Paulo just returned from a Botswana Wild Parks BTa14 and had the chance to fly over the Okavango Delta, this is his story...
One of the highlight of some tours with Sunway Safaris is visiting the Okavango delta with on Mokoro travelling along channel and pools, exploring the wilderness on foot, cooking delicious meal on the fire and enjoying the noise of the African Bush.
The Okavango River takes its source in Angola high plateau and meeting the Kalahari sand in Botswana. During bush walk in the Delta, it is possible to come across a large variety of wildlife and habitat, but the land being flat it is difficult to put everything into perspective. An amazing on-expense activity to be done in the delta is a helicopter flight over the delta. A scenic flight using aircraft is also possible to do, offering a higher view of the ground. However, the helicopter picks you up directly near the delta fences. It is a Robinson 44 with 3 seats so each passenger gets a seat on the window. The doors are removed so it is very easy to take photo from the airs like famous photographer such as Ian Arthus Bertrand.
Once you are on board and take off, this is where magic operates, it puts everything into perspective, the landscapes are breath tacking alternating between wetland and channel and vast Mopani lands with different eco zones in between. The wildlife is very abundant, plentiful of zebras, buffalos, wildebeests and impalas. We also see plenty of giraffes, hippos and elephants. Few other uncommon antelope species such as reedbucks or waterbuck were also spotted. Some of my client also spotted a CHEETAH mother with cubs, what an amazing sighting for them.
I was on a tour with 12 clients among whom 10 booked the flight. 2 seats wear free, and I got offered to jump into one flight which was fantastic. I want to thanks once again my clients for this generous gift, of which I am keeping great memories. It is always awesome to see the clients jumping out the chopper with a big smile of the face coming to the rest of the group and share how they enjoyed the activity.