Aug 30 – Camp Okavango, Okavango Delta, Botswana

It was cold getting up at a very early hour in our sky bed with no walls and no ceiling.  But not much colder than our unheated bungalow. 

Some photos of the camp.  All of the buildings are connected with raised, wooden walkways. 

The center of camp.

And the staff welcomed us the day before with a serenade. 

And at night we got another serenade just before dinner.

 The meal buffet

Our room with it's great balcony and view. 

A view of the camp from one of our boat safaris.

After breakfast this morning Tara and Paul headed out for a walking safari on one of the nearby islands.

Elephant Footprint

Tree Damaged by Elephants Rubbing the Trees with their Tusks

The island walking safari yielded a much better sighting of the red lechwe (instead of the brown lumps in the distance like what was seen yesterday). 

And then they headed out to do some canoeing as well.  

The canoe gave them a chance to see some of the very small wildlife up much closer.  For their efforts, they saw a very small frog up close, a Marbled Reed Frog.

Mary took another boat safari in the morning instead of the walking tour. We have seen many elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, warthogs and other common species both here and in other camps.  But in the Okavango Mary got a special sighting.  The guide on her private boat safari, Mr. B, caught sight of a very special antelope, the Sitatunga.  This medium-sized antelope is very shy, very elusive and sticks to tall grasses, making it almost impossible to see.  The guides had been trying for two months without success to find a sitatunga.  And she got to see one this morning.

Mr. B said that these are aquatic antelope in that they inhabit marshes and swamplands which they almost never leave and have special feet adapted to being in the water all the time. 

Later in the day we all headed out again for another boat safari.  The scenery is very interesting. 

Great White Egrets

The boat safaris yielded lots of opportunities to photograph waterlilies.  There are a lot of them and they always seem to sit on mirrors. 

Water Lily with a Dragon Fly

Later in camp, while talking with other guides, Mary found out that her little private safari was the talk of the camp.  The guides were all stoked at the Sitatunga sighting.  How special.