My Botswana adventure continued with a wonderful visit to the famed Okavango Delta in the northwest part of the country. Fed by the Okavango River, which originates some 600 miles north in the Angolan highlands, this is the largest inland delta in the world, and home to spectacular wildlife and scenery.
The Okavango Delta, with Xigera airstrip
The short flight from Kasane provided a fascinating, air-borne perspective of this vast, lush region, seasonally awash in greens and blues, featuring countless courses of flowing water. Thin strips of palm-fringed islands remained a few feet above the water level, one of which served as a lone airstrip for our single prop plane. Flying low for landing, we spotted elephants bathing and giraffes standing in the shade – a welcome introduction to this exciting destination.
From the airstrip, we were warmly greeted by our ranger, Barobi. It was a short ride by Land Cruiser to a nearby dock, where we boarded a boat to bring us to Xigera, our water-based camp located at the western edge of Chief’s Island. Xigera, pronounced kee-jar-ah, could be considered the geographical center of the delta. The Okavango Delta spreads across 6,000 watery square miles, and the 30-mile long Chief’s Island is the largest bit of land that manages to stay above the waterline year-round. In stark contrast to Kasane and Chobe, where relatively easy access facilitates a number of tourists, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, a vast pristine paradise to explore and enjoy.
We were awed by the warm greeting of the staff, who welcomed us to camp with big smiles and a traditional bush song echoing across the watery marsh, as our boat pulled up to the rustic wooden dock. This luxury camp was superb, set amidst thickets of tall trees on a small island aptly named “Paradise.”
A raised wooden walkway led us to lovely, spacious safari tents set on platforms where the breath-taking view from the verandah overlooked the marsh. I noticed a band of Banded Mongoose scurried through the undergrowth and a Grey-backed Camaroptera was pinpointed by its bleating call.
Fruiting fig trees outside my tent attracted a family of Vervet Monkeys along with pairs of Black-collared Barbets, Black-headed Orioles, a plethora of African Green Pigeons (above) and Grey Go-away-birds.
Our hosts, Gabby and Mia and their joyful staff, ran a top-notch camp, with excellent food and service. We feasted on freshly-prepared meals under an open timber-and-thatch roof of the main reception lodge beside the lagoon. As daylight faded, a new moon rose in the crystal clear sky, accompanied by bright planets Venus, Jupiter and a clearly visible red Mars. In this remote corner of the world, the Milky Way splashed across the sky more visibly than I’d ever seen it anywhere before. The tinkling sounds of African Reed Frogs added background symphony. From my bed at night, I heard hippos grunting close to our tents. The sounds of Africa are distinctive, night and day!
One of Africa’s most sought-after owls is the huge, ginger-coloured Pel’s Fishing Owl (below). With just about a thousand pairs remaining, the Okavango Delta is the main place to find one, especially here at Xigera. James, Robert, Daws and I loaded our gear into a boat, for a short ride to the neighboring island, a likely location for this special species.
After a bit of searching amongst the dense thicket with stately trees, Barobi managed to spot a pair, which immediately flew into the upper reaches of the canopy. We let them settle, then tracked them down again, giving us a wonderful encounter with one of the largest and rarest owls. Robert filmed continuously, while James narrated enthusiastically about this magnificent bird, for a special segment of Birding Adventures TV.
We spent a full morning birding by boat, a wonderfully relaxing way to explore the rich landscape. Barobi, our guide, skillfully navigated us through a meandering maze of waterways lined with papyrus reeds and water lilies, always on alert for an unpredictable hippo.
We stopped at the sight of a Coppery-tailed Coucal, hoping it would perch at the top of grasses for a full view. Chirping Cisticolas showed well, singing cheerfully, and a bright African (Holub’s) Golden Weaver posed nicely on a papyrus. We spotted a brilliantly-coloured Malachite Kingfisher (above), and quietly approached for close views of this diminutive bird.
Ever sharp-eyed, James spotted a Lesser Jacana crouched among some lilies. Unlike their conspicuous relatives the African Jacana, Lesser Jacanas tend to be elusive loners, considerably shier, and well adapted to blend into vegetation. When we tried to get closer, the bird flew to another part of the lagoon (above). We followed it there, but it promptly flew back to where it had just come from. It was frustrating, as we knew it was a great sighting and James desperately wanted to get it on film. It was reminiscent of watching a tennis match, to the left, then the right, left, right, back and forth…… and finally, the jacana won and moved on.
The traditional way to enjoy this serene landscape is by calmly being poled through waterways on a mokoro (dugout boat, above). Our limited time here meant that we couldn’t experience this as much as we would have liked.
In the afternoon, we ventured back towards the airstrip, taking the Land Cruiser to search for a Saddle-billed Stork (above) we had seen when landing. Standing 5 feet tall in the short open grassland, they were hard to miss with oversized, bright, red and yellow bill. Two youngsters followed their mother around, still in juvenile dull-brown plumage.
We focused on seeing a Slaty Egret, another specialty and highly-localized resident of the Delta. We finally found an immature feeding in a small, water-filled depression along with the larger Little Egret. The juvenile Slaty was eventually joined by an adult in full breeding plumage with picturesque head plumes, yellow legs and rufous-coloured throat (above). I am fascinated by the various feeding techniques employed by egrets and herons, and never tire of watching them. The Slaty Egret dipped its bill into the shallows, stirred the waters like stirring a cup of coffee, than snatched small fish trying to escape the turbulent water.
Traversing the floodplain, we admired Rufous-bellied Herons flying in to roost, and scores of Black-winged Pratincoles and Broad-billed Rollers hawking the last of the day’s flying insects. Our afternoon ended on high ground, where Robert and I alighted onto an anthill, then hastily brushed the bugs off of our legs. James sat atop the Land Cruiser basking in the glory of a wonderfully successful day, while enjoying the traditional sundowner, or three!
In two nights at the Xigera camp, we were thrilled to find our target species, Pel’s Fishing Owl and Slaty Egret. I was sorry to leave our friendly, luxurious camp, and wished that we had more time to explore this fascinating part of the Okavango Delta. I looked forward to the next part of our Botswana adventure, discovering Makgadikgadi Pans.
text and photos © adrian binns
