Next stop, Okavanga Delta.

A scorcher of a highlight started with a speed boat ride into the Delta to meet our Mukuro (traditional dugout canoe) polers, who would be our "drivers" come guides for the next 3 days. Ours was a lovely chap called Tarzan, who hardly spoke any English, and did nothing but smile and make me delta necklaces out of day lillies...

Day 1, and we were gently poled to our bush camp...along the way we saw beautiful birds a-plenty, lots of little fluffy clouds, zillions of beautiful lillies and papyrus, a couple of scary Hippo Pods that moved far too close to us for comfort...what we realised is that the Delta is a true wilderness and totally pristine. Late afternoon we arrived at our bush camp and headed off on a walk, before putting tents up.

There was nothing much to report from the walk until we were on the home run, when suddenly this truly horrific stench hung thick in the air. A few meters further and we came across a lion carcus...the flesh had largely been eaten, but the skin, the tail and the skeleton remained, including an intact skull with it's full set of teeth. And HUGE teeth they were. If you breathed only through your mouth you were able to appreciate the rarity of this find, but one slip up and the tiniest of wafts through the nose left you running for fresh air!

Back at bush camp a storm was heading our way and so we hurriedly put up our tents. We were basically camping on the shores of the delta, in a small clearing among some trees, which had clearly been used recently as a feeding ground by elephants; piles of dung and broken branches were strewn all across the ground, so finding a clean spot to put the tent was impossible and made even more difficult when El and I realised that we had poles of varying length in our tent kit....our pathetic attempts at putting this thing up were put to shame by a couple of the poler guides. They had no poles in their kit, but improvised by using a knife to cut and shape their own set from the bits of tree lying around. What modernisation takes away from us hey? Tents eventually up, the wind came in and blew the darn things near horizontal for an hour or two, but the rain and thunder passed us by. With the sun set, we ate dinner round the camp fire and went to bed early, oh at about 830pm!

Day 2 started with a very early 3 hour walk...6am saw us sat in our canoes being poled across to a nearby island...what followed was a beautiful and peaceful walk through the bush as the sun rose. Those close to me know I love walking, and so at this special time of day, quiet with my own thoughts I just walked and soaked up the atmosphere and special feeling of being a part of Africa...

Later in the day we were taken to another campsite by mukuru. Now, despite layers of suncream, the scorching sun had burnt me so badly the previous day that today I actually sat in the makuru in the heat of the midday sun with my sleeping bag liner pulled up to my neck and my sunhat pulled down over my face!! This was one Makuru ride where I didn't get to see the wonderful sights, however with the gentle motion of the canoe, the splashing sounds of poles and canoes making their easy way through the water and of course the birds, it was still overwhelmingly enjoyable.

After we arrived at camp we were offered the chance to have a go at poling ourselves. El and I jumped at the chance, along with a couple of others in our group, a girl called Andy and the driver, Pat. Sorry girls, but the boys really were so much better. Andy and I fell in the delta several times, whilst El and Pat were actually quite good. Mind you I didn't mind, because frankly, the pure clean water was so refreshingly cooling that falling in at the end was not an accident - my desire to cool off took over my fear that there could well be crocodiles nearby ready to pounce. El poled me back to camp and never have I seen him look so muscly and masterful ;) !!!

Day 3 saw us leave the delta. We want to go back. We barely scratched the surface of this wonderful place.

The Delta - what can we say? Never have either of seen land so pristine and truly natural. Wow. A place to return to, for sure and a real highlight of the trip.