More Okavango Delta

A boat trip back to the dry land as the sun rose and Mike took us out on a game drive.  We saw lots of red leche, elephant and all sort of birds but he highlight was when Mike pointed out some lion tracks and we followed them, then a blood trail to some dismembered bits of red leche and eventually tracked a male lion and two lionesses to where they had buried into some plam bushes and were fast asleep, sated presumably.  This makes it sound easy.  Mike is an excellent guide.

We returned to camp at 11 for another excellent brunch then had a few hours for siesta before a mokoro trip in the afternoon.  On the way up to our tent we came across an elephant a couple of metres from the track who had waded across to the island.  Cue detour to tent.

The mokoro trip was very tranquil.  The water is so clear, filtered by the reeds and the sand of the kalahari - even where it is deep you can see the white sand of the desert underneath.  We saw tiny painted frogs clinging to reeds and lots of birdlife which would otherwise have been scared away by the noise of an engine.  We tried a spot of catch-and-release fishing as the sun went down, but I could barely cast the line (a proper rod and reel is very different than a hand-line off a boat) and we were predictably unsuccessful.  It was fun trying!  After another several hours in the game vehicle this morning we caught our return scenic flight with Johannes back to Maun and returned to the Old Bridge.  We totally broke the budget on this trip to the lodge but it was very worth it.

Last night there was another big thunderstorm.  As the sky started to hint of getting light I heard a loud crack then an even louder thud by our heads.  A bough had broken off the tree above the Landy and skimmed the tent with its branches as it landed on the roof of the Landy.  Fortunately no harm done, but I cant imagine how our heads would have been squashed as we slept had we been parked ten centimetres further back.