Big Rivers

Ive reached some of Africa’s big rivers… two nights ago I was camped on the banks of the Okavango (which sources its waters in Angola’s highlands and drains inland to Botswana’s famous Okavango Delta). In the night I was kept awake by the surprisingly loud and nearby bellows of the Hippos… There are lots of them all along the river here. The next morning I went for a guided paddle down the river for a few hours… past the hippos and into the flooded reed beds that form the top section of the delta.

 Bike and tent at camp on the banks of the Okavango river

 People out "cruisin'"  for Hippos :)

Thar be Hippos!

Then I went for a paddle in a very small canoe...

 

Then I rode on, and the next night I found myself camped on the banks of the Zambezi river… again the night was punctuated by the Hippos territorial announcements…There wasn’t really much to see here so I rode on again, and crossed into Botswana with barely a cursory look from the authorities at either my or my bikes papers. And in Botswana I found myself camped on the shores of another big river… The Chobe. I went for a bit of a boat tour with about a hundred other tourists… It was cheap if not exclusive and I was pretty happy with the amount of wildlife we saw too.

 White throated BeeEater

 Elephants having a swim

 This is what a hippo does when you are in his space but are too big for him to attack you... They all turn their backs and pretend to ignore you.

 Heavily armed tourists on patrol :)

Sunset on the Chobe River

From here Im about an hour away from the border with Zimbabwe and the renowned Victoria Falls, but Ive decided that Im not going to head over there quite yet… Im going to head back south for a day to spend a bit more time in Botswana and see a bit more of the Okavango delta from the other side… Next stop Moremi park J