Africa - Part 7 (Maun and Delta)

It's a little confusing...Maun, Okavango Delta, Moremi Wildlife Refuge. Looking at a terrain map, Okavango Delta is an area that spreads across this region. When I first started research for the trip, I believed The Okavango Delta was another park or area to visit, but it actually spreads across the area, encompassing or touching the city of Maun, Moremi Wildlife Refuge, Chobe National Park, and other towns and areas.

We were staying several kilometers north of Maun at Discovery B&B. A really nice place and good location that provides many options the area has to offer. We decided to take a flight over the delta, a nice bird's eye view. A little later in the day than I would prefer due to the turbulence from warm air currents that my stomach doesn't appreciate all too well, but it was fantastic to see the life below from that vantage point. After the flight, which ran about an hour, we dropped Jennifer off at the Maun airport so she could catch her flight to Windhoek, Namibia. We spent the rest of that afternoon driving along Shorobe Road, as there were many photographs to be made and things to see that were more "local" and not touristy. We ate dinner with our hosts at Discovery B&B tonight, who are transplants from Holland. It was very interesting to hear their story, of how they were volunteers in the area and decided they wanted to stay, and found Discovery when it was for sale and decided to buy it.

The next day we decided to turn in our rental vehicle, as we had it a week at that point, was €100 per day, and we were staying local and could get around using our feet and taxi's. I drove out to Kaziikini in the morning, because since we left there I hadn't been able to find my reading glasses, and it was not fun to ask Radhika to read the menu the night before at dinner. I had a feeling I knew where I could have left them, and it was less than a 45 minute ride. Besides, I hoped to see some animals in the early morning hours. I did find the glasses, but didn't see much wildlife. Funny about the glasses, they were left in the shower/toilet area of the camp sites. One of the campers heard why I was there and told me he saw the glasses just sitting there over the past 2 1/2 days - even tried them on to see if they worked for him, but they didn't. He figured those glasses were there to stay and the owner was long gone, so he was really surprised to see me get them back. Radhika was just getting ready to have breakfast when I returned, so we ate, relaxed a little around the grounds, and then drove into Maun to return the vehicle to Budget. We then walked around the area some more, making pictures and checking things out. The day before, we decided to arrange for an afternoon boat trip today, timing it for after we drop off the vehicle. The guy had told us to bring some beer, so we bought some and dropped it off early where the boat was leaving from so the guy could store the two 6-packs in their fridge. Today, we walked along Shorobe Road until it was close to when Neil, who owned the place, had told us to show up. We took a taxi to the place, and Neil had no recollection of our conversation from the prior day. I heard him telling Radhika the boat was full and he couldn't take anyone. We'll we finally jogged his memory, and we had a nice ride all to ourselves on the delta waters on our way to pick up some people at Buffalo Gate. We walked to few kilometers from the boat location to our B&B. It was a little adventurous, as it was pitch dark, but we had no problems and made it back fine.

The next morning was our last in Botswana, as we caught the same 3:30pm flight to Windhoek Jen had taken two days prior. We just hung around the B&B after breakfast, and had a taxi pick us up a little early so I could get some last shots in before we were taken to the airport. Of course there was a glitch, as we waited to board with a Spanish couple. Four of us, in total, would be on this plane. Jen had texted us the day she left saying she was the only person on her flight (maximum 16 passengers). Well, our flight was full and delayed. The four of us were sitting at the locked glass door to the tarmac as our departure time passed by. We had to go find airport personnel to find out where our plane was. We were redirected to another area and told the plane had arrived and was fueling up on the other side of the airport. We finally left, behind schedule, for Windhoek, saying "goodbye" to Maun, Botswana, and all the incredible times we had there.

The album for this post can be found at:

http://www.photoshop.com/user/johndp/?wf=sharegrid&galleryid=05c584aebd2a4ab9902bcbb4b7c513c3&rlang=en_US&trackingid=BTAGC