Into the Delta

Sun 13th June
After breakfast, again with our hosts, we set off to go further into the Okavango delta. However, the path we were supposed to take was flooded, in fact Lenti says that he has never seen water in that area in all his lifetime, again we seem to have brought the weather with us! In fact the rain does not fall here but North in Angola and then flows down the Okavango river to this region where it just soaks into the sand. Apparently the movement of the tectonic plates causes the rocks about 300m below the sands to shift and so the movement of the water is very unpredictable, but this year has been a bumper year for rain; it has slowly increased over the last 4 years but before that it was pretty dry.
Any way, we had to change plans and headed to a different campsite instead. On the way we saw rollers, Bee eaters, loads and loads of red and yellow beaked Hornbills. We passed through what they call a 'vet fence' which is a crescent shaped fence that prevents the domesticated cows getting into the park area and the Buffalo and other wildlife going into the populated area; the main reason being to stop the spread of Foot and Mouth disease. Once inside the park we drove on a sandy and bumpy road with a top speed of around 50kph.
We arrived at a private campground / lodge and went down to the reception; we met a rep from the company who was trying to sort out what we were going to do now that the normal route was blocked and he had booked us in to a campsite. As he talked with Lenti in the carpark we could see 2 small, black, dwarf mongeese (mongooses!) running around in the bushes; and later, as we drank tea outside the reception they came up onto the decked area to look for beatles - amazing. Lenti told us that in this area we must not go off into the bush as there could be lions and other wildlife just there behind the bushes.
The support vehicle (we are in one vehicle with Lenti and then our cook (Pi..so )and aid (Gerry) are in another; they always travel in two vehicles here - just in case) had already arrived at the campsite by the time we arrived, our tents were up, the table was laid and we sat down to eat lunch.
There was so much to see as we waited the half hour after lunch before we set off to do a bush drive and walk. First 2 Crested Francolin (a bit like partridges) came, scratching at the ground like chickens and then walking right across our campsite; as they left a yellow mongoose arrived, he seemed very shy at first but then he became very bold and also walked right through the camp. At one stage he lay down in the sand and dug his front paws into the sand as though he was sunbathing.
Our game drive was pretty uneventful apart from a brief sighting of a Speenbok (a small antelope) on the road and a huge, great giraffe munching on the top of the thorny bushes, but we arrived at another lodge after 45 minuteswhere we took a walk. Celso, Tris and I with 3 guides, one with a rifle, for about an hour through the bush. Our first sighting was a pair of male elephants who were eating the pods from the camelthorn tree, they were only about 20m away and apparently could have charged to us in about 1.5 to 2 seconds if they were angry. The larger male put his trunk up around the trunk of the tree and shook and shook so that all the pods fell down, it was incredible. Then we crept around them and on down to the Kwai River (part of the delta system), where we saw a huge Fish Eagle (with a white head and brown body), some Water Buck and a large group of Impala. There was large amounts of elephant dung everywhere, they hardly seem to digest what they eat and there were whole camelthorn seeds in perfect compost; aparently many plants here have seeds that don't germinate until they have been through an elephant!
Our drive back to camp was much more eventful, after meeting up with the 2 elephants again who had moved on to another camelthorn tree near the tack, we had a close up encounter with Waterbuck (they have a great white circle on their rumps like a huge target), then we saw a small herd of Zebra complete with a baby, a herd of Water Buffalo and a Tawny Eagle. We arrived back at camp really happy with the day, could it get any better? Water was being heated on the fire in a metal bucket and then this was tipped into a bag and hung up so that we could take a shower underneath, then we sat round the table and ate rice and fish and discussed what else we could possibly see. One thing I want to see is a Hyena but Lenti says that they don't see them very often as they are nocturnal even though they sometimes hear them in the nights; there was a rustling in the bushes and we got out the torch and shone it in the direction of the noise and believe it or not a spotted hyena was sneaking around the camp - how fantastic.
It has been an unbelievable day.