26 Apr |
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 Keee-ow kow kow kow As wake-up calls go, the African Fish Eagle is pretty hard to beat. But then again, it doesn't take much to haul yourself out of bed when there's a day of Okavango adventure ahead The stretch of Delta floodplains my alarm clock is soaring over is part of &Beyond's Xudum concession in the Okavango Delta; a 15-minute flip in a light aircraft from the tourist hub of Maun in the north-west corner of Botswana. Built entirely of wood, the suites at Xudum Delta Lodge make the most of the outstanding vistas stretching out over the reed beds, with wrap-around wooden decks and billowing mosquito nets offering all the romance honeymooners could ask for. Well, that and the giant tub-with-a-view, that is. For lazy days and private dining, there's always the rooftop balcony. Each suite gazes out over the channel where hippos break the night's silence with their grumpy 'ho ho ho', and the rising sun streams into the room to wake me just in time for the morning game activity. Well, that and my local alarm clock, of course. "Welcome to the Hippo Highway" Water-based safaris on speedboat and traditional mokoro are the main draw-card for tourists, and the excellent guides at Xudum certainly don't disappoint. "Welcome to the Hippo Highway", beams my guide Basha as he deftly manoeuvres the flat-bottom speedboat along the narrow channels carved in the reeds by the foraging herbivores. "We sign a contract with them," he jokes. "We can use it during the day and they only come down at night!" The hippo channels are almost two metres wide and easily a metre-and-a-half deep; a good indication of the colossal size of these territorial titans. Every few hundred metres the hippo channel widens at the point where herds of elephant cross between the islands. Neither of which I find very comforting when I'm perched in a slightly unstable mokoro which looks like it would be no match for a hippo's two front teeth. But there's no use being cowardly… mokoro rides are, after all, what sets the Okavango apart. You can go on a game drive or take a boat safari throughout Southern Africa, but the mokoro is unique to the Delta. These narrow dugout canoes are the perfect way get up close and personal with the reed beds that lay claim to much of the Okavango. They slip silently through the vegetation, sliding past reeds and over lily ponds without disturbing the wildlife. I keep a keen eye out for Green or Painted Reed frogs, and an ear open for the tell-tale splash of Red Lechwe escaping through the channels. After a while frog-spotting becomes easy, but the Lechwe keep to themselves. You're unlikely to see a procession of big game on a mokoro ride though, so if you're a Big Five virgin you may fail to gasp at the sight of small frogs or trampled hippo channels. But to me the highlight of visiting the Delta is, quite simply, the Delta. Not the toothy, furry creatures within it. You can see the Big Five almost anywhere in Southern Africa, but the landscape of the Okavango is breathtakingly unique. Trees perch on bleached-white termite mounds. Fish eagles stand like sentinels on almost every bend in the channel. Fern Palms wave to you above a sea of Turpentine Grass… incongruous, yet perfectly at home as they wait for the floods to surround them. Not drowning, but waving. And there are few better places to enjoy the scenery than the deck of Xaranna Tented Camp, my favourite of the two new lodges. Situated on a small island, the area is home to a fantastic array of birds that will have twitchers fumbling for their Zeiss spotting scopes faster than you can say "Squacco Heron". Squaccos flap out of almost every corner of the Delta it seems, as do African Jacanas, Purple Herons and alarm clocks. I mean African Fish Eagles. As with all of &Beyond's lodges, Xaranna also has a 'Star Birds' list of species particular to the area to help budding birders tell a Saddle-Billed Stork from a Malachite Kingfisher. While the resident hamerkops may make unruly nests that are more function than form, they simply can't compete with the whimsical luxury of Xaranna's nine tented suites. Xaranna is a 'Tented Camp' in the very broadest sense of the word. There are no flysheets to unzip or guy ropes to trip over. Instead you'll gaze out of floor-to-ceiling fly screens that keep the bugs out, but let the Delta views wash in. The décor, particularly at the main lodge, is somewhere between Out of Africa and Alice in Wonderland; a colourful collection of Africana where nature guides are paraded in pink leather alongside hand-crafted plastic baobabs and chic modern furniture. In the parade of grinning hippos that greets visitors on the jetty I half expect one of them to be wearing a top-hat. When the sun heads west and the temperature drops, life returns to the Delta. Red Lechwe emerge from the shadows, Kudu come to nibble on the green bushes at the water's edge and tourists gather for an afternoon cruise on the water. Guests clamber into the flat-bottomed boats and a sturdy supply of G&Ts are thrown in alongside the fishing rods. We head downstream to try our luck, as evenings are the best time to cast a line for African Pike, Tilapia or Bream.  Our skipper Mogale kills the engine and we slide into a large lily pond. "We'll try here first," he says, reaching for a rod. 'Ho ho ho' Or perhaps not, as a testy hippo bull snorts his annoyance at the intruders and disappears underwater. We anxiously follow his trail of bubbles to see where he's headed. Luckily he's more interested in peace and quiet than showing us who's boss, and heads off into the reeds. At sunset we pull up onto our own private island and Mogale does a quick circumnavigation to ensure the coast is clear. He's back in a few seconds… the island is only five metres across. The perfect spot for sundowners. As soon as the sun dips below the distant shore Mogale hurries us back into the boat. Mindful of Basha's 'contract' with the hippos it'll soon be their turn to use the channel and I don't fancy any head-on collisions. The path home is lit by a fiery full-moon; a red light forcing us to stop for awhile. Well, that and the large bull elephant using our channel as a zebra crossing. It gets darker, and darker still, while we wait for the bull to move off a safe distance before heading back to camp. The boma fires are lit and supper is on the go. Tonight our boma dinner is undisturbed by the local residents, although guests have previously had to abandon their plates when a young bull elephant came to join the party. "He's a young guy," says Ross, the lodge manager. "He still needs to learn some manners." There's an elephant in my Boma. Sounds like a Leon Schuster movie. As I tumble in to bed at the end of a long, dusty day of Delta adventure I instinctively roll over to set my alarm clock. And then remember there's no need. He'll be out as the sun rises, soaring above the floodplains in search of breakfast. Keee-ow kow kow kow TRAVEL ADVISORY
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