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14th September 2006

Location: Maun, Botswana

From the salt pans it was back through the sand and on to Maun and the Okavango Delta! Maun is a bustling town that provides an entry point for travellers in to the Delta. We set up at "back to the bridge back packers" on arrival and booked in for a Mokoro tour the next morning. Mokoro’s are wooden canoes driven by a poler who is also your guide.

We spent 3 days two nights in the Delta. Our days consisted of a sunrise game walk for four hours or so. Leaving the rest of the day to try and avoid the sun! Before going on another game walk in the evening. We managed to see Elephant, Wildebeest, Zebra and Impala as well as numerous bird species. Oh, and we were camped next to a pool of Hippos that would grunt away in the back ground and give chase if we went to close in the Mokoro’s. All under control of course by our adept poling guides.

Botswana has been a great taste of a simpler Africa. We are starting to see how limited supplies might become further north. The Delta was our first real touristy attraction and was well worth the effort. Our next major destination is Livingstone in Zambia. Home to Vic Falls and the mighty Zambezi river.

Salt Pans to Maun Images

Chronicle blurp

A hard ride out from the salt pans was followed by a night in the Makgadikgadi game reserve where we woke to find lion foot prints and snake tracks near our camp site. We then followed the Boete river up to Maun, the gateway to the Okavango Delta. After parking up the bikes in Maun we spent three days touring the eastern delta with local guides on Mokora - wooden canoe which are poled rather than paddled. The delta is teeming with life and we saw many elephants, hippos, wildebeest and zebra. Still no run ins with big cats, although, it is probably just a mater of time…