Botswana is beautiful. I have seen so many wild animals just along the road, such as elephants, giraffes, wild donkeys, boars. I have reached the part of Africa with loads of traditional people and villages. While in Botswana I did a mokoro trip into the okavango delta. The mokoro is a canoe made from a tree and a local lady was my poler, which means she digs the pole into the ground of the lagoon and pushes me along. Just picture a fairy tale where Princess Sarah is floating by all the pretty lilies in the water. IT was so peaceful but yet I was aware that at any moment a Hippo could be in the water and that interaction would not be peaceful. I did hear some that were very close. I stayed the night with 18 tourist and about 8 guides. We heard lions and wild dogs throughout the night. I went on a total of 7 hrs of game walks. Our guide would tell us that the grass was too high for animal viewing but it made us good for animal prey. We saw a couple lions and began stalking them, not the safest thing to do. The transport to and from the delta lagoon was basically a hay ride. We were on a truck bed going slowly past loads of animals and villages. All the village people would yell "hello how are you" and the children would show off with gymnastic flips and running and hanging onto the back of the truck. It was such a good feeling to see so many happy faces greeting you.

Then I went on a scenic game flight with a 20 year old pilot I watched get so drunk the night before plus this 6 person plane sounded like it would never safely transport us. He decided to be top gun pilot and swoop and dive around all these animals to help us get the best pictures. I would have never imaged that elephant and buffalo herds can be over a 100. We saw every animal at a cool view.
After the Delta, we went to Chobe NP and through our camp ground we signed up for a morninggame drive and a sunset game cruise. Both were great experiences we saw lots of new antelope breeds (lechwe, puku ) and Hippos. We also got to see Elephants playing in the water. We saw a family of lions and our guide drove illegally off road and parked right under their tree. We were inches from this whole family with cute cubs. The morning game drive in Chobe National Park has been my favorite so far because of quanity and closeness of the animals, and of course the beautiful sunrises of Africa.
Journal Entry Botswana Posted On: 4/14/2005