The Cape to Vic Falls camping tour (CV21) is an iconic tour through Southern Africa and guide Chris Z chats about visiting the Okavango Delta on this trip.

We leave Maun early in the morning in open 4WD vehicles  heading  North-East, crossing the buffalo fence and out into the remote wilderness of the Okavango Delta.  Our 1.5hr – 2hr drive takes us to our polling station where we meet our local guide and the community who will spend the next two days with us.  We pair up, with our sleeping bags and limited luggage (just enough for two days), and settle into our mekoros ready for a relaxing 2hrss.   In our mekoros we lazily drifted through the reeds, zig-zagging  our way to our secluded campsite.

Whilst on our way we saw a variety of insects and frogs on the reeds in the water.  Some of the frogs in the delta are no bigger than your little fingernail.  The Okavango Delta (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the world’s only inland delta and such a unique ecosystem that is has a large number of endemic species that are wonder and delight to see.  Our clients enjoyed drifting silently in their mekoros with their polers providing interesting stories, fun humour and educational information on the ebs and flows of life in the delta.

Once we got to camp, we set up our tents and started busying ourselves getting camp set up for the next two days.  The polers love giving us the opportunity to learn to “pole” a mekoro, teaching us how to balance and move silently and effortlessly through the water.  With much laughter, two of our clients fell in and what a perfect way of cooling down from the hot afternoon of the Delta.

In the late afternoon we set off to explore the area.  During our walk we discussed the different plants (how they can be used for traditions, medicine or food), the animals we saw, insects and the bush in general.

I was very excited because we were so lucky to see three hyenas come out of their den and they didn’t seem to worry about us watching them from close up.  But, to top off our trip to the Delta, the “icing on top of the cake” was that we all got to watch as two of the hyena mated right in front of us (and in front of the other young female,  who might have been a juvenile) .  All this happened as the beautiful African sun was rolling down the horizon.   What a perfect day in the Okavango Delta.