Moremi Magic

Mmmmm! What a wonderful couple of days we've just had at Moremi Crossing - a wonderful, rather up-market lodge situated in the Okavanga Delta - the world's largest inland delta. Moremi Crossing sits on the secluded island of Ntwsi, hugging the banks of the Boro River opposite the 'Chief's Island' area of the Moremi Game Reserve, 63km and a 20-minute flight from Maun. The Boro River is a tributary of the Okavango River, which starts several thousand kilometres away in Angola*. 

[*Apparently, the Angolan government is contemplating building a hydro-electric dam thousands of kilometres up-river, with dire consequence for the Okavanga Delta, its people and wildlife; in fact, our Batswana hosts (Batswana is the plural form for Botswana residents), Alvin, and his sister, Lyndsey, are extremely concerned that, should Angola go ahead with this damn plan, it would very likely lead to all-out war between these two nations. We'll be watching this development with added interest from now on.]

However, back to our visit. The flight from Maun was quite an experience in itself. Neither of us had ever travelled on such a tiny plane before (a 6-seater, including the two front seats for the pilot and, sometimes, co-pilot). It was the first time we've experienced all the passengers (all 4 of us, that is) being introduced to, shaking hands with, and exchanging first names with the pilot, before getting on board. It was also the first time we've taxied, at great speed, to the runway with the pilot holding open his door to let in some fresh air before take-off! On our way to Moremi, the day was as clear and sunny as could be, and our outbound pilot, Jay, really put on a bit of a show for us, flying low whenever he could let us enjoy seeing, for example, a small herd of elephants travelling in single file, several zebra, and a pod of hippos wallowing in the shallow waters of the delta below us. Oh, and it's also the first time in our experience when our pilot has been forced to abandon landing at the very last minute, having to climb rapidly and circle round for a second attempt, because of a family of warthogs choosing to trot across the landing strip just at that moment! However, second time around, we successfully touched down at the air-strip on Ntswi Island (the whole set-up looking like a scene from an old Bogart movie), where we were escorted on a 5-minute walk to board a small boat which then ferried us down the hippo- and crocodile-infested shallow waters to Moremi Crossing - a lodge every bit as glamorous and spacious as the brochure promised.

Moremi Crossing, we very soon discovered, is an un-fenced lodge. Within half and hour of our African welcome (the manager and staff all greeted us with an African song and cool drinks as we got to the jetty and disembarked the boat), we heard a shout from one of our fellow-travellers, Sylvia, who'd decided to get straight into the swimming-pool for a cool-down. As we all looked round to see what the noise was all about, a young-ish elephant appeared about 30 feet from us, walked right up to the pool, trampling down the bamboo fence which surrounded it, as though it were no more than a piece of tissue! We new arrivals were all immediately shielded by a human fence of highly-trained Moremi guides, who emerged in their khaki uniforms from seemingly nowhere, and calmly faced down the elephant, which amazingly stopped him in his tracks, perhaps only 20 feet from where we'd all taken refuge. The elephant stayed where he was, pulling down branches from the trees he could reach, and munching away at the leaves almost eye-ball to eye-ball with us and the guides, for maybe 15-20 minutes, before ambling away to another patch of ground about 50 feet into the jungle. It was an amazing experience, and certainly one which helped us to understand the safety briefing we'd just been given by Alvin and Lyndsey.

Our accommodation was in a series of individual huts on raised decks, made of wood, bamboo, canvas and thatch, all set in the jungle surrounding the main building - a vast open-plan deck with spectaclar views over the Boro River onto Chief's Island, and with a massive, curved thatched roof which hugged the tree-line, and within which with there were several nicely shaded lounge areas, a well-stocked bar (and virtually free too - we had several complimentary glasses of wine and beer during our stay!), and a beautiful open-plan restaurant. We were told very strictly never to walk unaccompanied around the camp grounds between the hours of sunset and sunrise; that we would each evening be fetched from our individual huts by guides who would walk us to the main building for our evening meal, and then back again at the end of the evening, and who would always come in person to give us a morning wake-up call, so that they could scout the area for wildlife before we could then walk ourselves over to the restaurant for breakfast. During the day-time, we were taught always to scout around, looking and listening for signs of wildlife, whenever we walked between our accommodations and the main building. Indeed, on our second afternoon at Moremi, whilst Andy was on a second wildlife-spotting boat-trip (when his boat got temporarily trapped by a pod of hippo refusing to relinqiish their spot in the in the middle of the river, the only part with deep enough water for the boat to get by) I got trapped for a couple of hours at our tent by two browsing elephants, a small family of grazing wart-hogs, and a larger family of highly exciteable baboons! I must say, this was not a great hardship: for most of the time, it was really exciting. Initially I stood watching these animals from our outdoor deck, but was eventually forced indoors, from where I could continue watching through the mosquito-netting 'windows', when the two elephants got within about 20 feet of our deck and stood looking me straight in the eye, and then one of the larger baboons started to leap around the roof of our hut and the open-air shower! By the time they all left the area, it was sunset, so I then had to wait in the hut until the guides returned with the the boat-trippers and could escort us to the main building for sundowners and a beautifully presented and tasty evening meal.

During our two days there, we had some wonderful guided wildlife experiences, including a mokoro (dug-out canoe) trip and game walk (in lion country - pretty scary, and we needed no second telling to run, stand still, or climb a tree rapidly if told to!), as well as two small motor-boat-trips, as well as lots of chances just to gaze out from the various decks and lounge areas and see wildlife scampering, lumbering or ambling all around us. We saw loads of hippo, crocodiles, elephants, baboons, wart-hogs, zebra, bush-babies, ground squirrels, a couple of snakes and several species of birds, including the African fish eagle, several large Marebou storks, and a few circling vultures.

I know our whole group were quite sad when it was time to leave this magical place - but then we all cheered up at the thought of the next part of our trip, when we'll be exploring a part of the Chobe National Park - our last stopover in Botswana before the Zimbabwean border and Victoria Falls.