Everything in the African tourist trade seems to work to the clock. Our schedules must match the animal’s time-tables, their time at the water hole, when they are eating and so forth. Be prepared for very early starts – animals start grazing at dawn.
Our guides and lodge staff work to the clock as well. We are checking out of the Tsowa Safari Lodge and our luggage has been collected from our rooms/tents and loaded into a boat to be transported to the International Airport at Kasane. We stop briefly to look at game – there is always a time allowance should anything interesting show up on the track. A minibus with trailer is waiting on the main road and we double check our luggage.
At the Botswana border, we get our passport stamped on exiting Zimbabwe. Any shoes we are wearing must be disinfected by stepping into a tray containing a damp rag soaked in a charcoal looking liquid. We then enter Botswana and get our passports stamped for free. Most of this happenes outdoors where we are now required to disinfect any other shoes we have in our luggage. These we have isolated in advance for easy access. Out luggage is transferred to a Botswanan minibus with trailer and we proceed to the airport. Two eight seated Cesena planes are waiting to take us to Xakanaxa. This takes about an hour, initially over arid scrubland. As we approach the Okavango Delta, the landscape turns to an amazing green with large areas of water.
My understanding of a delta is when a river enters the sea or a lake. Over sixty thousand years ago a tectonic shift blocked the path of the Okavango River so that it now soaks into the Kalahari Desert, creating an amazing wetland.
At Xakanaxa, the Desert and Delta Safari company collect us and transport us to Camp Moremi where the entire staff welcome us with acapella song and hot moist towels. The paperwork is thorough and identity forms must be filled out and indemnity statements signed. We can then be escorted to our individual rooms via a walkway. It’s a reminder that we are in close proximity to wild animals and safety is a concern.
Our Game Drive this afternoon takes us in three Toyota Land Cruisers along soft sandy tracks. The landscape is much greener than the Zambezi National Park and the animals much more relaxed around the vehicles. They see us as one large non- aggressive object. We are to stay in the vehicle most of the time – apparently a single person approaching will cause the animal to flee or attack.
We spot the beautiful Lilac Collared Roller, Impalla, Hippopotami grazing on the marginal grasses in the lake shallows or just sleeping. There’s a medium sized Crocodile, motionless in the afternoon sun and flocks of birds everywhere.
As is the custom in Africa, we stop for the obligatory sundown drinks and nibbles. Back at the lodge we have time to shower before pre dinner drinks. As it is now dark, we must be escorted from our luxury huts. After a buffet dinner, we are all tired and have to be escorted back to our lodges by one of the staff. There is safety in numbers even though the path is well lit. There’s a very early start in the morning and the temperature has plummeted.