Gliding in a Mokoro Through the Okavango Delta, Botswana

The source of the Okavango Delta starts in the highlands of Angola, flows through Namibia and enters northwestern Botswana as the Okavango River which empties into the sands of the Kalahari Desert creating a 15,000 sq km maze of lakes, channels, marsh and islands that make up the largest inland delta in the world.

A hand dug Mokoro - the main method of transport in the Okavango Delta

The water in the delta is so clear that you can see to the bottom of the channels and clean enough that you can drink straight from the delta without filtration.

The delta is home to lions, elephants, hyenas, wild dog, buffalo, crocodiles, red lechwe and numerous other animals, but because the main mode of transportation within the delta is via small hand carved wood canoes (mekoro) pushed by a pole, the hippos are the most feared and respected animals of the delta. During the day the hippos stay in the deeper channels of the delta, making the shallow papyrus reed marsh area safer to navigate by mokoro.

A view of the Okavango Delta from above

The water level in the delta area fluctuates significantly throughout the year. Only a few of the camps within the delta can be reached by vehicles in the dry season leaving planes and mekoro as the only reliable method of getting deep inside the delta. Because it would take a number of days to get into the middle of the delta by mekoro the vast majority of visitors in the central delta area arrive my small plane.

A hut wall built with Coke cans in a delta village

We flew into an area of the delta near Chief's Island and spent majority of our days gliding through the delta marsh by mekoro. Each time we would cross a channel the poler would stop and check for hippos, which would be within sight most of the time. Sometimes the hippos would be far away enough that we could safely cross the channel. One morning we saw hippos at a fair distance and crossed the channel only to run into thick reeds on the other side of the channel. Unable to push forward through the thick reeds with most of the boat still sticking out in the main channel a hippo charged the mokoro making a sizable wake as he rose to the surface and moved toward us. I wish I would have captured the moment with my camera but as soon as it was clear we were stuck in the channel and couldn't move forward I looked back at the poler and he was visibly scared so I quickly put down my camera and slipped on my shoes. As the hippo continued to advance the poler smacked his poling stick into the water and stopped the hippo about 15 meters from the boat.

A Zebra in the delta marsh

In addition to riding the mekoro through the delta we spent an afternoon walking through one of the few remaining delta villages and the rest of our time walking on the islands watching giraffes, zebras, elephants and red lechwe running through the marsh.
 

>> Check out more photos from the Okavango Delta