Okavango Delta Bound
05/13/10
Our morning started with Boxie-boo and I using showers side-by-side separated by bamboo latches. My shower head sprouted in between tree limbs looking like a natural metal branch. The ground was covered in a thick film, egg yoke stretchy by the drain covered in dry leaves. My body shivered with coldness and enough body odour to brand a new cologne as I waited for the drizzling shower head to heat.
“My shower is freezing. I’ve seen leaky taps with more water pressure,” Boxie-boo said from the shower next to mine. Testing the water, she cursed high-pitched like a soccer player after the ball hits the man beans. I could hear her feet stomping and pictured the Energizer Bunny being electrocuted by water.
I stepped under the dripping head as ice cold beads slowly descended across my skin. I nayed liked an in pubescent horse and shaked violently enough to drum roll with my feet, causing Boxie-boo to laugh. I stepped away, looked up at the dripping shower head and falling leaves, some stuck to my shoulders, and changed my game plan.
“I’m just washing my armpits, groin and feet,” I shrieked, my body rattling enough for my brain to fall out of my nostrils. Boxie-boo agreed. Twenty seconds later and scrubbing my feet, I ran out of water, forcing me to leave the shower with soap suds.
Our four-hour drive from Nata to Maun started with our driver David doing his best to maintain speed through soft sand. He did well considering the sand reached two-foot high in some sections, but we got stuck. Again. When his colleague from Elephant Sands tried to pull us out, his chain broke, erupting the van with laughter.
Out on the highway, we would go 10 to 15 minutes without seeing one vehicle or any people. The road blocked the bushes with a fence, yet cows, donkeys and goats were on the highway side of the fence, which meant David had to be careful. The scenery rarely changed from small trees, almost perfectly spaced apart. The highlight of the drive was witnessing a jackal make his move on a group of jaywalking goats. We only stopped to grab supplies as the next day we entered the Okavango Delta.
Arriving at the Delta Rain Campsite at 2 p.m., we helped make a usual late lunch, one of my complaints of the Livingstone Trails tour, going hours hungry at times. Boxie-boo and I did the dishes and then set up our and Choppa-chaw’s tent. Budget overland tours resulted in a team effort, which was fun mostly. However, the only women helping to date were Boxie-boo and Choppa-chaw, making them openly frustrated. The men, for the most part except for American Pablo, did their share. We spent the afternoon spotting vervet monkeys and preparing our small backpacks for our next adventure.
…hours later…
“Oh look what you did, David, you made me cry,” Boxie-boo teased, her eyes watering from chopping onions while helping to prepare stew for dinner. The four of us were close together - Boxie-boo, Choppa-chaw, David and I - sharing the campsite’s low light in darkness, goofing off as usual. “Oh so sorry. Strong onions,” David responded laughing.
Before dinner, Bob teased the vegetarians in our group, trying to argue in his intoxicated state that if you eat an animal that only eats vegetables, you can be a vegetarian at the same time. Hilarious.
That’s all for now.
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