Africa Trip Report - Part 3

MAY 11th
The next morning, it was moving day again, so we packed up the bags and had a game drive on our way out of Nxai Pan. More bat-eared foxes and then the amazing giraffe sighting. Once we were done counting, we had spotted 36 giraffe in the one group. From little baby giraffe (well, little is relative) to older darker spotted giraffe. Amazing!

It was fun to watch them watch us. Out of all the animals we saw, the giraffe were by far the most interested in us. They almost always stopped and stared at us as we had stopped to take photos of them.

On the way out of Nxai Pan, we spotted more jackels and Oryx and then came the large bull elephant in musth. He was lumbering down the right side of the road and Richard could tell he was in musth from the droplets around his footprints. Once spotted, Richard drove quickly and careful around him so we would be positioned in front of of the elle (he told us later you don't want to be in position of having to back up from a charging elle... always in front of it so you can drive away from it). We then slowed down, but never stopped, enough to take some photos. We saw so many elles later that it is kinda funny now looking back at all the clamoring we did to get some photos of this one guy.

We drove back to Maun and stopped off at the WS HQ there. We had some time before our flight into the delta, so we got to take showers and eat lunch in there beautiful facility there. If you ever have a chance to spend some time in their lounge, do so. We also met Christo, one of the WS managers who asked us how things were going so far.

All clean and refreshed, we headed to the airport and climbed into our Cessna Caravan for the flight to Xijera. I love the flights, not only cause I work in aviation, but also because you get a great and different perspective of the landscape and the delta from the air.

The flood had not reached Maun yet, but soon after getting airborn, we could see the first portions of the flood approaching. By the time we approached the Xijera landing strip, we were surrounded by beautiful blue water and wonderful green foliage. We also noted that the edge of the Xijera landing strip was underwater and sandbags and berms were being built to try and save the runway. Definately a good flood year.

We departed and hopped into a new truck and drove a short distance to the mokoros. All our luggage was loaded into one mokoro which Richard poled. Our guide/poler was Cedric, who manages the Mokoro Trails camp. He was so nice and funny. We set off in the mokoros and what an amazing experience... floating along the lily pads and through the reeds. Looking down into water so smooth and clear. It was late afternoon and everything had this wonderful golden glow to it.

Cedric pointed out the tiny tiny reed frog (they also call them bell frogs) which we later understand is responsible for the wonderful chime sounds at night. Cedric also lost his pole twice during the trip. Good thing we had other boats behind us to retrieve the pole. He explained that sometimes the forked end of the pole gets stuck in the reeds and grass below the water and that polers are not supposed to try and yank the pole out cause it could tip the mokoro. So we let another mokoro's poler do the yanking of the pole out of the grass for us. Very smart that Cedric.

We soon spotted our tents nestled on the banks of an island and were greeted by the staff on our arrival. The bush loos and showers here were a little different. Instead of the loo or shower bucket being surrounded by a open-roofed tent, they were only separated by a wall of tall reeds; the toilet paper roll on the branch outside the only signifier as to the occupancy of the loo.

Another great day in Africa!