Chillin in Hot Botswana

Botswana is very awkward in its temperature.  The mornings are cold enough to make you wish it was afternoon, and the afternoons are hot enough to make you wish it was evening.  Katie has an unfortunate case of noseburn.  Her faceburn of the past couple of days appears to be doing better today.  I have escaped any serious sunburn so far, so hopefully that will continue.  We just finished an incredible few days in the Okavango Delta, and right now, we're in Kasane, Botswana, preparing for a couple of days in Chobe National Park.  In two days, the first half of our tour will be nearly complete as we arrive at the halfway point--Victoria Falls.

The morning after we arrived in Maun, we woke up at 5:30 (a very cold time of day in Botswana!!).  We were very concerned when our transportation pulled up and it basically consisted of benches in the back of a truck.  It was basically a larger version of somethign you'd see in Mexico.  That ride was extremely cold!  It was a 2 hour drive to our pick-up point for our Okavango excursion, and we were freezing for most of it.  Toward the end of the drive, things got more interesting, as we were driving through swamps with water that almost reached the level of our feet (probably about chest-deep water).  The destination was well worth the ride though.  When we arrived, we were greeted by our friends the polers.  Their job was push our mokoros (little wooden canoes carved out of tree trunks) through the vast hippo-wide paths of the Okavango Delta.  They were also our wildlife guides while we were there.  We got the best poler of all, Ishmael.  He was so hard working, and tried to make everything just perfect for us.  For instance, most people had to take off their shoes and wade through the water to get into their mokoros.  Ishmael always positioned two mokoros so that we could walk through one to get into the other.  After we had gone a little ways into the delta, he stopped and picked a water lily out of the water, and made an amazing necklace for Katie.  We really liked him.

We arrived at our camp in the delta, and set up our tents.  This place was in the heart of the bush.  This was our first experience with going to the bathroom in a hole.  It was actually pretty good!  Our guides took us on several walks through the bush, which were long and tiring, but good.  Our guide, Mantata, was very emphatic about the rules.  He told us later that he had had someone crushed by an elephant once, so I guess it was understandable!  On our game walks we saw: elephants, giraffes (Katie's favourite), hippos, impala, wildebeest, zebras, vultures, and others as well.

The other night in the delta, we went for a sunset mokoro cruise.  It was amazing to see the sunset with the hippos!  Despite being way in the bush, we actually ate quite well.  Our cook, Gift (we're not sure of the spelling), has done an amazing job.  We had stir-fry, bacon and eggs, tuna pasta, and last night we even had a Braai (an African BBQ) with steak and sausage.  On our last night in the delta, the polers all sang and danced for us.  It was so great!  They did all kinds of dances and funny songs.  I even joined in the frog dance, much to the delight of the polers and our fellow travellers alike.  Afterwards, they said "Now it's your turn!"  No one in our group knew what to do, so Katie and I got up and let the "Let me see your boogaloo... What's that you say?..." thing.  The polers thought that was the greatest thing ever.  We threw in all kinds of animals for dances too.  The polers also were very excited to show us some "tricks".  These were basically little "think outside the box" puzzles, which we found quite entertaining.  Katie's dad Rick is sure to enjoy them when we get home.

Yesterday we got back to Maun and had our first shower in three days.  Katie was fortunate enough to get a hot shower.  (She was smart, and went to another, further away, shower house.)  My shower was frigid, unfortunately, but it still felt good to be clean.  After our showers, we headed to the Maun airport and took an unforgettable scenic flight over the delta in a 7-seater plane.  The views were amazing, and we also saw lots of wildlife from the plane.  One plane was designated in advance as the "crazy plane" and one was the "safe plane".  We wanted to go on the crazy plane, but there was no room, so we ended up on the safe plane.  The crazy plane did all kinds of swoops and dives, and went really low to the ground.  We had some nervous fellow flyers, so our pilot went a little easy on us.  At first, he had trouble getting the plane started, which gave our fellow passengers even more reason to be nervous!  We can't wait to show off our great pictures/video of the flight when we get home!

The Okavango delta was amazing, which was why we were sad to leave.  We're looking forward to Chobe tonight and tomorrow, though, and we're really looking forward to Victoria Falls in a couple of days.  Hi to everyone back home, and go Riders tonight!

D&K