Hakuna Matata!

Alisa doing circles in the mokoro.
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Each year thousands of animals follow the water into the World’s largest in-land delta, and we were no different during this portion of our trip. We entered Botswana via a ferry in which, as we crossed the small river-way, we could see Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe at the same time, and we headed down to Maun (pronounced Ma-UNN) on the Okavango Delta.

From our hostel we took a 1 hr motor boat ride to Boro village to meet our Mokoro polers - Action, who’s favorite line was “no matata” , and his younger brother Costa - who hustled Matt in various card games. Mokoro boats are hollowed out tree trunks made from the Sausage tree. Not really sure what Oscar Meyer was thinking when he named this tree as there were no delicious sausages to be found on this trip. Anyways, the boats are not rowed but moved along through the shallow reed filled delta by a long pole. These polers made this difficult skill look so easy. We found out just how difficult it could be once we were afforded the opportunity to try our hand at driving a mokoro – ultimately traveling in circles nearly capsizing with every push.

He sounded a lot like flava flav but surprised us by listening to Dolly Parton...

Hungry, hungry hippo!
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We spent the next two days on a remote island in the Okavango delta trekking through surrounding islands tracking many animals including giraffe, zebra, elephants, and most nerve rackingly of all – Hippos – it is amazing how feared these animals are by the mokoro polers as they have been known to sneak underwater and flip mokoros without warning!

On our final night on the Okavango Delta we convened at one camp and our polers joined another group to perform traditional song and dance. Very cool. After our trip, Action and Costa were kind enough to show us there own village and their homes. Quite eye opening to see the variation of living conditions between fellow villagers. Overall, Botswana left us with a great impression, mostly because of the great hospitality of the people.

Another African sunset.
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Our biggest problem now was trying to figure out how to get from northern central Botswana to Krugar park in eastern South Africa. We took off from Maun at 11am in a bus before connecting onto a second bus, then boarding an over night economy train at 9pm from Francistown to the southern Botswana border. The whole night was spent facing strangers face-to-face (knees between knees) in 35 degree carriages (of course with no option of opening a window) wishing time would pass by more quickly. It was agonizing. At 8am we arrived at the border town and hitched a ride with Alex, a Jo’berg resident who sounded a lot like flava flav but surprised us by listening to Dolly Parton through most of the 4 hr drive. Shocking.

Matt - the hunter.
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Jo’berg looked a lot like a U.S. city when in the suburbs but once we arrived in downtown the place was buzzing with people. Spending as little time as possible in the city (sorry Andrew) we hopped on a minibus ( a small van crammed with as many people as can possibly fit on top of each other) and ended our journey in Nelspruit, a city that acts as a jumping off point for Krugar Nat’l park (arriving 31 hours after leaving Maun). Ouch!

Once again we opted for a self drive safari in Krugar and managed to get some great tips from Jimmy (the very au natural hostel manager) before leaving for the park. Some notes on Jimmy - Jimmy is a fantastic guy, very nice, wore one pair of clothes for the entire time we were there (and likely for many days prior to this) Jimmy recently broke his hip as a result of attempting a drunken "jump and role" out of a safari jeep. Unfortunately Jimmy didn’t quite clear the wheels. As well, Jimmy, in an effort to offer a visiting photographer an opportunity to photo a real life mugging decided to stuff a backpack full of newspaper and head out to the worst part of town so the photographer could catch a real life mugging at knife-point. A different cat.

Zebra sighting during the hike.
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Back to Krugar, it was exceptional (Thank you mom and dad Parker). We have some great shots that we will share with you instead of continuing this long blog. A "big 5" high five was definitely in order as we got to spend some quality time with the CATS!

The "creepy crawly" corner: Here is the latest sighting. This one is called a rain spider. Although he came inside when the rain started, more of an anti-rain spider. We photographed him with Jimmy while the spider exhibited it's fighting stance, and yes, he was hairy and beefy and you could look him right in the eyes...all 6 of them.