Friday 23 October 2009

Okavango Delta

We stayed for one night in a campsite owned by a Kiwi that grew up in Five Rivers - there seems to be plenty of NZ'ers over here living the dream. It is a quiet campsite, although there was a moment of panic after Shannon found a scorpian in her tent bag!

It took 1 and a half hours to drive to the Delta edge on very sandy, bumpy roads with children from the villages coming out to wave to us. When we got to the water our Mokoro's(canoe's) were loaded up and then Mel and I climbed in with our poler John. He was an older man and I think was entertained by our singing the whole way three hour ride. The Delta is an amazing place with reeds and water as far as the eye can see, which maybe is not to far as we're lying down in the Mokoros. But the noise of the frogs and the crickets and the swish of the reeds as we wound our way to the campsite was very humbling. We ended up at a small island which was to be our own. Up go our tents, and down goes the hole for the toilet - real bush camping! We then got taken out to a swimming hole with brownish, clear water and we had a lovely couple of hours there just relaxing, trying our hand at steering the Mokoro's and getting the cleanest we've being in weeks.

In the early evening one of the local guides took us for a tour of another island. There was a chance of seeing elephants and hippos but we did not see these and were all walking back a bit sad. When suddenly our guide stopped causing a pile up of 7 Muzungas behind him, only for us to look up and see a cobra slither across the track in front of him(and us). Eeek, a COBRA.

We all had wonderful sleeps that night as it is so very quiet and dark in the Delta, although there is thousands of stars to look at. We've not yet seen the Southern Cross but all us Kiwi's and Aussies are hoping to soon.

We spent two nights in the Delta and had a lovely time - the last night the local guides did traditional dancing and singing for us and as it was a cultural exchange we had to sing something back. The Aussies sang Waltzing Mathilda, Bonnie and I sang Pokarekare Ana, Ailie sang a Japenese song, Mel a Belgium song, Gift a Zimbabwe song, we then all sang a harmonious version of In the Jungle and for our finale we did a rousing rendition of the Hokey Pokey with botht the locals and us all joining in. So there you have it in one of the most awe inspiring places in the world we let lose with a quality action song!

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