A Little R&R at the Okavango Delta

Rest and relaxation... Two very important things to maintain in one's life. And it was time for some R&R for us in the Okavango Delta near Maun in northern Botswana!

We left late Wednesday evening on a sleeper train, which was my first experience on a train! Thursday morning we caught a bus from Francistown to Maun and arrived there mid-afternoon. Quite a few hours of travel, but we were finally at our camping resort, Audi.

We had two-person canvas tents and were thankful for the additional jackets, sweatpants, and socks that we each packed! It's winter here, so once the sun goes down, it's quite cold! And, if you know me, I get cold easily, so I definitely took advantage of layering clothes!

Home sweet home at Audi

Friday morning we went on a horseback safari. We didn't see any typical 'safari' animals, but saw goats, donkeys, and cattle, which all are free ranging throughout the day here. It's random, but yet natural, to see a herd of cattle or goats just wandering aimlessly about the bush or even better crossing the road as they please! Our guide took us through the bush, where we had to duck under tree limbs and watch out for acacia trees with their prickly thorns. An acacia tree caught my upper arm once and gave it a pretty good scratch during one of our canters on the horses. Our guide told me that it was the battle wounds from a tiger, which aren't even native here! He was so amusing, as he jokingly pointed to a donkey and told us it was a lion!

Me and Fox, the horse

We proceeded to have a picnic beside the river, while our horses rested. Then, we crossed the river and this was not a shallow crossing either! I was on a taller horse than many of the others, so I didn't get as wet as the rest of the gang, but, nevertheless, I was in water up to my upper thighs! We crossed the river once again and took the horses back to their stables after a good ride.

That's me in the red in the front crossing the river

The rest of the afternoon we laid out by the pool at Audi in the warm African sunshine of the late afternoon. It was too chilly for any swimming, though Matt did give a try. Braver than us girls that's for sure!

Saturday we left bright and early in an open-air safari vehicle for a mokoro ride, which is a hand dug canoe, in the Okavango Delta. We then drove 2 hours with the biting cold air all around us. We were thankful once we got off tarred roads because that meant our speed (and the cold wind blowing in our faces) would slow down! It warmed up and we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery and wild animals.

It doesn't look real, but it is!

We got in the mokoros, which hold 2 people and a poler, who guides the mokoro through the waters. It was so quiet, with only the sounds of birds and the swaying of the grasses to be heard. The water was crystal clear and the nearby reeds and grasses and the blue skies overhead were reflected in the water.

The mokoros, just waiting to be taken out for a day in the water!

Jayne and Danielle and the poler

We even heard an elephant shaking a palm tree to get the fruit down, though we couldn't see it. We then got out and took a 2 hour bush walk to search for wildlife. We saw many termite mounds, zebra under the shade of a big tree, and even the skeleton remains of an elephant. We ate lunch and got back in the mokoro for the return trip. Again, the quietness was astounding and the beauty of the mokoros moving quietly, almost effortlessly, throughout the water was amazing. Occasionally, I'd stick my hands into the cold, crisp water as a refresher from the warm afternoon sun.

Aww...sigh...such beauty...

Suddenly, though, Leslie and Jayne's mokoro stopped abruptly (they were leading the way) and we heard the reeds rustling and what sounded like pounding footsteps. Everyone stayed still and quiet. The poler explained that he thought it was a hippo! (On a side note, did you know that hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal? Surprising, huh?) We sat there quietly...Danielle and I on the edge of our mokoro hoping the huge hippo would show itself, while Leslie and Jayne were holding each other hoping it had run away! And it did the latter of those two alternatives, but we did hear some large animal nearby though we didn't get to see it!

Further along, we saw a giraffe eating leaves from the tops of trees and we sat there and watched it for awhile. It soon realized we were there and ran further away. What a beautiful sight to see such a large animal run so eloquently! We then were back at the starting point and headed back to Audi after an amazing day!

The giraffe peering at us after running away!

Sunday we caught a bus back to Francistown and then the sleeper train to Gaborone. The Okavango Delta definitely provided us with some great R&R and I am eager, as are the others, to be with the children again after our little vacation up north!

With scenery like this, who could complain?