Day 15 & 16 Nata to Maun & flight to Okavango Delta 16 & 17th May 315 kms. Rest day
Set alarm for 5.30am extremely cold night in tent had hot breakfast and were on our way at 6.30am to drive 315kms to catch our plane to the Okavango Delta. The countryside is very similar to Port Hedland in Western Australia with cattle, donkeys and horses roaming freely from side to side. Today is the first day we have had the car heater on, this helped to defrost my frozen body, the sun started to peep through at 7.00am for another wonderful warm day ahead. We had lovely good roads with not much to see except the odd animal we arrived in Maun at 10.30 and stopped and had coffee and cake in a lovely cafe 5 minutes from the airport where most of the rally participants stopped. At 11.00 o’clock made our way to the airport to find we were lucky ones to be catching the 12.30 pm flight to the Okavango Delta. Their were a lot of disgruntled people however Nikki and Lee were doing the best they could in a very difficult situation. Arrived at our camp in Moreing Crossing and were shown to our luxury camp site very similar to Nata’s accommodation however we were right beside the river overlooking elephants and monkeys climbing the palm trees wonderful spot. We settled in had afternoon tea and then we set off for our first 2 hour safari walk with Amos our tour guide who was very knowledgable, it was great to walk about in the delta and do some physical exercise, we left in a mokoro which is like a kayak this took 15 minutes where we stopped at an island to view animals, dung and footprints. At sunset we returned to camp showered had tea and of to bed for an early start tomorrow. Rest day Woke by the locals at 6.00am quick breakfast and off on a boat safari trip, we followed elephants and hippopotamus tracks which were surrounded by long grasses and reeds. The boat motor continually got covered in the grasses so moving forward was slow. We came across some elephants and many birds and then finally a group of hippopotamus, there was a male chasing a female who was not interested so she headed back to her group which created ill feelings amongst the other bull. We had a great display of fighting with them opening their mouths and lunging forward making an awful noise for about 15 minutes until finally the male hippo was chased away. We had to continually move the boat and their was one stage the motor was so clogged with grasses we thought the hippos may of charged us,this was a scary time, thank goodness Amos new what he was doing. Had some drinks and biscuits when all was safe and then made our way back to camp excited to tell our other rally team what we had seen. Once back at camp all details of morning adventures were told then brunch and afternoon siesta ready for the afternoon boat trip. Again set of with Amos but this time upstream where the first hour was relaxing with little animal activity until we came across more hippopotamus and crocodile. This was very different to our morning display these hippos were very happy and playful, they lunged out of the water like performing dolphins a great site to watch while we again enjoyed some nibbles and drinks. Back at camp the locals sung and did their traditional dance before tea, a very enjoyable day was had by all.
