Okavango Delta

So after the game drive Friday, we went on a game cruise on the river. We saw and incredible number of animals. Hippos (gross), huge herds of elephants, cape buffalo, and enormous fish eagles. I will never forget watching the elephant exchange-herds of elephants swimming between Namibia and Botswana. they were great swimmers with their trunks held high like snorkels.
we woke at the crack of dawn for our all day drive only to have the truck refuse to start. Because of the late start we had to fly past all of the giant baobabs including a small grove marked "Planet Baobab." I was somewhat devastated, as visiting a baobab was one of the top three items on my Africa 'to do list.'
the first part of the road between Kasane and Maun was a moonscape of potholes. We ride in what looks like a little house on top of a big ugly army truck. Mile after mile we flop up and down and side to side like sailors on a stormy sea. We spent Saturday night in the fantastic Audi camp in Maun where they actually have hot showers. Sunday morning we rode two hours into the Okavango Delta and loaded the bare essentials into mokoros (dugout canoes). We were poled upstream almost two hours to the wild bush camp in the delta. We set up camp and went on a bush walk to Hippo Pool where hippos lounged, snorting and flapping their ears. We watched the sunset and spotted a pair of giraffes walked back to camp.
Around the campfire that night the guides told us about their cultures. Peter, our tour guide, is form Zimbabwe. There was much talk of bride price. Weddings in Africa are apparently rough events for cattle.
We fell asleep to the sound of lions roaring in the distance.
Morning brought a somewhat fruitless game walk. Another group told us that it helps to tell the guides exactly what you're hoping to see, otherwise they'll just walk you around and show you bushes and trees. Then we packed up camp and loaded back into the mokoros for the trip out of the Okavango. Contrary to what the guides told us, mokoros aren't that stable and CAN capsize. Leslie and Caroline's poler lost her balance and all three of them ended up in the drink-a slightly closer encounter with Africa than they'd hoped for. Luckily, there weren't any crocodiles in the area. Ironically, Leslie had been very nervous about this part of the tour from the beginning, worried that she would end up in the water. She was a good sport about it though.
Now we're back at Audi camp. Jeff just drank water with diesel in it. They store our drinking water next to the gas tank and it is contaminated every time we fill up.