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  Maun, Botswana
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hello from Maun again!
  We are just stopped in town right now before we head off to do 2 bush camps in Botswana. We have spent the last 4 days at Sitatunga Camp, and for two of those nights we went into the Okavango Delta for 2 days of bush walk safaris and just exploring the wilderness.
 To get to the Delta we had to take an open air safair vehicle and travel three hours to the loading point. Once there we got in pairs and were assigned to different mokoros. Mokoros are dug out canoes that sit about 4 inches off the water, and a poler maneuvers the boat through the wetlands of the Delta.
  Den and I were together, and our poler's name was Punch. We had about an hour and a half mokoro ride to get to our campsite, and once there we set up our tents, unloaded the food, had a siesta, aka nap, and went swimming a watering hole. Basically it is way to hot here to do anything during the afternoon hours, so once it cooled down around 530 we set off on our first bush walk.
  During our bush walk we were split into two groups and each had their own set of guides. We basically just walked around in the Delta for close to three hours looking for game. We saw a bunch of giraffe, wilderbeasts, impala, and other smaller animals. No lions though unfortunately. The bush walk was decent, but it wasn't totally exciting because we have seen these animals loads of times before, although it is a little different seeing them on foot and not in a safari jeep. 
  After our bush walk we headed back to camp before it was dark, cooked dinner, and had a camp fire. I went to bed pretty early because we had to wake up at 5am to leave at 530 for our four hour morning bush walk the next day. It sucked waking up that early, and Punch came around shaking all our tents to get us up. The initial half of our morning bush walk sucked. We saw nothing, and it was starting to get hot and the flies were swarming us. However, after we took a little break we ended up seeing elephans, buffalo, and super fresh lion prints. The guides think that while we were standing there looking at the prints there were 8 lions, or a pride, hiding in the bushes around us, because out of nowhere the buffalo starting running and going crazy... lion chase! 
  The rest of our day afer our morning walk was spent having another siesta, swimming, and playing cards. We then headed out on a sunset mokoro ride where we saw tons of hippos and got some amazing sunset pictures over the Delta. That night we had another campfire and roasted marshmallows. The guides sang and danced for us, and we had to return the favour. We did a pitiful version of "The lion sleeps tonight". Once again, it was an early-ish night because we woke up again the next morning for another bush walk.
  The final bush walk we saw leopard prints, lion prints, loads of giraffe, and zebra. No lions again though. Bummer. We left camp not long after our bush walk was done, did the mokoro ride back to the loading station, and then jumped on our safari truck to take us back to Maun. Last night we had some drinks for Denise's birthday which is today, and we are contemplating a truck party on the way to our bush camp this afternoon.
  Botswana is nice so far, but not half as exciting as Vic Falls. I am still missing it! From Botswana we head into Namibia where we will go to Etosha National Park for a few game drives, and then onto Swakomond for Christmas. I cannot believe Christmas is so close... having no snow really makes it seem lik Christmas is ages away! 
  I am missing everyone at home and hope all is well!!
Lots of love,
Britt :)
 

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