Wilderness Tent Camp - Okavango Delta

Log Bridge to our Camp

We rose at 5 AM to fly into the Okavango Delta. This area floods twice each year during the rainy season and again when the rivers from Angola pour into the delta in July and August. The rivers used to flow to the sea, but now are stopped by the up-lifting of the fault on the southeastern side of the delta. After our bush plane flight, we drove about an hour to reach the Wilderness Tent Camp. Most of the trees in the region are Mopane or butterfly trees (their leaves are shaped like a butterfly).  On the way in, we saw a leopard kill (an antelope) in a tree. As you might expect that are quite a few swampy areas here, and we crossed over simple log bridges several times. We were advised that the guides had not seen any cheetahs in three months, because the water has them trapped on the main central island of the delta. Our guides here will be Paul and Taps.

Maribou Stork

Our evening game drive was primarily spotting birds: the Marabou Stork (an ugly bird), Brown Snake Eagle, Little Bee-Eater (the smallest of the Bee Eaters), African Wattled Lapwing,  Black Winged Stilt,Yellow-Billed Stork, African Darter or Snake Bird, Pied Kingfisher (which hoovers over the water like a hummingbird), Hamerkop (the guides always joke about their American house, because their nests are huge), African Sacred Ibis, Grey Heron, and a Spoonbill. While Chobe had termite mounds, here we saw several that were taller than a human, made from the sandy soil of the Kalahari desert. We saw a new antelope here – the Red Lechwe which escapes predators by entering the water. We finished our drive with Sundowner drinks near a pod of Hippos.

Marriage

In the evening, we had a discussion about marriage. Traditionally marriages are not ‘arranged’ but suggested. An uncle or aunt (pretty much any adult in the village) might suggest that this village girl might make a good wife. The boy and the girl will have a lot in common because they are from the same village. Both the boy and the girl must agree, then a bride price is paid from the boy’s family to the girl’s family, usually a number of cows. Unfortunately, this makes a marriage almost seem like a property transaction, the girl becomes the man’s property. It also makes divorce more difficult since the girl’s family needs to return the bride price. Of course, times are changing, more youngsters are moving to the city, where they meet, and don’t necessarily have a common background.