This might be one of my absolute favorite days of the entire tour so far…

On day 15 we got up hella early (I really should stop saying that, since “hella early” is basically normal on Desert Tracker…) and headed to the mokoro station to head to…

THE OKAVANGO DELTA

Mara, our safari truck, couldn’t actually make the drive to the mokoro station, so a 4×4 truck came to our campsite to pick us up in the morning. It was about a fifteen minute drive down the paved roads and then an additional 45 minutes through the sand and forest before arriving at the banks where the mokoro were waiting for us.

We all had to pair up since it was 2 travelers and one poler per boat, and to no one’s surprise, Jane and I hopped in together with our day bags. Context: The night before we left, we all had to pack up a small pack with whatever we’d need for one day and one night, since our accommodation in the delta was a pre-erected tent on an island in the delta.

Once we were situated in the mokoro, our poler shoved off the shore and we were on our way! The mokoro itself is made primarily of local wood, and we found out from our guide that both of his parents were polers as well, and that many times it’s a family trade. Jane and I relaxed as we were transported through the Okavango between the high grass, reeds, and lotus blossoms. Along the ride, we were also greeted by an awesome young crocodile, who posed for a little while so we could snap a few photos.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at our home for the next 24 hours or so, and were helped off the mokoro. Somehow Jane and I were last, so we joined the briefing and heard the plans for the day/night. After the briefing, a few of the team went off to swim in a nearby watering hole while some of stayed behind for tea and card games. Kitty taught us some kind of awesome game and Amberlee and I teamed up to try and figure it out. I’d say by the end we were…less atrocious at it than at the start. Which is saying a lot since I am NOT a card game expert!

Then at 1pm it was FINALLY lunchtime, so everyone gathered back around and we had an amazing meal. There’s this super fun technique locally of cooking an entire meal inside a soup can, and that’s what we got to try! At the top of the can was delicious homemade bread, and once you dug out the biscuit sized chunk, there was chopmeat, veggies, and sauce inside! We had sides of rice and veggies to complete the meal and it was DELICIOUS.

After lunch was over, a few people went back to the swimming hole and some stayed behind again to play cards — but everyone reconvened at 3pm because we had scheduled HELICOPTER RIDES.

Our group has a serious FOMO affliction… and NINE of us signed up for the optional activity of heli rides over the delta… but hey…#yolo.

My group was Silia, Jane and myself, and we ended up being the second group to go.

As soon as the first group landed, we headed right over to board. I ended up next to the pilot, Silia behind me, and Jane behind the pilot as well, but honestly the seating didn’t matter because our pilot was AWESOME. As soon as we were seated, we started takeoff, which in a heli is soooooo much nicer than in a plane. The blades just increase in speed and the helicopter gently rises into the air. And then we were off!

Seeing the Delta from above was a completely different experience from seeing it on land or over water. The vantage just gave a true sense of how expansive the delta really was, and unlike on a game drive, from above you can really see where the animals all are in relation to each other… as well as how HUGE their herds/pods/etc are!

Our pilot took us to see breeding herds of elephant, several pods of HIPPO!, tons of antelope…but my favorite thing that we saw was a herd of zebra. As we were watching the zebra, started to scatter… and that’s when we realized that there was a wildebeest in the middle of the herd going crazy! He was chasing the zebra all around, and they would run away from him and seem like they were leaving, before turning around and going right back where they were. This happened several times while we were watching — we couldn’t stop laughing.

Aside from the animal viewing, the delta itself was absolutely GORGEOUS from above, and our pilot did a few dives that felt straight out of a video game… we would dip down and increase our speed and just FLEW through the delta. Absolutely unreal experience. The entire flight was over much too soon, but 23 minutes definitely felt like an hour — we all agreed it was completely worth the expense.

Once we got back, we relaxed again for a little while…but not too long since at 5pm we were scheduled for a bush walk with a local guide!

As 5pm rolled around, we had to split up into two groups… I ended up with Lena, Johanna, Silia, Me, Jane, Amaury and Kris. Pretty much the usual suspects! We were the first group to set off, and as we were walking, our guide gave us a safety briefing since we were essentially heading into territory that belongsto to the elephants. Concisely, our rules were to stay quiet, move slowly, and stay in a single file line. I guess we seemed competent enough to handle the instructions because the guide set off on the walk!

We encountered elephants pretty close pretty quickly, and we stopped quietly to snap tons of photos. The herd we found was actually split into two groups, one of which was unfortunately blocking the walking trail we needed to use. Our guide situated us a safe distance away and then tried to scare the elephants into moving by clapping and yelling loudly…. This went on for about ten minuted before he decided that it was fruitless. We ended up walking a completely different way and found a spot to sit down and watch the sunset and the elephants for an hour or so.

The hope was that the elephants would move off of the path so we could continue on, but that…. didn’t happen. We watched the view fora while and then we got a bit restless… so Jane, Silia, Kris and I started goofing off. This ended with rare animal sightings (I’m awaiting Jane’s photo to share), and also Amaury throwing a ball of elephant dung at Kris while yelling, “Kris! Catch!”.

Fiiiiiiiiinally once the sun had mostly set, our guide gave up on continuing the walk and we had to wade through a marsh in order to avoid the elephants (at this point even our original path IN had become blocked) and get back to camp for dinner.

Dinner was another excellent meal — we had butternut squash soup with fresh naan-style bread, and then a chicken stew. True to form, Maja tried to entice Silia into tasting some of the meat, but our Veggie stayed strong!

After dinner we gathered around the campfire for songs and dances from our hosts/guides. They shared some of their local melodies and dances, and even got some of us to join in (thanks Nathan for that excellent rendition of the crab!). Once the guides were done with their performance, they asked us if we could share our national anthems with them… and I know you all never believe me about things like this, but I actually HATE performing/being the center of attention. I used to sing the national anthem in HS with another player for some of our volleyball games, so I know it by heart… but I was definitely not planning to volunteer. But Lauren caught my eye and ended up asking if I would sing it with her since I was the only other American, and I couldn’t say no. And that’s how I ended up singing the Star Spangled Banner at a campfire in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. It actually turned out to be a pretty decent duet, I think!

Once we were done, a few other of our groupmates sang, Maja taught us a call and response song from Kenya, and then we played a memory game (which, as expected, I completely bombed out on). Once we were done with a round of that, I was exhausted and ended up turning in a bit early for bed.

But, I mean, can you really blame me?

What an absolutely epic day.