Heaven on Earth

Riding in a mokoro (although very hard on your butt after a couple of hours) is my idea of a little piece of heaven, my absolute top choice of anything in the world I could do. The sky is a beautiful shade of blue, the tall grasses along the waterways are brilliant green, the water reflects the sky and is saphire blue. The water channels run through the grasses, and the only sound is from the birds. The man poling the mokoro, Philip, is at the back and there is no noise from poling. There are gentle ripples from the canoe gliding through the water, lilies and lily pads on each side. After a couple of hours we pull into an edge and get out to eat our lunch, on this trip I had ordered an extra packed lunch for our poler. They work the whole day with no water and no food, unless you share your lunch. Last year we shared, this year I brought one for him. You should have seen him eat! He was small in stature, but he put away his lunch (cheese sandwich, piece of chicken, 2 hardboiled eggs, and an apple) plus my eggs and apple, and my husbands eggs. he then took us on a walk through the bush. We walked in the hot midday sun for about an hour each way. The Africans have a way of walking that is a very steady pace, not fast, not slow but you can move for a long time and not get tired. It was hard to get used to, from my fast paced world I wanted him to hurry up, in North America we just want to get to where we are going, without wasting time. Finally I got accustomed to his pace and WOW....you can walk forever like that! He knew the names of all the birds and animals. There was a herd of giraffes that started to run away when they heard us coming. An elephant had come out of the water and was throwing dirt over his back to stop the itch (Philip took us up carefully so as not to alert the elephant) Just an amazing place! I'd go back in a heatbeat.

the Fourth Annual Once in a Lifetime Trip

Yes, we went back again! This time we went back to Namibia and then to Botswana. Let me tell you about the place that I think is my number one favourite place in the world, the Okavanga Delta in Botswana. We stayed in Maun and took a day trip, about 1 1/2 hours back into the bush to take a Mokoro (dugout canoe) trip. The driver pulled up in a small, battered pick up truck to drive us into the back country, 2 seats for the 3 of us. He thought we would all fit in, no problem.... PROBLEM....I knew, since we had done this trip before how long the trip backcountry would take. I didn't pay a substantial amount of money to sit in the middle with my legs crammed in beside the stickshift. We "discussed" this for a while, he finally realized I wasn't backing down, and he went back and got a battered old land rover, much better! Driving into the back country is driving into the real Africa. Along the track a herd of wildebeast stampeded across in front of our path followed by a herd of zebras. Giraffes were over in the acacia bushes on one side. Further along were elephants. Then we got to a small village about an hour back in the bush, where our driver had grown up. He dropped off supplies for his sister (this picture is his nephew) and then further down the road picked up 2 guys walking along the track. One had what was obviously a long rifle wrapped in a sheet. They aren't allowed to hunt the animals...but the one said slyly "I might need protection from a lion" They were going up to the Mokoro station to see if there was any work. They never know how many tourists are coming up, there is no phone in the bush, so they walk from their village for a couple of hours to see if they will get work that day poling the mokoro. That day there was only my husband and I, so only work for one guy. At the end of the day when we left, our driver took 3 other guys from the mokoro village, after about an hour of driving, he stopped, they got out (just to the right of the giraffe!) and started to walk. Just savanah grasses as far as you could see but I guess they knew where they were going. In my next story I'll tell you why the delta is heaven on earth. This picture is the nephew of our driver, with his toy truck, shaped from bent wire, with the ends of pop cans for wheels, and a long handle to push it on the ground. He really loved that truck!