Grace explains how on her Zimbabwe Botswana Game Tracker safari what an experience they had in the Okavango Delta…

We arrived at the poling station and eagerly assisted our polers in loading our mokoros, (dug out canoes) that were going to take us deeper into the Okavango delta where we were going to spend the next couple of nights wild camping.

Soon we were ready to sit back, relax and enjoy the Mokoro ride to the campsite that our polers had chosen for us. On our way we saw open billed storks, squacco herons, reed cormorants just to name a few of the amazing bird species that are found in this region. Our polers pointed out animals big and small; a big bull elephant on the banks and a reed frog clinging to the end of a reed. What an awesome welcome to the delta!

As soon as our camp was set up we went for a swim in the cool delta water a welcome relief from the heat of the sun. By evening the storm clouds were brewing, lightning providing an amazing light show in the distance. We ate and drank around the camp fire and went to bed feeling content.

The night in the delta is not always quiet for it is then that many animals are just waking up. That night as we lay in our tents listening to the frog chorus we were also lucky enough to hear lions roaring in the distance and hyena’s calling.

As dawn broke and we were just finishing our coffees and preparing to go on a walk one of the polers came rushing into the camp to say that he had just seen lion on the other side of the river. We quickly jumped into the mokoros and made our way to the spot where the lions had been seen. We didn’t see them, however we did see the remains of a zebra foal on which they had been feeding! So close to our camp! As we had been lying sleeping it was clear that the lion doesn’t sleep tonight!! As we made our way back to the camp in the mokoros we once again heard the lion roar. What a truly magical start to our day!!

Grace Kemp