Botswana

More driving and voila, we are at another border into Botswana. We camp in Chobe Park. In the morning there are foot prints of hippos. We were told to stay away from the waters edge because it is full of hippos and they are not so hospitable either. I could hear them grunting all the night and when I had to get up for a bush pee, I was positive there was a very small giraffe in front of the tent. I had been so warned about the animals in the night, take my light with me at all times etc. that I was imagining many things. In the morning, it was tree trunks with a good outline of a general shape of a little giraffe, so I thought. Also wild hogs wandered thru the camp as well. Gotta love camping in Africa.
This part of Africa has a panhandle of Namibia that crosses over the top of Botswana. We must cross over the borders twice as the only road is in Namibia to get to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The delta is formed by the Okavango River from Angola. It flows into a basin at the edge of the Kalahari Desert and fans out into an unspoilt ecosystem. Naturally it is lots of water in the wet season. On to a ferry we go, then stuck in the sand. We got to use the sand mats once again. We were better off than another overland truck we tried to help out. The passenger door had flown open and sprung itself, it was a suicide door. Odd design for this type of vehicle, and it had lost both of the rear tires and wheels. Seems that the lug bolts were not on tight. Our well trained drivers could not help as there was too much sand and the truck was heavy and just continued to sink. This truck had one female leader/driver and 7 young women. They had called for help and did not need to come with us, to the disappointment of our men. Some of what I saw in the delta: little bee eater bird is yellow with a dark mask like the Lone Ranger, Pealse fish owl which was a roan color, tiny water Lillie's the size of my thumbnail, star shaped Lillie's with fringe on the edges, regular water Lillie's-lavender, pink, white, Papyrus grass, buffalo grass. We were paddled around the water, thru the grasses by Rincon, our Mokoro canoe poler. He grew up in the delta and assured me that he knew the way and we would not get lost. The boat are shallow and flat bottomed, I sat in the bottom and was poled forward into the grasses. Not a bad way to spend the day. On to the next country, Namibia.