The sun sets on the Okavango Delta. (0710852)
THE Okavango Delta is one of the most extraordinary natural wonders of the world.
While most rivers empty into the sea, the Okavango and its tributaries disappear into the Kalahari Desert, where they drain into the sand or evaporate.
This creates a huge marsh, which is crisscrossed by channels. Islands are formed as the waters wash around higher ground.
Millions of years ago, water levels were higher, forming Lake Makgadikgadi, now the Makgadikgadi Pan.
Movements of the Earth’s tectonic plates trapped the water to create today’s unique environment.
Ample water, tropical sun and Africa’s biodiversity have combined to produce one of the richest places in the continent for animals, birds, reptiles and fish. A safari holiday in the Okavango is guaranteed to be a succession of encounters with animals and a bewildering array of birds.
Access is by air from Maun, flying in small aeroplanes that take no more than 12 people. The delta is dotted with campsites in which up to 20 people can be accommodated at one time.
This skeleton gave us an insight into the huge size of an elephant and its tusks. (0697644)
The small size of each camp ensures highly personalised service, making encounters with wildlife, most people’s reason for visiting the delta are both solitary and exciting.
Botswana has not gone in for the mass tourism of Kenya or South Africa but has an upmarket niche with expensive holidays of a very high standard.
Our first camp was on the southern side of the delta, reached after a 45-minute flight from Maun.
This frontier town has grown up around the service industry of tourism in the delta.
I have never seen so many light aircraft parked along one apron anywhere in my travels and each was ready to go with a small cargo of happy tourists.
Stepping off the flight from Johannesburg, we were quickly and efficiently met and whisked off to our internal flight, which set off for Kanana Camp just 20 minutes after our arrival.
Our handling agents were Ker & Downey, who have been looking after tourists in southern Africa for nearly 80 years.
Our accommodation was in one of about eight large safari tents in what is a delightfully informal camp.
Its richness in wildlife was immediately noticeable, as there were many piles of fresh elephant dung on both sides of the path leading from the main refectory and living area to the tents. Guests needing an escort after dark provide a whistle for use.
‘Tent’ conjures up images of ‘Carry On Camping’, but this accommodation is quite different from my Scouting days.
Each is on a platform about 5ft off the ground and has a luxurious living room, which has two double beds and opens onto a veranda overlooking the Xudum River. At the rear is a shower room with lavatory and hand-wash basin.
Service is as one might expect in a five-star hotel with maid service (an early-morning cup of tea or coffee is brought to the veranda at daybreak).
Each tent has nylon mosquito-net windows with a canvas flap curtain. Not that insects were much of a problem in November, but anti-malaria pills were taken just in case.
The daily activities on offer included morning and evening safaris in viewing vehicles or wildlife-viewing trips around the islands in local mokoro boats, which slip silently through the reed beds. Walking safaris are also available, although with a group to escort we did not take this option.
Boating gives access to a superb heronry which has many hundreds of marabou, open-billed and yellow-billed storks, several species of egret, cormorants, darters and pelicans … a brilliant adventure.
The unexpected can happen, though. Our first trip was with Ker & Downey’s managing guide for Botswana, Bruce Cantle, and he knows a thing or two about the local wildlife. He noticed two bull elephants on one of the islands and moored our boat close to a traditional crossing spot.
Sure enough, within 15 minutes the elephants emerged from undergrowth close to us and cautiously entered the water to cross only a few metres away from us. It was a breathtaking encounter.
Driven safaris can be just as exciting.
Our first brought us close to a pride of lions numbering about 15 animals, including a number of cubs.
As is normal with these great cats (they are almost the size of a fully-grown zebra) they were lying up digesting the previous night’s meal. A few of the cubs were playing but generally speaking activity was minimal.
A vast bull elephant peers down at us from the reeds. (0697643)
My groups did a great imitation of them after lunch as they enjoyed a siesta snoozing on their balconies.
Zebras were quite common, along with impala, giraffe, kudu and a stunning black-backed jackal.
But it was the birds that took most of my attention: we recorded about 120 species in two days.
The second camp at Okute was quite different, with huge rooms connected by catwalks, again on stilts.
This was full of friendly Germans, who helped one British woman celebrate her 90th birthday in some style. (She was quite a character: when meeting Ker & Downey’s managing director she blithely informed him that ‘Sid Downey [founder of the company] was a boyfriend who took me on a three-week safari through Kenya and Tanzania in 1936’.)
The camp was alive with birds, including nesting hoopoes and a Pel’s fishing owl that roosted in an inaccessible tree out of sight to all but the most enthusiastic birdwatchers, which of course we were.
A vast, orange-coloured bird, it hunts by listening to fish splashing on the surface in the dark and pouncing on them.
Here, we were taken to the two-year-old carcass of an elephant, now just bones bleached in the sun, and were able to lift its vast tusks from their sockets to feel the weight.
Our final evening was spent around a campfire, under a deeply dark sky heavy with stars, sipping South African wine and swapping yarns.
The Okavango magic had been cast over us.
Article posted on 31st January, 2009 - 10.00am
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