Southern Africa - Day 18 (Part 2)

Thursday, 30 January 2020 - Botswana

Another plant known as ‘eland bins’ (not sure of spelling) which is used for colour (you need to soak the stem for days) and another plant they call the mother-in-law’s tongue (not the same as ours) to make string. Once they have caught game for food, they use the string to tie them up and bring it to the village. 

Then breakfast, and off again to Maun which is a place near the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is formed by the river Okavango flowing into the Kalahari desert instead of the ocean. 

On the way we passed a small town called Sehithwa which mainly does cattle farming, but there is a diamond mine nearby which also gives employment to the people in this town.

We reached out hotel and had lunch. We were supposed to meet at 3 p.m. to do a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta. I asked Rigmar for advice on whether it was worthwhile going on this scenic flight as I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go and she said go for it and I trust her so I signed up for it. But then at about 2 p.m. it started raining so heavily, almost like a storm! In Africa!!! I never expected this. Reminds me of the song Africa by Toto 😁. “I bless the rains down in Africa...”

I thought for sure the flight was going to be cancelled but Clever informed us that the airlines told us to wait a while to see if the rain stops. Finally at about 4 p.m. we were off to the airport to catch our flight. We had to go through security check (🤔). Our pilot was a very young girl; I am very impressed by her confidence and calmness in flying the Cessna. Oh, if only my eyes were ok I’d be flying too! With the Royal Malaysian Air Force 😔.

Anyway we flew over the Okavango Delta and I saw zebras, elephants, giraffes, impalas, wildebeests, the horrid Cape buffaloes, hippos in the water and many termite mounds/ant hills not sure which is which, but all were too far away to take pictures. But now I know how huge the delta really is! Oh, it’s vast! Unfortunately we couldn’t see the Okavango River itself because there was a storm in that area.

Then back to the hotel and I was chit chatting with some of the staff and everyone here seems to be happy. Botswana is a rather rich country and it is developing so unemployment is low and people can feed themselves, which makes the average person here a happy and satisfied citizen. How nice.

Then dinner, laundry, shower and sleep in anticipation for another long day tomorrow.