Spring Break Part 1- Cape Town- Okavanga Delta

I'm not sure if I'll be able to accurately describe how amazing my spring break experience was. If I had to choose, it would hands down be the best weekend of my life, I saw amazing things and met some really great people. Most of all, I fell head over heels for southern Africa. Nothing I have done in my life has ever been like this trip.

Here I'll describe the first part, covering days 1-4.

We left early Friday morning from Cape Town and flew to Jo'Burg. I could write an entire entry about the differences in air travel between Africa and elsewhere, but I'm saving that for another time. The most interesting part of the flight was how the announcements were in both English and Afrikaans. Our first day was mostly spent in the overland truck, driving from Jo'Burg to our first campsite in Botswana. It took much longer than usual, as there was a massive forest fire outside of Pretoria that slowed traffic to a standstill at some points. It was really interesting driving through a lot of South Africa that I hadn't seen before. It looked much more "African" than the Western Cape. We crossed the border, and made it to our campsite after midnight. I learned how to set up a tent, and fully appreciated how useful a headlamp was.

Our truck! Home for 11 days 

Outdoor shower at the first campsite. 

The next morning, we set off again for our next site. Unfortunately, the other truck broke down, so there was a bit of a delay, but as a travel day there wasn't much lost. Moving further into the wild was very strange. I have never before driven anywhere for over 4 or 5 hours and never seen another person, or a town. The truck frequently stopped to let cattle and other animals cross the road in front of us.

The next day our adventures really began. We packed up the truck early, and each only took a day pack with essentials into the delta. We drove in open air safari vehicles about an hour into the bush, where we reached the Mokoro station. Mokoro's are traditionally made from hollowed out tree trunks, and are captained by "pollers" who essentailly act like a gondoler.

mokoro "station" 

Andrew and I with our "poller" 

campsite in the delta 

mokoro's parked at our camp 

We laid out our mattresses and sleeping bags in the mokoros and headed into the delta proper. Riding in the mokoro was unreal. There are water lilies everywhere and everything is so peaceful and gorgeous. Pictures don't do it justice. It took about two hours to reach our campsite, where we set up tents and learned more about the delta and the pollers and natives who are still born and live there. They grow up with nature, can track animals and seem to have a connection with the land that is difficult to describe. The time in the delta was filled with mokoroing to a swimming hole to keep cool in the middle of the day, game walks where we saw elephants and zebra, hanging out by the campfire, not showering, and viewing hippos from a mokoro right before sunset. I cannot recommend experiencing the Okavanga delta enough. It is unlike any place I have ever been and probably will ever be. It was a definite highlight of my time in Africa.

sunset in the delta 

water lilies 

zebra we saw on the game walk 

Beauty making a traditional woven bracelet 

traditional woven goods 

Hippo! 

sunset from the Mokoro 

water lillies might be my new favorite flower 

Our last night in camp, the pollers sang traditional Botswanan music and danced for us. While there was a language barrier, as the songs were in Tswanan, it was easy to follow along. The dances tended to act out story lines. My favorite involved a man who was obviously a play boy and all of the women he wronged. We reciprocated with renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner and Party in the USA. I have some videos that I will try to upload later.

pollers singing 

living the life in a Mokoro 

I will post more about the next part of my trip later!

Happy reading!

xoxo,

Sara