The Okavango Delta is by far the most famous highlight when visiting Botswana. It is a very large inland swamp area, which is formed when the Okavango River feeds into the endorheic basin of the Kalahari (endorheic is a word taken from Ancient Greek: ἔνδον, éndon, "within" and means "to flow"). It simply is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to rivers or oceans, but converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent and/or seasonal. All the water reaching the delta is eventually evaporated throughout the hot summer months and dry winters of Botswana. It was officially declared as one of Africa's Seven Natural Wonders in 2013. Recently, one of our new guides, Robyn Maris accompanied our Zimbabwe and Botswana Game Tracker safari into the Okavango Delta...

First we had to go by 4×4 vehicle for about an hour, deep into the Okavango Delta. But before we reached the poling station some of our clients took a helicopter ride over the Okavango Delta. Once we reached the waters' edge we were met by a team of polers (local fishermen who make a living from their traditional mekoro). They are traditionally made out of the Sausage Tree, but unfortunately the Sausage Tree is now endangered and Sunway Safaris supports an initiative called SOS (Save Our Sausage Trees) which encourages the polers to use artificial mokoro out of fiberglass. (Please visist http://www.sunway-safaris.com/responsible-tourism for more details on how Sunway works together with local communities through SOS, to make a difference.)

There were two people in each mokoro and each had a ‘poler’. The poler stands at the back and steers and propels the boat with a really long pole. The Delta's waters are full of wildlife like crocodiles and hippopotamus. You can see and hear the hippos blowing water and grunting in the distance and the scenery is simply beautiful, with lily pads all around us. We were in the mokoro for at least 2.5 hours before reaching our camp. We unloaded the equipment and started dinner, whilst a make shift shower and toilet was supplied by our polers. 

After this, we were all exhausted from the heat but continued on a bushwalk guided by the polers.We found buffalo, giraffe and impala and we also saw plenty birdlife. After our bushwalk we continued back to camp where we ate dinner and sat bieside the fire. After an exhausting, but exciting day we headed off to our tents.