Xakanaxa in the Okavango Delta

The mighty Okavango is the third largest river in southern Africa and it flows south east from the Angolan highlands, over 1000km away, taking up to six months to reach the delta area which floods on a perennial annual cycle.

Remaining in the Moremi Game Reserve we drove to our new camp at Xakanaxa.

I look at my notes and can relive the afternoon that I wrote my last entry. I was sad, the trip was coming to an end.

‘It’s the last day’, I wrote in my journal, ‘I am sitting in the tent after a delicious lunch of pasta and cheese, fresh carrot coleslaw and cold meats. Our group have bonded and it’s the shared memories of the last two weeks that hold us together. We sit at night and over beers discuss the joint exultation we felt when we finally saw the hippo yawn and all the cameras clicked. The feelings we shared when we saw the reclusive leopard and her cub. They had seamlessly blended with their habitat and without guidance we would never have seen them. They were two of the most perfectly exquisite creatures I have ever seen. The mother licked her cub’s face and I ached to just stroke the thick luxuriant fur’.

I remember Bibi telling us about the ceremony where a Chief was appointed back in the days before presidents ruled. The chief was more powerful than any other man and he wore a leopard skin and was fed the meat of the Kori Bustard bird.

Last night I could not envisage anyone wanting to kill such a beautiful creature.

And how could we forget the night that Bibi tracked a lion from our truck, and found him sitting by the road, content, his stomach full, and as we parked close by, he rose and stretched and calmly ambled down through a thicket that led out to the lake.

It was sunset. He sat down on his haunches, and leaned forward and delicately began to lap the water. He could have been any moggy under the sun, but for his powerful shoulders and mighty mane.

And yesterday morning when we left the last campsite at Khwai in Moremi we came across a male lion, just by the side of the road.

It was so close I could look into his tawny eyes and see the the thick mane and powerful shoulders. One swipe of a paw can break an animal’s neck or back. Then we spotted two lionesses crouched in the tall grasses, looking just as they should, camouflaged in the gold fronds and sage bushes.

Bibi edged the vehicle off the road and we encountered a male and female lying in each other’s embrace. How perfect was that?

When we stopped for a tea break by a hippo pool, we all watered the African soil, probably confusing the animals with our alien scent and spoiling their boundary markers.

Over biscuits Nicky, Karen and I were discussing how distant we felt from our ‘real’ worlds. We wondered how the Olympics had gone, what news was making he headlines and how we really didn’t care. All that mattered was NOW. I told them what Mr Diamond had told John and me in Mandalay in Burma whilst we shared lunch together.

‘How many friends do you have, John?’

‘How many children do you have, John?’

And of course, John replied.

‘And if you have a heart attack right now, John, where are your friends and where are your children? Can they help you?’

He went on, ‘The only people you have are right here, me and your wife. That is all that matters. The past is gone, the future in not here, only NOW is important.’

We drove on, and suddenly from nowhere a sharp fallen branch flew up as the car drove over it, and sliced two fingers of Karen’s husband’s hand. He had been gripping the hand rail to steady himself from the potholes. Immediately Nicky reached for her disinfectant wet wipes, John staunched the flowing blood and Bibi administered First Aid. Later we helped Steve to lie down as he had fainted from the shock and pain. It was a distressing incident, but fortunately not too serious. But – we were all there for him.

I had to smile earlier as we had been tracking a very elusive leopard. Bibi heard from another guide that a leopard had been seen in some remote thicket so we drove round and through and round again in ever decreasing circles. The Mopani trees rustled past, the woodland even began to look familiar but no spotty cat was seen. The man next to me asked if I had heard of a poet called Kate Tempest. I hadn’t so he suddenly recited these lines.

I go round in circles

Not graceful, not like dancers

Not neatly, not like compass and pencil

More like a dog on a lead, going mental

I go round in circles

Not graceful, not like dancers

Not neatly, not like compass and pencil

More like a dog on a lead, going mental.

The poem seemed perfect and just fitted the bill!

Coming home I spotted a juvenile tawny eagle sitting up all forlorn in his nest on the very top of a tree. His mother was circling nearby, obviously to get a ‘carry out’ for their tea.

John caught the sunset and we ate dinner by candlelight. Hippos growled just 100 m from our campsite. It was quite disconcerting. On the bank was a 15m croc.

This last camp is so wild, so remote and is situated beside a lake with many crocodiles. Our toilets and showers have been erected beside a whole mass of elephant dung and now both of the loo’s zippers have broken. I have a view of a large termite’s nest amidst a thorn tree and above the weaver birds’ nests hang precariously above. Where will I ever have such a ‘toilet experience’ again?

Now the Go-Away Bird is pecking under the central tree,

John is having a snooze and I can see four hippos through the flap of the tent.

After our bucket showers we will put on our seriously mucky clothes and go on our last safari.

The new day dawned, I got up and went to the toilet and watched the sun rise over the lake.

I suddenly noticed a large elephant pad that was fresh in the sand at my feet. Not being an experienced tracker myself, I was still able to come to the conclusion that the elephant had been here after our vehicle had driven in, which meant that he had been visiting in the night. It turned out that indeed he had and had been circling Bibi’s tent, until Bibi had got up and shone his torch and shouted ‘Away with you!’ or some such thing.

We have been so lucky to have this opportunity to spend two weeks in Botswana. We were so blessed to have Bibi, to be our guide, our driver, our cook, our teacher and our friend. He drove us 2,348 km, how amazing was that?

I think everyone should visit Africa just once in their lifetime in order to see for themselves the amazing changing landscapes, to try and identify the kaleidoscope of birds and smell the wild sage in the early morning sunlight. It is a truly unique experience to come upon a giraffe ambling along or seeing one with its head metres deep in a thorny acacia.  Or to view herds of zebra, so perfect in their crazy Op Art symmetry.

I loved the funny little wart hogs trotting by with their tails standing on end like radio transmitters. They always seemed to be busy and on some mission. I loved the impala, they could easily win the beauty contest for grace and balletic skills. The termite hills in this part of the park are very tall and dot the landscape like pagodas. I saw one that had been built around a tree and the branches jutted out the sides. The whole edifice had a look of Dr Who’s Daleks.

And like Dr Who, we are back, transported from one world to the next, from the wilderness campsite to the clean perfect comfort of home. But for the moment I am still there, and I don’t want ever to forget. Goodbye Botswana, and Goodbye Africa. Until we meet again.