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23rd april - 9th may

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Botswana

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 15:19:02

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the largest inland delta in the world. if you're wondering what the hell an inland delta is, don't worry. although the actual definition is quite frightening and involves terms like evapotranspiration, half-graben structures and alluvial fans; it basically means that a river (in this case the kavango river) pours into the desert where it fans out into network of smaller and smaller channels and eventually completely evaporates without ever reaching the sea. the resulting wetland is a haven for birds and animals and correspondingly one of africa's top safari destinations.

all that water does cause some logistical problems though. the traditional way of getting round the delta is by dugout canoe, or mokoro as it is know locally. these narrow boats are propelled through the shallow waterways by pole, much like a gondola or punt. a mokoro trip is an essential part of any delta safari and is usually combined with guided walks on the islands between the channels. its possible to do mokoro trips from various points on the edge of the delta, but if you want to be right in the heart of it, it's necessary to fly-in to one of the many lodges.

as you may have noticed, we don't like to do things by halves. so fly-in safari it was. albeit at one of the delta's only two (comparatively) budget options - most of the lodges cost hundreds of dollars per person, per night upwards. we also wanted to fly, as they say that you can only really appreciate the scale of the delta from the air.

with three nights of all-inclusive, luxury tented accommodation booked, we only had to look after ourselves for one more night before we could take a break from lighting fires, filling jerry cans and setting up camps. it's fair to say we were really looking forward to it.

okavango delta - 29th april

the plane was, as you would expect, fairly small; ten seats and two propellers. the ride was bumpy, but the ...