Day five- Explosion of green in the Okavango Deltat
In the morning we set out on a game drive on the way to the airstrip where we would hop on a small safari plane that would take us to our next destination - the Okavango Delta! I must admit that this was the part I was most nervous about before the trip, I've never flown such a small plane before, and was not fully lit on the idea: / mostly because I was afraid to become crazy carsick.
On the way to the airstrip, we met some more lovely creatures, a herd of Impala with a group of Kudus grassing in the morning sun. We also saw one of the lion brothers from yesterday, he posed on the rock where he lay and glowed in the sunlight. We heard the other two brothers, but they were hiding in the high grass. A majestic elephant bulls were out in the fields, his tusks was so shiny and beautiful, this is how elephants should be experienced, free, strong and healthy <3
We reached the airstrip and we had some company of Elephants on the runway, not sure they are the best airport workers but they quickly ran away when we approached them in the car. Before the trip i had made lots of research to find a suitable bag that would fit the luggage space, I even build a small model of the luggage measurements to be sure, haha. But when the plane landed it was much bigger than the one we were instructed to adjust after, that dosen´t matter its good to practice travel light
Once up in the air everything went nice and smooth and we could enjoy the view below as we flew over the delta. I have never seen anything like it, it was like a chlorophyll bomb struck and colored the landscape green. In between, the river spread out like serpentines over the landscape. Imagine that we would soon be landing here, aaahh!
In the delta we stayed in a private concession located in the Nxabega / Kanana Reserve (NG27A), West of Chief's Island, and bordering Moremi Game Reserve. In this concession it´s just three camps; andBeyonds Nxabega safari camp, Pom Pom camp and Kanana camp, our "mobile camp" was not included i these three They had divided the area into different parts and you where not allowed to go into someone else part, if it wasn't a big sighting ex. lions, wild dogs etc, then they worked together with the other camps and that was a good set up. As it´s a private concession it´s not classified as a National Park, so you can drive off-road, do walking and night drives which is a big plus. And of course their is much less people than in the national parks (not that it has been a problem on this trip)
We arrived at our camp and the site they had chose was absolutely magical, our 3 tents were next to each other but with enough space between not to interfere and the view was absolutely magnificent, the pictures may speak for themselves I'm not sure that it´s the right word to call this camp "mobile", as its permanently in this site all of the season, but it was designed to not leave any permanent structures when taken down. Anyhow we were in heaven!
Anyone who thinks that camping have to be rugged, has not camped like this :) African-style-glamping oh yes!
After a short rest, we set out on an afternoon drive to discover the new landscape.
We were looking for leopard but unfortunately so far no luck .. We stopped at a watering hole for a sundowner and this evening the delta rewardedus with a magical sunset. I can not imagine that a gin and tonic ever tasted better.
In the middle of the drink we heard an alarm call from a Redbuck, this could only mean one thing - Leo! We drove toward the sound and found neither Redbuck or Leopard, so we decided to turn back to pick down our outdoor bar .. and voila, in the road straight ahead passed a very beautiful leopard male. The sun had already gone down so we followed him for as long as we could but we did not want to interfere with his hunting so we left him to do the night's deed. It was a very happy bunch in the car back to the water hole, finally a leopard!
Back at our little outdoor bar we had a new guest. I'm so bad at birds so I can not say what owl this was, anyone know? Whatever it was really beautiful and nice to watch as he was looking for dinner by the water.
Back in camp, the dinner table was set in front of the fire. It was a lot of talk about leopards, I'm a such a sucker when it comes to cats, i could watch them all day, all night so i was very happy with how the day ended. We had a late night and I fell asleep to the monotonous song from the frogs the minute I put my head down