Today is our first day in delta! We were all ready to go & sitting along 2 bench's in the back of a Mercedes truck by 8am. This was pretty surprising considering there is 30 of us going including Jurumba & Joseph, our mattresses, day bags, camping chairs & kitchen necessities.
At 3.30pm we were told to get ready for a 2.5 hour bush walking safari. Due to the length of the walk I decided to stay back & stay out of the sun.
I sat at the camp with Jurumba, Joseph & some of the Botswana polers who were talking politics & asking about the new Botswana president.
After talking about politics in Kenya, Botswana & Zimbabwe, we moved on to easier conversation. I was able to ask them about their working lives, ATC & their families.
Overall they seem happy & ATC seems like a good company to work for, a much bigger company than I realised. There are now 70 ATC trucks & crews going up & down Africa, with head offices in Capetown, South Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe & in Nairobi, Kenya.
Surprisingly it was started & owned by an Australian.
It was a bumpy ride on dirt tracks & sealed roads that went back through the town & to the loading point for the mokoro's. It took nearly 2 hours to get there & another 30 minutes to load everything into the mokoros's & be introduced to all the polers. They have names like Best, Doctor, Bombastic & there was a poler named Allisha, though I'm sure it's spelt differently to mine. We were paired off with Best & lead towards our mokoro. Getting in & getting comfortable was quite easy & we unrolled our mattresses to put under our bums.
Best set us off from the shore & easily manoeuvred the mokoro around so that we faced into the delta.
We were really excited to be spending a night in the delta, but there was something about the cool morning air, the light touch of the warm sun, the untouched beauty & the gentle movement of the mokoro that filled us with peace & sleepy satisfaction.
My discomfort from yesterday had improved a lot overnight but I still felt slightly uncomfortable. I was so relaxed that I completely forgot about even this & fell asleep in the mokoro. I think, it will always be a place we remember & associate with inner peace, another happy place to remember in future times of stress.
My discomfort from yesterday had improved a lot overnight but I still felt slightly uncomfortable. I was so relaxed that I completely forgot about even this & fell asleep in the mokoro. I think, it will always be a place we remember & associate with inner peace, another happy place to remember in future times of stress.
Best, our poler, explained the specific river we were travelling on was called Voro River. It is a semi permanent, seasonal river with it's water coming from the high mountains of Angola & is available to the people for only 5 months of the year.
About an hour and 40 minutes later the mokoro bumped into the bank of an island where we would be staying overnight. There was a dining area with 4 tables under a shade sail, chairs, a fire pit & tents already set up in a circle. When we walked into our tents there was a zip on the back wall. This opened up to reveal a small triangle shaped bathroom. We all had our own long drop toilets & bucket showers with privacy screening! It felt very much like glamping.
Last time I came to the delta with my friend Ange, we had to become dump buddies and accompany each other down the dirt trail, away from the camp, to the hole in the ground next to the shovel.
There was no privacy, no toilet seat & definitely no shower, with the added bonus (?) Of a wild animal sighting.
After lunch we had nearly 4 hours of free time to swim in the delta water directly in front of the tents, learn how to pole on the mokoro's or relax. We choose to relax. The heat today was phenomenal & so different to the chilly weather that required tracksuit pants this morning.
I decided to retreat to our tent to lie down, despite it being hotter in there, it was more comfortable for my tummy than sitting under the shade cloth.
At 3.30pm we were told to get ready for a 2.5 hour bush walking safari. Due to the length of the walk I decided to stay back & stay out of the sun.
I sat at the camp with Jurumba, Joseph & some of the Botswana polers who were talking politics & asking about the new Botswana president.
After talking about politics in Kenya, Botswana & Zimbabwe, we moved on to easier conversation. I was able to ask them about their working lives, ATC & their families.
Overall they seem happy & ATC seems like a good company to work for, a much bigger company than I realised. There are now 70 ATC trucks & crews going up & down Africa, with head offices in Capetown, South Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe & in Nairobi, Kenya.
Surprisingly it was started & owned by an Australian.
The tour group returns just after the sun set & Tom was in good spirits. He seemed to have enjoyed the exercise, seen a few animals in the distance requiring the assistance of binoculars & learnt about plants.
Joseph cooked an amazing dinner, of course, catering for everyone & with the bare bones of kitchen equipment. His table & work benches at the delta are some mokoro's turned upside down.
After dinner the campfire was stoked & more wood added so that it was a roaring spectacle on it's own. We were encouraged to bring our chairs closer while the poler's sung & danced for us. A few of the songs are very catchy & I remembered from 5 years ago, the words came easily, cementing them firmly in my brain for the next few days. It would actually be the whole trip that majority of the group would continue to sing & hum these songs.
Before long it was 9pm & definitely time for bed, not before admiring the beautiful star strewn sky.
Once again the African sky steals the show with its breath taking beauty!
After dinner the campfire was stoked & more wood added so that it was a roaring spectacle on it's own. We were encouraged to bring our chairs closer while the poler's sung & danced for us. A few of the songs are very catchy & I remembered from 5 years ago, the words came easily, cementing them firmly in my brain for the next few days. It would actually be the whole trip that majority of the group would continue to sing & hum these songs.
Before long it was 9pm & definitely time for bed, not before admiring the beautiful star strewn sky.
Once again the African sky steals the show with its breath taking beauty!
- Alli
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