The next day we drove to the Botswana border. After you cross the border (an affair in and of itself) you take a water taxi across the river. This particular spot is where 4 countries meet - Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe I think. Need to double check. from there, we drove to the the Chobe River and spent some time on a boat cruise. Following me so far?
Ok, we left the boat cruise and drove to the "airport" in Kasane which consists of nothing but an airstrip. No terminals, no bathrooms, no currency exchange place, no building. Nothing. An air strip. This is where we caught our "flight" to Linyanti. By flight I mean sardine can with wings. Nothing about this was ok. I don't want to see the pilot. I don't want to be able to see out the front window. It was a bumpy ride, and with every breeze we hit I was convinced we were going down. Going down with a panoramic view of the crash! If you haven't noticed, I'm very dramatic when it comes to flying.
Needless to say 35 minutes later we landed on an even smaller airstrip and then headed to the camp on the Linyanti River. This camp is where we saw the cheetah, leopard, lioness and our afternoon visit from the elephant. Not to mention the nightly hippo party which were sometimes crashed by the elephants. Very noisy at night, everyone seemed to be having a good time and we were not invited. I felt like a small child who had been put to bed but couldn't sleep because my parents were having a party downstairs with all their friends and I wasn't allowed to get out of bed.
We stayed in Linyanti for a few days and then back to the airstrip for another flight to Khwai. This time, one of the members of my group was able to sit up front seat with the pilot. Weirdly that really intrigued me! And I have so say this ride was much better. This pilot looked like he could do this bush flying in his sleep! So off to Khwai we flew and stayed in that camp for a few days. Still with me on the map?
The last leg consisted of driving from Khwai to the airstrip in Banoka to catch a tin can to Xigera in the Okavango Delta. I, yes I, sat up front next to the pilot. Captain, my Captain! Or Darren if you prefer, is one of these old salty, bush types in the making. Give him another 20 years and he will have achieved it. Instead of my usual "Give me a Xanax, we're all gonna die!", Cool as a Cucumber, This is Child's Play, Darren, made the whole thing quite uneventful. It was awesome!
Blurry Darren
Do you see them??
As you can see the Okavango Delta is nothing like what we had been staying in for a week. There is no way to get to Xigera except by either speed boat or Makuro. Personally, I liked the Makuro the best. Our "driver" Chris, is the one who had never heard of Star Wars yet is on Facebook and has e-mail. He was a great guy, and his wife worked at the camp as well. Again, everyone exuded joy, passion, and delight with the world. They each told me how much they love working for Wilderness Safaris and they love living in the "outdoors".
It was sad to end this portion of my trip but I had a couple more planes to catch. We left Xigera and flew to Maun, Botswana. A veritable metropolis! And the airport was actually a building! Granted it was one room, but they had a bathroom, and a check in, and a customs section. From there I flew back to Johannesburg and then caught a connecting flight to Cape Town where I have been for the past 4 days. You know, by the time this is all said and done, Salty Dog Darren will have nothing on me!!!
