Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Delta
The next few days of the Selta flew by. Friday morning we were up at dawn for breakfast and out on another game drive by the time the sun was all the way up. We had the fortunate opportunity of tracking a leopard (a rare find!). She was sitting in the tall grasses when we finally found her. Even when out truck was right in front of her, it took a lot of us some time to find her.
After stopping for tea and coffee, we drove to one of the little rivers in the delta to go on a Mokoro ride. Mokoros are traditional boats that are carved from some of the bigger trees that are found in the Delta. Due to the limited number of trees that were big enough, they switched to fiber glass ones in the past couple years. There were two of us to a boat and a driver who brought us up and down the little river. It was a beautiful and the ride was lovely!
That afternoon we got to experience how the showers worked at the campsite! They filled a canvas bag suspended from a tree branch with water. We would stand underneath the bag and turn the nozzle as needed. It was by far one of the coolest showers I've ever taken. I don't think I'll ever take another shower where I can look up at the bright blue African sky!
That night, we stopped by a river full of hippos and watched the sunset. I don't think that I'll ever be able to get over how beautiful the sunsets were in the Delta. Every time I tried to take a picture, the photograph could never compare to what I saw in front of me. Eventually I stopped trying to capture it and simply enjoyed the beauty.
In addition to seeing another leopard sunbathing, elephants galore, several giraffes, and other various herbivores, we had the opportunity of seeing a herd of buffalo gathered by a watering hole on saturday. According to our guide, Simon, this was quite an experience. It could have been a scene from the lion king. There were zebra, buffalo, elephants and impala all drinking and sharing one watering hole. At one point, the elephants stepped in and made sure that everyone was aware that they were still, by far, the biggest animal there. On the drive back, we saw a jackal. We had seen just about every animal by that point!
In addition to everything we had seen that day, we also got to play a prank on the other group. Simon said that the guides liked to prank each other whenever possible (gotta keep things lively in the bush). We got out of the car and hid behind the bushes. Simon instructed us to keep our eyes down so that Clinton's light wouldn't reveal us. As the other car drove down the road, Simon counted 1, 2, 3! And we all charged the car. I think it's safe to say that we got them!
Sunday morning we embarked on our last game drive. As always, we were not disappointed! The only animals that we hadn't seen yet was a pack of wild dogs. Wild dogs are very interetsing animals; they are incredibly social. The whole pack (can be as large as 30 dogs) all help raise pups. There is an alpha male and female, which is not the norm in the animal kingdom. Because they are social, they have interesting group dynamics. This includes mealtime; those who go out and hunt return and regurgitate their meals for the nursing mother and here pups. Because they are so social, they also spread diseases very quickly amongst them. Due to the spread of domesticated dog diseases like bordetella, and their decreasing habitat, the number of wild dogs are rapidly decreasing. This made it all more exciting when we were able to see them! We found a mother and two of her pups resting in a field. Well, the mom was resting while the pups wrestled with each other. It was so cute! Simon said that wild dogs are not very aggressive and probably wouldn't attack us if we went to pet the puppies. Despite this comment, he still wouldn't let us get out of the truck and try...
Rather than take the safari vehicles back to Maun, we took a bush plane. This allowed us to see the Delta from a bird's eye view. Rather than try and describe it, I'll let the pictures do the talking!
