Exploring the delta on foot
The year before had not seen much rains in the Angolan highlands where the Okavango originated, and the inland delta of the river did not flood. Mokoro rides were, therefore, not possible; so we went exploring the Okavango Delta on foot. It was a totally new, exhilarating and sometimes scary experience.
First walk in the wild
On the first afternoon, we crossed the narrow strip of the river on a mokoro to walk along the opposite banks of the narrow river. Our first meeting was a face to face one with a pair of elephants drinking water at the river. We stopped to pose and take pictures of ourselves against the backdrop of elephants.
Antelopes and giraffes abounded as we continued our walk till we came upon a huge herd of buffaloes. By then the sun had almost set, the buffaloes kicked up a cloud of dust as they headed home for the night; it was also time for us to turn and walk back to the camp.
Camp personnel escorted us back to our tents after dinner; asking us not to venture out before morning. We found a pair of hot water bags tucked in to the duvets; these helped to warm up the bed. Later at night, the lions started roaring, they continued almost the whole night; they were loud and seemed to be quite close to the camp.
The breakfast rendezvous
The next morning saw us heading in the opposite direction from the evening before. We headed out in a group of eight. Four doctors joined us in our exploration, and our two escorts made up the numbers. The doctors were two brothers and their wives who had come from Brazil to explore Africa. Our first stop was a clearing where a herds of giraffes and zebras were having a breakfast gathering. We too stopped to have a nibble while trying to get good photographs.
Playground of giraffes 
Zebras out for breakfast
We visited a nearby village, which was home to some of the camp employees, and came to know that lions were regular visitors to the village. On the way back to the camp we came across the remains of a kill, a buffalo recognizable only by its head and horns which were still intact.
The hippo lagoon
We started on our next foot expedition shortly after lunch. This time our guide took us to the hippo lagoon. Hippos of all shapes and sizes soaked themselves in the water in front of us. I gave up counting after I reached sixty. They were making snorting noises and throwing up water. I managed to catch their yawns on still camera while IB captured the hippo spectacle on video. As we stood there, our guide entertained us and the hippos with a song, we chimed in at the chorus as well.
As we continued our meanderings in the wilderness, we came across a group of elephants gleefully squirting dust overthemselves. We were told that this was an act dry cleaning, elephants get rid of the insects that try to make a home on their skin by taking these dust showers.
Mokoro experience
We stood quietly, watching the elephant herd for a long time marvelling at the cuteness of the baby elephants in the group. As the light started to fade, we started our walk back to the camp. A lone hyena crossed our path as we trudged along the scrubland; it stood its ground and watched us as we marched along.
The sky turned a bright orange as we neared the camp. Mokoros were waiting for us as we reached the river bank and we went for joy rides on them along the serpentine path of the water, just to get a feel of what it could have been. The fading light and sounds of nature enveloped us as the narrow boats moved silently through the water – it was a sublime experience!
Excitement at dinner
Lots of excitement happened at dinner time. A wild cat was discovered in the ceiling rafters of the rafters. We shone torches at it and clicked photos, it did not get perturbed at all and stayed put in its perch. Camp people said it was a frequent visitor and would not disturb us as we sat down to eat, true to prediction is slowly slithered down and went back to the forest once we were all seated; dinner became a peaceful affair after that.
The next morning dawned with the realisation that this was the last day of our trip. We were catching a flight to Maun after breakfast, from there we would fly to Johannesburg and then take a flight back to Singapore.
Saying goodbye
The Brazilian doctors were also leaving, we were all ferried to the same runway where we had arrived. A similar looking small plane came and landed, but it seemed it was too small to take all of us. We waved goodbye to our new found friends who boarded the plane and got on to the jeep again to go back to the camp. We would come back when information would come that there was a plane on the way to fly us out.
So we got an half an hour more on the banks of the Okavango, but alas that came to end too and we were herded back to the runway, this time nothing was left to chance; the plane was standing there all ready to take us back to civilisation. We boarded, strapped ourselves in, waved goodbye to the camp and its people and took off on our trip back to our daily grind.
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