed in.  The average depth isn’t over a meter so this is one of the only ways to get into the delta and explore.  I could see how a canoe would be really had to paddle through the reeds and poling is definitely the way to go.  The trip was very soothing as you hear many different birds, the scraping of reeds down the side of the mokoro and the chatting of the polers in Zulu.

We found our campsite which has no facilities what-so-ever and were given the talk about “don’t leave camp without a guide”, how to operate the shovel with the freshly dug hole/toilet in the ground and the toilet etiqueAtte (when the shovel and toilet paper is gone, the toilet is in use!).  This should be interesting as most of the people on this trip haven’t camped at all, never mind know how to squat over a hole to go to the bathroom!  The other cool thing with our camp is that everyone camps together, the polers, guide and guest all intermingle.  It proved for a fun and entertaining camp atmosphere and we were all anxious to explore more of the area.  This was especially the case when Chiara came back from the toilet to tell us there was an elephant a few hundred meters away!

Our very close interaction with the elephants... there's no where to run!

After we had some down time through the heat of the day (some of us took a swim) it was time to head out for our evening hike from camp.  We were split into three groups and headed out to watch the elephants walking toward our camp.  It was pretty unnerving standing in the middle of an open field watching these two huge bull elephant chowing away on trees.  One kept on eating while the other stopped to size us up.  What a crazy feeling, being a few hundred meters away from these massive animals and having to trust your guide to know what these wild animals might do.  As we moved on a little further three move elephant came into view and we watched as they joined the others and started shaking the pine palms for their nuts to drop. 

These termite mounds are 60 + years old.  They're huge!

It was definitely the “wow, we’re really in Africa” moment!  We walked a bit further looking at tracks and pooh and checked out the hippo pool when it was time to head back to camp as the sun was setting.  On the way back we had to stop to see what the elephants were doing as they walked right across where we had been an hour before toward another camp to the north of us.  As they headed across we walked behind them to get back to our camp.  Turns out later that night a few people had to stay away from their camp for a bit as the elephants shook trees within 5 meters of one tent.  Once they got all the pine palms off the trees they just moved on like nothing had happened!  Pretty WILD in both meanings of the word!!!

Back in camp it was a mellow dinner and hang out by the fire for a bit.  After it got dark there were these funny lights blinking all throughout the reeds that I thought might be bioluminescence when I first saw it.  I flashed up my head lamp to see they weren’t in the water but on the reeds adjacent to the water.  Turns out they were fire flies blinking back and forth to one another trying to find a mate.  I saw a number of them flying but told the kids right away and they were off to collect a bunch in a bottle.  Pretty cool to actually see fire flies and it provided endless entertainment for the kids for the evening.

Alyssa and Amelia on the evening hike.  Sunsets are pretty nice here.

Travel to Maun

It was another one of those nasty, early mornings trying to break camp in the dark with our headlamps on and we just chucked the kids in sleeping bags and all.  We’re heading to Maun which we’ve been told is anywhere from 6 to 10 hours away.  Not quite sure why the range in time but we made it in close to eight as the highways seem to be getting a bit better compared to Zimbabwe. 

The trip was pretty incredible as you could look out the window and see just about every animal you could want.  Oh look its ten elephant on that side; oh-no hope the bus will stop for those zebra crossing the road; giraffe, antelope; the only thing we didn’t see were predators but we were flying by at 100 km/hr so if we looked close, I’m sure we would have seen them too!  Botswana is pretty incredible for seeing animals.

The walkway at the lodge along the Kavango River.

Once in Maun, we had a big shop to do for going into the Okavango Delta and apparently we can pack our coolers and everything in with the mokoros.  These are local, hand craved canoes that the locals use with a long pole to move around in the delta.  The young German team stepped up and bought two flats of beer while the rest of us made sure we had a few for happy hour.  We were also told that we needed to bring in our own water so we grabbed four 5 litre bottle, hoping that will be enough for the next two and a half days.  I find it hard to believe that we’ll be able to fit all this into the mokoros but I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Our meeting place for tomorrows excursion into the delta.

