Okovango Delta
October 15, 2000
More Bushwalks
The next morning, we got up early
(5:30 am again!), ate breakfast, and got in the mokoros
again: just a short trip. We were going on another game walk in a different part of
the Delta.
Walking around the delta, I was struck once again on how much it reminded
me of Southern California: the weather was hot and try, with just a slight breeze.
Everything was tinder-dry, and it was very quiet: you could hear birds in the distance,
but no traffic, no people. On second thought, maybe it's not like Southern
California after all...
Our guide (who's name was Worm, for no readily apparent reason) told us a
story about the difference between the Bushmen (who hunt cattle) and their cousins the
cattle herders (who raise cattle for milk). It was a tribal story about how this
state of affairs came to be, but unfortunately I had a lot of trouble following the
narrative.
Worm was a bit more descriptive and animated than our guide from the
previous day: he pointed out sorghum (milkweed) plants, the roots of which are boiled for
medicine. He also led us to an elephant skeleton,
where we rested. The guides gathered up the tusks, at first I thought it was to keep
them from poachers, but later on I saw one of our guides carving a piece of the ivory into
a model mokoro boat. Susanna was incensed: the guides are hired locally, but aren't
supposed to take anything from the park!
Later we found a herd of zebras (which
got spooked at one point, because of us?).
We also spotted some lion prints, but no
lions were to be seen. A troop of baboons
wandered by, carefully avoiding us.
As we moved back to the mokoros, Worm
spotted some hippos relaxing in the water, and a couple of crocodiles nearby.
Hippos can be quite dangerous: they can attack small boats and seriously injure or kill
people who disturb them. Fortunately, this group didn't want to bother us.
Swimming
We got back to the mokoros that morning, and went back to the camp to
relax. It was swiftly getting too hot to do much of anything, so most of the rest of
the day we had to ourselves. Fortunately we had a break from the heat: Susanna and
some of the guides took us to a safe waterhole where we could have a nice swim. I
say "safe" because in lots of areas there was evidence of recent hippo activity,
and running into one of those while in the water would ruin our whole day.
The water of the Okovango is nice and cool, but not very clean. The
bottom was quite muddy and a lot of sediment gets pushed up from the bottom, especially
when you are splashing around (which we were). It felt GREAT. I dunked my hat
and shirt in the water to help stay cool. It was so great that after we got back to
camp and dried off, we went out for another swim!
As I chatted with the group, for the second time on the trip I got a laugh
because my (current) home town is Springfield: "The Simpsons" would appear to be
an international hit! (I didn't bother telling them that there are about 50 towns in the
U.S. named "Springfield").
Fun and Games
That afternoon, we went on a mokoro ride
through the delta. It was a nice and relaxing diversion. One problem when I
got out of the boat, though: both my feet had fallen asleep, so I barely made it back to
camp!
After a nice spaghetti dinner, we played another game called the
"Slap" game, where each person sits down with their right hand on the left knee
of the person at your left, and the left hand on the right knee of the person at your
right. The idea was to "pass" the slap from one person to another in the
correct order. Two slaps would indicate a change in direction. The fact that
your hands were crossed over each other made things more difficult than usual!
We also played a similar game where person A handed a fork to person
B, saying "this is a fork". Person B would say "what?" and
person A would say "a fork.". Then person B would say to person C
"this is a fork", person C would say "what?", person B would say
"what?" and person A would say "a fork", person B would say "a
fork", etc. Sounds simple enough? try doing it with 2 or more utensils,
starting at opposite ends of a line, and watch the fun when the lines cross!
Stars!
Remember how quiet I said everything was? well that went for the stars,
too: there was no light pollution, and I was delighted to actually see the Milky Way for
the first time! I even spotted a satellite going by. Blast, I should have
brought my telescope!
