The Eastcott Family Blog: Okavango Delta Trip

8:00am rolled around and we were packed up and ready to go for our trip. The four of us loaded in the safari truck with a few others (who were doing day trips) and set off up the road to where the boat would pick us up and take us to the village just up the river where we would meet our polers and set off from. The most interesting thing we saw on the short boat ride were some locals crossing the river in some mokoros … with their cattle and dog in tow … all swimming across the river as well. Thirty minutes later we were pulling into the village, unloaded our stuff, settled into our mokoros (which would be our transport for the next two days which felt like they were going to topple) and were quickly on our way into the delta.

The area as a whole is absolutely beautiful, there is abundant bird life and wildlife to watch and the time in the boat is extremely peaceful and relaxing. The first morning on the water we spent getting to our camp site where we would set up camp for the night. After getting there the four of us set up camp (which consisted of our 3 man tent and sleeping bags) ate some lunch and hung around while our polers started a camp fire and dug us a bush toilet. A few hours later Dave decided he wanted to go fishing, so the four of us all loaded in one mokoro (with one poler – the other stayed back because of the baboons) and headed to the lagoon. Once there our poler looked for the hippos (which live there) and since there weren’t any said we could stay there and put the fishing net out. It took about 30 minutes to get the net in the water and all the while our mokoro felt like it was going to tip, we had some good laughs. Dave was laying in the front of the boat, Kate was weaving herself a pillow from the reeds she pulled out (with Lucy’s help) and Lisa was holding on to the reeds hoping she wouldn’t fall out. Once the poler finished putting the net out we left and went to another spot in the lagoon so Dave could try his fishing skills with the pole we borrowed from the hostel. Of course he caught nothing although we did get some good laughs watching the poler trying to use a modern fishing machine (aka a fishing pole).

After getting back to the campsite we decided to have a go at poling which is actually surprisingly easier to balance then we first thought it would be. A few hours later (after dinner and more relaxing) the four of us loaded back into the mokoro to head to another island for a nature walk. On the walk we saw some baboons and antelope as well as a puff adder (poisonous snake) which was seen when some other lady (who was from Texas) almost stepped on it. Once our walk was over we went back to camp and spent the rest of the evening snacking, playing games, listening to stories the poler was telling before hitting the hay as we were waking up early to go on another nature walk in the morning.

The next morning (after a fairly good sleep) we woke up, had some breakfast and then got in our mokoros to head to a different island for our nature walk. This walk we had both our polers and were able to see baboons, zebras, antelope and an elephant who was shaking the tree to get the fruit out. It was crazy to think that we were so close to all the animals and were just on foot although there were a lot of other tourists out there as well and as long as we could run faster than the slowest person we were safe (as Lucy's mum put it). After about three hours or so we headed back to the mokoros so that we could get back to camp. Once back to camp Dave decided to go with the poler to collect the fish net (to see if we caught anything) while Lisa, Kate and Lucy stayed back to pack up camp. About an hour later Dave and the poler were returning with three fairly large fish. The net ended up catching two catfish and one tilapia.

While we were amazed that the net had actually caught fish, the polers saw it as a meal and went straight to preparing it. He started with the tilapia as it was the smallest and they were going to eat it for lunch. After preparing that one he started on the two catfish while Lisa, Kate and Lucy all watched and had an anatomy lesson. Dave was out in the mokoro the whole time with his modern day fishing pole catching nothing. Once all the fish was prepared and being cooked we decided to all have another go at the mokoros and spent some more time around the camp. A little later we were packing everything back into the mokoros and heading to the poling village.

We had to be there by 4pm to be picked up by the boat but were interested in trying this wine that they make from a plant so asked to go back a little earlier. After a two hour mokoro ride we were pulling into the village. Feeling successful that we survived our night in the Deltas, we unloaded the boats and walked into the village to a little house where there were some kids playing, a man hand carving toy mokoros and women were sitting around chatting. We bought one glass of wine between the four of us and spent the next few minutes testing it and trying to decide what we thought of it. It actually wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t quite ready yet so the flavor was still a little off. After we finished there we walked back to river and were picked up by the boat shortly later.

After getting back to the hostel we cooked some dinner, ordered some food (we sold our share of the tent for a pizza and a beer) and hung around before getting to bed (the last night we would have in our 3 man tent - bitter sweet). The next morning we were parting ways after our week we had spent together and we were on our way to Johannesburg. All in all we had an awesome time on the trip and really enjoyed having Kate and Lucy as company and now have a place to stay shall we ever visit wherever they are living and likewise for them!