From the town we headed for our accommodation for the night at the Island Safari Lodge.  It was a lodge at one end and we found our camping spot at the far end.  There was a pool there so the kids all got changed and headed there after the tents were set up.  Turns out we had a fair bit of extra time so we took the opportunity to pack for tomorrow and head to the bar for free wifi!  Funny how everyone migrates to the wifi!  Turns out its free for a reason as I couldn’t even download my Gmail account.  I did manage to Facetime mom and dad and dealt with all my work emails so it was good to touch base outside of our little bubble here in Botswana! 

It’s a pretty beautiful place to sit back and relax, watching the Kavango River (not sure if that’s our actual arm of the river or not) flowing to the south.  The Okavango Delta is pretty crazy as the Kavango River flows out of Angola, through Namibia and into Botswana where it forks into many different smaller rivers.  Eventually these rivers just dissipate into nothing as the water gets sucked into the earth and also evaporates.  This is the largest inland delta in the world and the water never flows directly into any ocean.  The wildlife looks incredibly abundant and I can’t wait to explore in the delta over the next few days.

Botswana Bound

Animals as far as you can see with lots of baby elephants.

 It was an average day getting up at 6:30 which is crazy that we all consider that normal now, even Jenna!  We packed up and headed for the border with our new crew of eight people along with all the families that did the first leg with us.  We were lucky that four of the people that were supposed to be on our tour couldn’t get through England and missed the trip.  It’s mean to say but the bus would have been packed and it’s sure nice to have a few extra seats so people can move around a bit.  So we added four young Germans who just finished Uni that are super friendly and are entertained by the kids (or vise versa).  We also have two older women from Australia and two younger sisters from New Zealand so our crew is still very diverse and seems pretty fun.

Huge crocodiles that you can get really close to, good thing for the big boat!

On our way out of Victoria Falls the bus stopped just out of town and Muma Flow jumped into the back with us.  We asked her what was going on to find out we picked up a hitch hiker!  He just happened to be in a border guard’s uniform so thanks to the quick thinking of Flow, we got a quick pass through immigration at the Zimbabwe border as he fast tracked us right through!  We headed for the Botswana part where we had to get our passports stamped and then headed over to dip our shoes as part of a quarantine measure between the two countries.  We made it across the border in no time and within 10 minutes we were in the town where we were to spend the night.  Groceries and next thing you know we were setting up tents.... the fastest travel day ever!

Hard to believe they're so dangerous.

Playing in the mud!

After lunch as bunch of people headed out for a game drive while we hung out by the pool for a while and took it easy.  At 3pm we headed out for a boat tour along the Chobe River which was completely amazing.  I have never seen so many animals out in one place as on the edges of the Chobe.  There were elephants, buffalo, hippo, crocodiles and antelope as far as you could see eating the lush grasses along the river.  There were also a pile of tour boats zipping around but the animals just seemed to ignore us and just went on their way.  There were baby elephants that ranged from having no ivory to little stubs and it was cool to watch them running around their mom playing. 

No short supply of elephants here.

Animals everywhere and birds too.

Alyssa had made some friends at the pool who happened to be on the tour so she hung out with them for much of the cruise but as the sun set we all headed to the top level of the boat to watch.  It was completely surreal to sit back and look at the scenery and wildlife.  It was like some of the crazy stuff you see on TV and would think you’d only see it in some secluded game park... not the case.  The guides knew exactly where to stop to get the classic African sunset photos as we headed back toward the dock. 

Once we were back on land, we headed back for dinner and had a really mellow evening.  It’s a 4:45 am get up with 600 km to travel to Maun where we enter the Okavango Delta!  I’ve heard incredible things about this part of the trip and given the amount of wildlife we’ve seen in Botswana already, I can only imagine what is to come!

The sunsets are absolutely stunning in Africa.