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.