Okavengo Delta: Mokoro Trip
Day 1: We woke up this morning in anticipation of our 3 day, 2 night mokoro trip in the Okavengo Delta. After gathering minimal supplies, we waited for our ride to pick us up and take us to the boat landing. As the 4x4 truck pulled up, there was quite a bit of clunking and sputtering. We loaded our supplies and then tried to get going. Unfortunately, the truck wouldn't start. Jeff and some other guys tried to push it into a jump start, but nothing happened. After a mechanic working on it for a few minutes, they got it started. We started driving down the road and the car wouldn't go higher than second gear. Our driver decided it wasn't safe to drive the 45 minute drive (half of it in a 4x4 track) there. We stopped on the side of the road and radioed for a new vehicle. Our new vehicle was an opened backed truck and our driver wasn't messing around. He took that 4x4 track and laughed in it's face. After a lot of bouncing around in the back and a few bugs in both my eyes and mouth, we arrived at the landing. I can say that I was more nervous in this moment than I have been in a very long time. Here we are surrounded by a whole town full of people waiting to see if they were going to be chosen to go out into the delta. There were about 30-40 mokoro boats sitting in the water waiting to be assigned a guide and riders. We were ushered to a boat and introduced to our poler/guide Mr. John. He was an experienced guide and poler, but he didn't talk very much. We arranged our return time and transportation back to the hotel and set off.
I was riding in the front, so I got good views of our ride through the reeds. That also means that I got the most bugs, spider webs and reeds in the face. The ride to our campsite took about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Mr. John poled our mokoro into a small opening in the brush and we arrived at our campsite. Mr. John immediately went to work unloading the boat, telling us where to set up our tent, gathering firewood and setting up the bathroom. Now, let's talk about the bathroom. Please be advised that there will be TMI coming up. Now, please remember that we just took a mokoro (which is a tree trunk hollowed out into a canoe-like boat) through the water, taking us several hours away from civilization. Mr. John set off with a shovel and when he returned took Jeff and I to our "toilet", which was a 2 ft square hole in the ground. He then made a "bush-man's shovel", which was a piece of a palm tree trunk made into a small shovel. This was to "flush" the toilet after you went to the bathroom. At this point, I was extremely happy that I brought my own roll of toilet paper. Let's just say as the only woman at our campsite, I had the pleasure of using our "toilet" more often than the men; therefore, I had a whole new appreciation for flush toilets when returning from our trip three days later.
So, after settling into our campsite and getting a fire going, Mr. John informed us that we would take a game walk that night before dinner, as well as go for a cruise on the river the next morning around 8am. Our game walk started off with a huge bull elephant, which was grazing about 30-40 yards from our campsite. Us, as well as another group stood to watch the elephant and experienced a "mock-charge", which is what elephants do when you get too close to them. They usually mock-charge first to scare you off, and if you persist, they may end up charging you. Fortunately, we all kept still and the bull just kept grazing. We moved on to analyze the different type of animal dung. One of the other guides tried to convince us that Wildebeast dung was his favorite tasty treat, and proceeded to put a piece in his mouth. Let's just say his group freaked out a little bit about his choice in snacks. We saw some Red Lechwe (antelope) and some birds. After the game walk, we made our way back to camp to make dinner. Since we had a fire, we roasted sausages and shared with our poler. Animal Sightings: Elephant, Red Lechwe and birds.
Day 2: We woke up to Mr. John taping on our tent at 6:30am saying "Knock, Knock". Since we didn't have an alarm clock, we had to rely on Mr. John's internal clock to wake us up each morning. We set off at 7:00am for our morning cruise. We stopped on a larger island to take a game walk for a few hours. We saw a herd of zebras, wildebeast, several elephants, antelope, baboons and warthogs. Once we returned to camp, we had time to eat lunch, read and relax until our sunset mokoro cruise. The sunset cruise was calm and relaxing. We stopped in a lagoon and watched the sunset. It was so peaceful being out on the water and enjoying the scenery. For our second dinner, we got creative and managed to make pasta with meat sauce on the camp fire. It was quite an experience. We shared with our guide and enjoyed our meal. That night some of the polers and guides sang some traditional African songs and did some dancing. Animal Sightings: Zebra and Red Lechwe.
