Okavango River Delta - Day 1

The Okavango River is Africa's third largest river. Starting in Angola, it flows more than 1500 kilometers into Namibia and ends in Botswana. It never reaches an ocean. Instead, it just spreads out, flooding over 16,000 square kilometer in a region known as the Okavango Delta - a massive swampy wetland. This swamp is bisected by a 1000+ kilometer buffalo fence. North of the fence is the Moremi Game Reserve with a high concentration of hippopotami, Nile crocodile, buffalo, lion, et al. If you wanted to learn about this wild swamp, you could watch a half-hour episode of Planet Earth. If you're really into swamps, you can do a multi-day trip into the swamp on a traditional canoe and take a bunch of "nature walks" in the swamp. Apparently, I'm into swamps.

Ever since first seeing the river in Rundu, I aimed to jump onto a boat. At "The Swamp Stop" in Sepupa, I chummed up to a dude with a motor boat and he took me for a ride on the river. Mission accomplished! But he never explained that he expected me to walk home until he dropped me off downriver...

My next mission was to enter the Delta.

But first, an aside about diction. The term Walking Safari conjures images of close encounters with large beasts. It sort of makes me laugh that people would want to go walk amongst lions and pythons and such. The connotations of the term raise my danger flags. In contrast, the term Nature Walk conjures images of peaceful casual walks through serene wetlands looking at birds, reeds, and beetles. The term Walking Safari would more aptly fit what Mosu Safari Tours entitled Nature Walks.

Our guide's name was MT (or alike). My first impressions of him were quite negative. He was grouchy and would reply succinctly to only direct questions. We embarked into the swamp on the Mukoro at 10am. After forty minutes of MT pushing us around with a 5m pole, he took a four hour siesta - leaving Jo and I to entertain ourselves in the middle of the swamp.

The flies in the swamp are called "Flesh Flies" because they spend so much time on dead meat. It is therefore disconcerting when you realize you can't stop them from landing on your lips, nose, and eyes - let alone everywhere else. Eventually, Jo and I got profoundly bored in the swamp. Exchanged glances clearly communicated that we were both doubting our decision to make this trip. Eventually, we took out the Mukoro together and went swimming in a clear part of the swamp - the hippos & crocs go to deep water during the day. We were all smiles.


In the afternoon, we embarked on our first walking safari. It was pure ignorance which allowed Jo and I to fearlessly embark on such walks. Turns out, the African bush is sorta dangerous.



The path we took through the forest, plains, and wetland was chaotic and slow as we tracked a herd of wildebeest through the bush for about 4 hours. We eventually found the herd on a big open plain. After watching MT track game, I am in love. What a man. MT was a local hunter, and his ability to track animals was just amazing. He was smelling dung, inspecting bent grasses and stripped barks. He could date the animal footprints in mud or in sand to within a couple of hours. MT carried a homemade axe which he made from a broken down car's shock-absorber. The crafted medal blade was shimmed into a knotty wooden branch - it was very sturdy and bad-ass. I hire MT to spend a day to make one together. The wood for the handle is not common, but MT found me the right kind of tree. Sadly, the branch configuration to make the right knot wasn't available on the tree - so my plan was doomed. I wish I had a better picture of his axe.

Night fell quickly as we were out on our walk. During the sunset, we heard lion roaring, hyena howling, and loud unexplained splashes as we Mukoro-ed back to the smaller island camp. I was happy to share a tent with Jo, and took a urine bottle to bed with me. No way was I leaving the tent at night.