'We call this the “Hippo Highway,’ laughs my guide Basha, standing at the wheel of our flat-bottomed speedboat. ‘We sign a contract with them. We can use it during the day and they only come down at night!’ he chortles.
The highway he is referring to is one of the deep channels carved through the reed beds of the Okavango Delta by the notoriously grumpy herbivores. Spending their days in the deep lily-covered pools they emerge at night to graze, and heaven help anyone who gets in their way.
Speedboat safaris are the easy way to explore the filigreed channels of the Okavango, but for a true Delta experience you need to take courage in both hands and lower yourself into a decidedly wobbly mokoro.
Unique to the Delta, these traditional dugout canoes were once carved from single tree-trunks, but are today (thankfully!) made of rather sturdier fibreglass. A comforting thought as you peer through crystal clear water to the sandy bottom of the channel worn smooth by a two-ton hippo!
However, once you’ve settled into the rhythm of the river you’ll start to relax. Don’t forget to listen out for the telltale splash of Red Lechwe escaping through the channels or a bark from the shy Sitatunga.
‘Keep an eye out for Painted Reed Frogs,’ calls Basha, poling us gently from the back of the mokoro. ‘The trick is too look near the top of the stem.’
Hidden amongst the rustling reeds, Painted Reed Frogs are the chameleons of the Delta. Glistening with a hundred colours when the sun catches their glistening back, they magically disappear into the background the moment you look away.
All the better to avoid the keen eye of the Kingfishers, I guess, which flutter above the water hoping for an unwary African Pike to wander out from under the lily pads.
Birding is one of the real joys of the Delta. The floodplains are home to an array of species that will have twitchers fumbling for their spotting scopes faster than you can say 'Squacco Heron’. African Fish Eagles seem to perch around every bend, African Jacanas skip across the surface and Purple Herons flap lazily towards their next perch.
With toes trailing in the water and just the gentle splosh of Basha’s pole piercing the silence, about the only thing standing between me and perfection is an ice-cold G&T. Perhaps Kenneth Grahame’s Water Rat was right when he enthused that ‘There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.’
In this water-world of channels and pools there are any number of uninhabited islands to lay your head for the night, but few can compare to &Beyond’s Xaranna Tented Camp.
The lodge opened its doors late in 2008 and now offers some of the most splendid accommodation in the Delta. With just nine luxury tented suites, it is definitely more Toad Hall than Water Rat’s hole in the riverbank!
‘But a Tented Camp?’ I hear you ask?
Now before you start worrying about guylines and wooden pegs, rest assured that an &Beyond tent is the canvas dream to end any family camping nightmares.
Elephantine beds, alfresco showers, private pools and wonderfully quirky decor make this camp ideal for the style-conscious traveller. A whimsical wind-up crocodile snaps its way across the coffee table before dinner, the hefty Roberts Bird Guide is trussed up in an electric-pink leather cover, and African classics lie waiting to be read over a glass of midday Chardonnay.
Situated on its own private island, Xaranna Tented Camp is marooned by water almost all year round, ensuring you encounter the Delta at every turn.
It flows in front of the open-air boma at the main lodge, elephants splash through it at night as they wander past your tent and Saddle-billed Storks stand knee-deep in it – colourful beaks at the ready – as you lounge on your sala day-bed in the heat of the afternoon.
Across the channel from the lodge Turpentine Grass camouflages the tawny lions that stalk these plains. Red Lechwe are frequent visitors here, as are zebra, giraffe and large herds of buffalo; all of which you'll get to meet on twice-daily game excursions.
Yet while the game is certainly a highlight of an Okavango safari, it plays second fiddle to the Delta itself. You can see the Big Five almost anywhere in Southern Africa, but the landscape of the Okavango is reason enough to visit. A landscape formed – quite simply – by a river that lost its way.
The Kavango River left the highlands of Angola with the best intentions, but mysteriously turned from the Atlantic and headed east into the dry plains of Botswana.
It’s this wayward waterway – not the rainy season downpours – that forms the Okavango, flowing 1600-kilometres from its source to empty into the world's largest inland delta.
From May to August the waters arrive, spreading the tendrils of the Delta as far south as the tourist hub of Maun. In this time of plenty, the water – and the wildlife – is scattered far and wide. The scenery is outstanding, but the game-viewing could leave you with an empty tick-list.
As summer arrives the rivers start to dry up. The heat builds and the dust rises, driving man and beast to the nearest scrap of shade, until the rains bring relief from December to March. As the downpours peter out in April the flood begins to trickle its way south once more, forming a mosaic of marsh, savanna and woodland and marking the best time to visit the Delta.
On my bush plane back to Maun – the 20-minute flight is the quickest way to Xaranna – it struck me that between floods, rain and drought the Delta is a land in constant flux. As some wit once said, the only thing that's constant is change. I wonder if he'd visited the Okavango?
- For more information visit www.andbeyond.com or call +27 11 809 4300.
- The Okavango Delta is a malaria-area. Consult your doctor at least three weeks before departure for appropriate prophylactics.
- South African passport-holders do not require a visa to visit Botswana on holiday.
Published in Signature, the official Diner's Club magazine, June 2009.
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