Day 3: Again, Mr. John was our alarm clock and woke us up at 6:30am. We headed out at 8:30am to get back to the boat landing. On our return ride, there were more spiders in the reeds than I thought possible. I had them crawling all over me. On our way back we went in search of hippos. I wasn't too pleased about this, because the thought of being in a small canoe in the water with huge hippos freaked me out. However, Jeff really wanted to see a hippo. We ended up seeing one in the large lagoon. His head only came up out of the water a few times. As we headed back to the landing, we took a break by stopping at the village Borro. It was interesting to see the houses that the people lived in. Many of the houses were really small huts with walls made out of soda cans and mud. This was the village that many of the polers and guides came from. Mr. John knew everyone and we followed him around while he visited with friends. Once back in the boat, we made our way back to the boat landing where our ride was waiting. We paid Mr. John and thanked him for the experience in the delta.
Travel Tidbits: A few things you will want to bring with you on a Mokoro Trip-TOILET PAPER, binoculars, bug spray, food, drinking water (you cannot drink out of the delta), camera, camping supplies, etc. Also, you are not required to provide food for your guide and polers, but they appreciate it and may almost expect it.
I was riding in the front, so I got good views of our ride through the reeds. That also means that I got the most bugs, spider webs and reeds in the face. The ride to our campsite took about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Mr. John poled our mokoro into a small opening in the brush and we arrived at our campsite. Mr. John immediately went to work unloading the boat, telling us where to set up our tent, gathering firewood and setting up the bathroom. Now, let's talk about the bathroom. Please be advised that there will be TMI coming up. Now, please remember that we just took a mokoro (which is a tree trunk hollowed out into a canoe-like boat) through the water, taking us several hours away from civilization. Mr. John set off with a shovel and when he returned took Jeff and I to our "toilet", which was a 2 ft square hole in the ground. He then made a "bush-man's shovel", which was a piece of a palm tree trunk made into a small shovel. This was to "flush" the toilet after you went to the bathroom. At this point, I was extremely happy that I brought my own roll of toilet paper. Let's just say as the only woman at our campsite, I had the pleasure of using our "toilet" more often than the men; therefore, I had a whole new appreciation for flush toilets when returning from our trip three days later.
Day 2: We woke up to Mr. John taping on our tent at 6:30am saying "Knock, Knock". Since we didn't have an alarm clock, we had to rely on Mr. John's internal clock to wake us up each morning. We set off at 7:00am for our morning cruise. We stopped on a larger island to take a game walk for a few hours. We saw a herd of zebras, wildebeast, several elephants, antelope, baboons and warthogs. Once we returned to camp, we had time to eat lunch, read and relax until our sunset mokoro cruise. The sunset cruise was calm and relaxing. We stopped in a lagoon and watched the sunset. It was so peaceful being out on the water and enjoying the scenery. For our second dinner, we got creative and managed to make pasta with meat sauce on the camp fire. It was quite an experience. We shared with our guide and enjoyed our meal. That night some of the polers and guides sang some traditional African songs and did some dancing. Animal Sightings: Zebra and Red Lechwe.
Day 3: Again, Mr. John was our alarm clock and woke us up at 6:30am. We headed out at 8:30am to get back to the boat landing. On our return ride, there were more spiders in the reeds than I thought possible. I had them crawling all over me. On our way back we went in search of hippos. I wasn't too pleased about this, because the thought of being in a small canoe in the water with huge hippos freaked me out. However, Jeff really wanted to see a hippo. We ended up seeing one in the large lagoon. His head only came up out of the water a few times. As we headed back to the landing, we took a break by stopping at the village Borro. It was interesting to see the houses that the people lived in. Many of the houses were really small huts with walls made out of soda cans and mud. This was the village that many of the polers and guides came from. Mr. John knew everyone and we followed him around while he visited with friends. Once back in the boat, we made our way back to the boat landing where our ride was waiting. We paid Mr. John and thanked him for the experience in the delta.
Travel Tidbits: A few things you will want to bring with you on a Mokoro Trip-TOILET PAPER, binoculars, bug spray, food, drinking water (you cannot drink out of the delta), camera, camping supplies, etc. Also, you are not required to provide food for your guide and polers, but they appreciate it and may almost expect it.
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