Sleeping In The Bush

  Okavango Delta, Botswana
Wednesday, August 17, 2005

After leaving Chobe, we headed for the goal of our trip, camping in the Okavango Delta (still in Botswana). The delta is a HUGE expanse that an enormous amount of animals inhabit, so we were excited. But, as always, there's never any guarantees on what you'll see or encounter.

Our trek to the delta started in a 2 hour jeep 4X4 ride on a sand road through the middle of nowhere. We saw elephant tracks in the sand as we drove along. Finally we reached the water, which was chaotic as there were probably 100 or so african people all trying to get hired for the tourist trips into the delta (there were a couple other groups heading into the delta that day in addition to ours, although everyone goes to different places). We got squared away, and finally Amy and I were gliding along in our own 2-man makoro (hollowed out) canoe sliding through the reeds with our african poler pushing us along with nothing but a 10 foot long stick. About 30 minutes into the ride we were greeted by a herd of zebras running through the delta's waters about 100 yards off to our side. It was one of the most relaxing means of travel we'd had in months.

Once we got far enough into the delta, the guides decided on a camping spot on the shore. This is as raw as it gets. No one had been here for a long time, so we had to clear off bushes from the ground for our tents and dig a hole for a toilet. Evidently, there were at least elephants that had spent some time there as there was elephant dung all along the outside of our campsite. There are no guards with guns in the delta (guns aren't allowed), no fences to keep "anything" from investigating us, and no cell phones or radios that worked there. We were on our own, and it felt very wild at heart.

A couple hours after we arrived, we had the best experience. About 10 elephants off in the distance came out of the trees and started walking toward our camp to the water. The all walked in a single file line (including babies) and played in the water for about an hour before leaving. They were probably 200-300 yards away, and right in front of us. It was quite a show, and we took lots of pictures.

The rest of our time in the delta consisted of many things, including great meals made over the fire, watching the local african woman (some of our guides) weave baskets, and game walks. We saw quite a bit during the walks, but nothing too scary. Though we didn't see anything likely to attack us (other than more elephants, this was our first time really in the bush and the feeling of walking around a corner and realizing that a pride of lions could be sitting there was a bit nerve-racking the entire time. We had a resident 10 foot hippo that lived around 50 yards below our camp. Each night every few hours he would let out a loud roar to let us know that he was there, which made all of us jump everytime we heard it.

One night Matt was using the toilet hole and he came across a creature who was just as scared to see him as he was to see the animal. Matt ran away towards the fire away from a quick little black object that bolted out of the bush at him. A few minutes later a black honey badger appeared in the middle of our camp. Apparently they can be agressive little guys.

Amy chose a particulary scary photo of a badger to give you an idea of how Matt felt when he saw it in the pitch black:



As a side note:
According to honeybadger.com (who thinks to create this web site????), the honey badger is Africa's most fearless animal despite its small size. According to this site, it is even listed as the "most fearless animal in the world" in the 2002 Guinness Book of Records. Good think I got out of there when I did!