Victoria Falls in a private car at around 5:15am for the Botswanan border.
This is apparently the best time to see wildlife, but I didn't figure we'd
see them while driving down the road! On that little 60k trip we saw
elephants, giraffes, and, gasp, LIONS!! There were about 4 females with 1
male. How LUCKY! My pictures are kinda pitch black though, unfortunately.
But after talking to many who had just come from a safari and DIDN'T see any
lions, we felt supremely blessed.
The next couple of hours were rather nerve-wracking as we had to make about
4 different connections between combis (hired mini-buses), taxis and
hitchhiking. AND, the ATMs in Botswana don't take my card. NOW HEAR THIS -
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: If you EVER intend to do any international travel,
GET A VISA LOGO ON YOUR ATM CARD!! I was under the impression that ATM is
ATM and you can use it anywhere. Nope, wrong! Mastercard Sucks. Get a
VISA. (Visa rep, if you're reading this, I accept paypal.)
Anyway, we finally got ourselves all sorted out, and then I was blessed, yet
again, and got us picked up by a friendly fellow with a comfortable truck
who was heading all the way to Maun, our destination. P.S., it was FREE!!
(I think I must've picked up travelers in a former life.) Oh ya, lots of
Giraffes on the road on this leg. We settled in at a gorgeous campsite on
the water and booked our adventuring the next day.
Wednesday we headed out for our 3 day/2 night Mokoro trip. A Mokoro is a
hollowed out tree log that's used as a canoe (however, many are made of
fiberglass now in light of conservation efforts). A guy/girl called a
"poler" drives the boat with a long piece of bamboo that s/he places at the
bottom of the water and pushes us along. (I tried driving - while I did ok,
it's bloody tiring!) We traveled by Mokoro for about 3 hours and arrived at
an "island" in the Okavango Delta, and set up camp.
Over the next 2.5 days we went on walking safaris. We learned about animal
tracks, animal poop and of course what to do in the event of an animal
encounter. We saw TONS of Zebras, Blue Wildebeast, Impalas, Antelope,
Giraffes and Elephants...plus a whole bunch of birds and smaller mammals
that no one really cares about :-) My favorite were the Zebras - one
particular group sort of got used to us and let us get closer and closer
each time they saw us. But then, the last day, an Elephant totally came
INTO our CAMP!! Ever the one to tempt the fates (at much to the worry of
the guide), I got closer and closer with Mr. Elephant till I was about 10-15
ft. away. Our eyes were locked on each other - it was pretty magical.
Friday we made our way back out, Saturday was a travel day from Maun to
Shakawe, then over the border back into Namibia.
The holiday was WAY TOO SHORT! But I'm super glad I got to see all that I
did, and am very much looking forward to travelling again in late November
through December.
1 comment:
Go Sheena!!
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