Highlights of the Okavango Delta, Botswana

By Roxanne Reid
One of the world’s biggest inland deltas, a diverse habitat and top wildlife destination - this is the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Floodwaters travel more than 1000 kilometres from the central African highlands to create some 15 000 square kilometres of water channels, islands and floodplains. On a recent trip we fell instantly in love with its wealth of wildlife, its landscapes and waterscapes, its mokoros – the classic Okavango way to travel – and with its knowledgeable guides, who blew us away with spectacular sightings.

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​Flying over the Delta

You can watch as many documentaries as you like but until you’ve flown over the Okavango Delta and seen it for yourself, you can’t really appreciate how beautiful it is. When we flew over in early May, the Delta was not yet in full flood – that usually happens in June/July – but our guide told us they’d only started boating at Xigera Camp three weeks earlier. Before then they could drive the Land Rovers all the way to camp; now they were driving part of the way and finishing the journey by boat. When we flew over again at the beginning of June more water had arrived, and we snapped these elephants enjoying it.

People and song ​

Our transfer to Xigera Camp from a small airstrip was partly by Land Rover and then by motorised boat. We found camp staff gathered on the bridge above the jetty to wave and sing their welcome as we docked. This singing is Wilderness Safaris’ signature and every time we hear it we feel instantly at home. Along a series of raised boardwalks we reached our romantic tent, which overlooked a stand of mokolane (real fan) palms and some water where red lechwe came to drink.

Xigera Camp

This photo of the communal decks at Xigera Camp was taken from the wooden bridge near the jetty. To the right was the walkway leading to the star deck. To the left was a sandpit built into the bridge so that animals moving through the camp left their footprints to be read like a ‘newspaper’. One night we were standing at the bar when we saw a leopard walk across the sandpit, look straight at us over his shoulder and then pad silently over the bridge to the other side. It was thrilling to be in its environment unencumbered by fences, but a reminder why we needed a guide to escort us to and from our tents after dark.

Poling around on a mokoro

You can’t visit the Okavango Delta without experiencing the beauty of a ride in a mokoro (dug-out canoe), silent except for the rhythmic splash of the pole in the water. Traditionally made from wood, they’re now made of fibreglass as part of Botswana’s attempt to prevent deforestation. From Xigera Camp we saw everything from big elephants to tiny butterflies as well as more fish eagles than we’ve ever seen in one place before. We also saw lots of water birds and – drumroll, please! – a Pel’s fishing owl. We floated by water lilies, water shield plants and tiny baby platannas, enjoying the peace. In the hands of guides Spongy Makgetho and Go Bateng, the mokoro quickly became my new favourite mode of transport.

Little creatures

We met this long reed frog on a mokoro trip from Xigera in the Delta. He was sitting quietly on a reed that was blowing in the breeze. Although an adult, he was only a little more than 2cm long, a tiny masterpiece. Because we were so quiet on the mokoro – no noisy boat engine – he let us get really close without feeling the need to jump into the water. Google tells me he’s also called a long-nosed reed frog. From camp we heard them calling at night. You can listen to the long reed frog here.

Bush breakfast

After a morning of playing in boats, seeing fish eagles and jacanas and water lilies in abundance, we docked on an island near Xigera for an Out of Africa bush breakfast. This romantic set-up in a clearing under a giant jackalberry tree away from the camp took a lot of work by Wilderness Safaris staff and we thoroughly appreciated it. As usual they welcomed us with song as our boats pulled in. There were sausages and bacon cooked on the braai, as well as salmon cakes, mini quiches, brinjal with chickpeas and salads for the less carnivorous. 

Swanky spaces

In contrast to the water channels of Xigera Camp, Chitabe Lediba was a ‘mixed’ camp with both floodplains and woodland, including patches of camel thorn and mopane. The camp’s sitting area and pool looked out over a small lediba (remnant lagoon) that had become a waterhole and an elephant bull was at the reception deck when we arrived. We saw a large spotted genet behind our Meru-style tent, which overlooked the floodplain towards a line of mokolane palms. As you can see, we had enough space to polka on either side of the king-sized bed.

Leopard cubs

Chitabe Lediba gave us the best sighting of our lives – two leopard cubs just two-months old. Mom had left the brother and sister at the den in the hollow of a fallen tree trunk while she went out hunting. They entertained themselves by biting each other’s ears and tails, jumping on each other and wrestling till one fell out of the low branch. But it would soon climb back up for more fun. With our guide Phinley Mwampole, we watched them for over two hours and drove back to camp after dark – what a privilege.

