Chobe River sunset cruise

North of Botswana, the Chobe natural park has one of the largest concentration of African animals, and we are going to verify this.

After a short ride and camp setting at Kasune, we hop on a boat to start a cruise until sunset. Nice top deck for observation & tanning, even though we definitely look like big tourists... ;-))

The Chobe river landscape

Buffalo drinking on the shore

Surprisingly (at least to me), elephants swim through the center of the river to reach swamps where they can eat and drink without constraints, quite amazing to see (and hear!!)

The Chove river center, with elephants eating & drinking loudly

A photo for my mom... me with the elephants & hippo in the background ;-)

The impressive hippo

Elephant surrounded by birds

On the shores of the river, herds of elephants are walking around... so many that you cannot even count them, I think we are done with our elephant viewing!

So so many elephants seen drinking on the shore!

What's your count?

Walking elephants... with a nice water reflection ;)

Just to show how close the boat can be to the animals... as they are protected and are never hunted here, absolutely no fear, just few wondering look from time to time! 

A hippo family! the young one just disappeared for the pic under the water

It is a sunset cruise... so it requires again sunset pics! So here they are...

Elefant sands

More elephants today... they are really everywhere down here! We stop at a camp called "Elefant sands", where the camp & chalets are organized around a waterhole, where a lot of elephants come to drink.
The camp and chalet are not protected at all, so sometimes they pass by your tent or chalet... sounds fun :)

They also have a nice pool (a bit salty though), so we enjoy of course.

 As we were told... an elephant come around, say hello then start drinking. Very interesting to see this so up close!

 Hello Dumbo! ;)

Okavango delta

Our next visit of Botswana is with the Okavango delta, a large inland delta where the Okavango river, coming from Angola and Northern countries. All the water reaching the Delta is ultimately evaporated and transpired, and does not flow into any sea or ocean. 

We spend 3 days there, with the 1st and 3rd nights at Maun, entry point of the delta. The 2nd night is spent in the delta, completely isolated from everything, with no network and nothing around for km...

To head into the delta, it first requires us to drive 2h on some dirt roads, or actually no road at all... then we reach the start with the mokoro boats waiting for us.

Those kind of barges are very light and low in the water, and we have polars who will carry us to the camp in the delta.

C'est parti :)

 We cross the swamps of the delta... barefoot but I can tell you I had about 1/2 liter of mosquito repellent on me... there were many, with few spiders from time to time coming to say hello ;)

The swamps are very nice though, and the 1h30 to cross them is pleasant, showing us some pretty lily pads.

Once arrived, we set-up camp in the middle of the island, really nothing around nor to help, but it feels great to be in the wild :)

During the day, we have a long walk where we get close to some zebras, then try to pole the barges, tougher than it looks like. 

 Yes there are zebras in the background ;))

Few of us also go swimming in the swamp, in a previous hippo pool, where the locals say there are no more hippos nor crocodiles... we are still alive so they were right!

Evening sunset walk to see animals... we didn't really see any this time, but the views were great. 

 Well, we saw that skleton of a dead zebra...

 The sun looked to burn the bush while setting down

Camp dinner around the fire, followed by local songs from the polars, interesting. Africa Africa!!

Return back to "civilization"... I take the guitar out to play in the middle of the delta; on the moroko.... loved it :)

 Passed by close to some hippos on the way back... they are very dangerous animals, the locals fear them a lot. Hippos are actually the 1st cause of death in Africa!!!

In the 2nd afternoon, we all booked a scenic flight above the delta, to see and understand how big is it, as well as seeing herds of animals. 

 View of the Maun town...

What you see below is the typical housing all across Botswana: shacks. It is quite crazy how small they can be... and are spread all over the "towns", in the bush / forest, which makes the towns do not look like a town. I'll share more on this later.

The San Bushmen @Ghanzi

Today, entrance in Botswana where we will stay for about a week before to reach Victoria Falls. This 1st stop makes us discover a bit more the San Bushmen, which is the name used to named the original African bush inhabitants.

While short, the guided walk with them is quite puzzling, as they show us how they live in the wild, with almost nothing and using tricks & plants for everything... a bit how all our ancestors were probably living thousands years ago, very interesting. 

They speak a very strange language, with various "clics" used at the beginning or ends of words, which makes the tour quite fun. A guide is of course translating our questions and what they explain us. 

They look in general either very young or old, while actually they are not what they look. The guy above is 24 years old... the lady aside 44 years old...
Life expectancy is about 49 years old.

 Here the boys show us how they light up a fire from just wood and herbs, while the ladies work on the food & drinks from plants & fruits found around.

 The fire is on :-)

The tour ends at sunset, with a nice view on the bush around and the moon rising up. 

Tonight, I decided to upgrade myself from the tent to a private "chalet"... feels great ;)