Spotted hyena cubs

Another fabulous find on the private concession around Chitabe Lediba was a spotted hyena den with a babysitter adult and six cubs of three different ages. The smallest cub was around two months old, still teddy-bear brown before its gets its spots at four months. It tried to drink but there was no milk from what our guide Phinley said was a male babysitter but he did let it suckle, perhaps for comfort. The bigger cubs bullied it, chasing and biting, but each time it got away and ran off in a puff of dust. Then it came back, jumping on the bigger ones and wrestling, the whole cycle starting again.

Duba Expedition Camp

When we visited Duba Expedition Camp, this new Great Plains Conservation camp had only been open for about six weeks. There was a laid-back atmosphere for guests but evidence of lots of hard work behind the scenes. The driving forces behind Great Plains Conservation are wildlife film-makers, photographers and conservationists, Dereck and Beverly Joubert. You can see one of Beverly’s photos of elephants on the wall. Both the common areas and our tent looked out over the water; when the floodwaters are high they may even reach underneath the deck of the main area, which will be magnificent.

Driving through road-rivers

At Duba Expedition Camp our guides Joseph Basenyeng and Gee Samaemo took us out driving across floodplains and through deep water, seeming to think their Toyota Land Cruiser was a motor boat. And I’m talking about water deep enough to flood the cab of the vehicle (despite the suspension being hoiked up the max) and require doors to be opened to let the water out. Thank goodness for the hard-working snorkel! Some stretches of ‘road-river’ went on for perhaps a half a kilometre and it was an adrenalin rush to lean out over the side and watch how deep we went, or how we created a bow wave that pushed the water out on each side of the vehicle, briefly flooding all plant life before settling back down again. Perhaps I’m childish, but it was two days of great fun.

Duba’s food

Without contest, Duba Expedition Camp in the Okavango delivered the best food of our five weeks in Botswana, from the Delta to Linyanti, Chobe and the Makgadikgadi. Despite the challenges of getting supplies so deep in the bundu, we could drool over a six-course tasting menu that was sublime, with exotic mushroom and parmesan fettucine, sweet potato soup with coconut and an onion bhaji, an inspired poached pear with honey and lemon curd. High teas were a feast of moist lemon poppyseed cake, choc-nut brownies and mini pizzas. This breakfast in the field was delicious too (baked eggs with cheese, fruit, homemade granola and moist carrot-and-walnut muffins – yum!). Toyota fans will get a kick out of the breakfast set-up. High five to splendid chef Herman Breedt, who unexpectedly treated our taste buds to an exceptional food safari.

Leopard with cub

When we stayed at Duba Expedition Camp this leopard had a warthog kill slung in a tree and kept calling her three-month-old cub to stop hiding in a bush and come to join her. But it was very shy, showing only its little face before retreating into the bushes again, or streaking low and fast to another bush. It was the first time the guides had seen the cub, so they were as excited as we were. Eventually, it started to get dark and our responsible guide Joseph decided to leave mom and cub alone; the little one needed to get settled for the night away from the clutches of passing predators.

Lion cubs hamper hunting

Leopard cubs weren’t the only excitement while we were at Duba Expedition Camp. We also saw that lions are more likely to be successful in hunting warthogs if they don’t have six seven- and eight-month-old cubs in tow to give the game away. Four times the two lionesses tried and four times they failed. Only the last wasn’t the cubs’ fault – the two moms were taking it easy after one of their failed chases when a warthog ran right between them and they were too slow to get up and catch it, despite kicking up huge puffs of dust. It’s amazing how fast a threatened adult warthog can run on such stubby little legs!

Responsible tourism

Boardwalks and tent, Xigera Camp

The camps where we stayed – and indeed many others in Botswana – believe in responsible tourism, which includes both environmental sustainability and commitment to employing and upskilling people from local communities. Camp construction is with poles, decks and canvas, which could be dismantled tomorrow and leave no trace within a few months. Words like reduce, reuse and recycle are important, as are solar energy and environmentally friendly sewage treatment. The companies also help with research and conservation efforts. In a world where plundering nature for our own greed is becoming increasingly frowned on, it’s good to know that Botswana holds itself to a high standard of responsible tourism.

I learnt a lot from our guides in the Delta, about natural fish poisons from plants, how to relieve a scorpion sting, even how tiny termites have changed the face of the Delta and built its islands. My porous brain will probably forget much of what they taught me, but these places, animal sightings and moments will remain with me always.

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