In April, 11 of us from Rhino Africa went on a five-day Staff Educational to Botswana with Desert and Delta Safaris. Staff Educationals are how our consultants get first-hand knowledge of the destinations and properties we partner with, ensuring our expert knowledge stays up-to-date and relevant.
We need to experience it as guests do, so it’s all there – the game drives, the dinners, the sundowners, the boat cruises and more. Our group was diverse; we had two German, one Portuguese, one French and five English consultants as well as a photographer and a writer. For many of us, it was our first trip to Botswana.
Stuart from Desert & Delta, a jovial and affable chaperone, accompanied us on our trip where we stayed in five lodges in five days. We spent one night near the Makgadkgadi Pans, two nights in the Okavango Delta, and two nights in the Chobe Game Reserve. In between game drives, eventful meals, flights, boat rides, gaggles of laughter and property inspections, I scribbled these notes…
1.
I’m early to the airport because I’m so eager for the trip to begin. The others are punctual too and are full of alarming, early-morning excitement. I’ve never seen people this happy before 8 am before. It makes me think of that quote, “Nothing gives me greater joy than going where I’ve never been.”
2.
On the bus to the plane, everyone is talking at once. Ingo says with a smile, “Finally, I’m going to Botswana.” The weather is expected to be hot and Lisiwe announces to the bus, strangers included, “As I step off the plane I’m going to step out of jeans and be freeee!” Camilla keeps saying to anyone who will listen, “We’re going to be best friends by the end of this.”
3.
We’re so excited we even pose for photos like this…
4.
On the plane, our group falls silent for the first time and in the on-board magazine I find an article about Botswana. “The Okavango stakes a claim as the world’s capital for anyone who appreciates a great sunset.” I tell that to Simon, the photographer, who has been to the Okavango Delta before and he says with intense, glistening eyes, “I can’t wait for that first sunset.”
5.
The news in South Africa is a little crazy when we leave. Our president has done a midnight reshuffle of his cabinet ministers and the country is in a panic. But where we’re going there are no phones. I can’t wait to disconnect and get away from the noise of everyday life. As the billboard says at the airport in Maun, “There is no wifi out here, but we promise you will find a better connection.”
6.
We have arrived! Welcome to Botswana!
7.
“Will we have drinks on arrival?” One of our group asks our tour leader, Ingo.
“Drinks from arrival!” Ingo says firmly. We rejoice, even if we know it’s probably not true.
8.
The airport in Maun has more flights in and out of it daily than many international airports. The planes are lined up next to each other like boats in a harbour – and are a similar size. A desert and wetland port for one of the most remote places in the world.
9.
We meet our pilot for the next leg of our journey. Alexa introduces herself as our pilot, which delights our largely female contingent. “Girl power,” someone shouts. We climb into a 12-seater caravan plane and head for our first lodge, Leroo La Tau, on the border of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Twenty minutes later we land safely and there is a loud round of applause.
10.
We’re greeted with big smiles, warm towels and cold drinks at the lodge, which we take out onto the deck to admire the view of the river. 
11.
One of us, Sarah, is wearing a moon boot because she fractured a bone in her ankle a week before we left. We hear the same joke wherever we go. “The lions will eat her first.”
12.
On our first game drive, Simon asks, “Are lions called lions because they like to lie in?”
Ingo intercepts the question, “No, it’s because they never tell the truth.”
13.
Ollie, our guide, sees a yellow-billed hornbill, “We call it the flying banana.”
14.
Later, as night falls, we sit around a fire having drinks. Ollie says, “In Botswana, we like to tell stories. We have a long history of storytelling. My grandmother told me this one. It’s my favourite story.” Our group sits quietly, eager to hear this authentic African story in its natural setting. Ollie begins, “Once there was a honeybadger…” but that was as far as he got. Another guide, unaware of the storytelling, ambles into our circle with a bottle of gin in his hand and announces loudly, “Top up! Top up!” We all laugh, top up our drinks and then hear the old story about the honey badger as the stars come out above us.
15.
The next morning on our game drive, Kim says her uncle laughs like a hippo and whenever she hears them she thinks of him.
16.
On our second day in Botswana, we drive through a village and learn hello (dumela) and thank you (ke a leboga) in Setswana. I practice saying the words in the game vehicle and repeat the phrase, “ke a leboga.” Camilla thinks I say “cale a boca,” which is Portuguese for shut up. She spins around in anger and it takes a few moment for me to clear away the confusion.
17.
Another important Setswana phrase we learn is “Pula Pula”. Its meaning is diverse. It means rain but is also the name of the currency. It is also a well wishing and that’s what we use it for most. It‘s similar to the chant of olé in sport. Whenever there is a lull or some remark demands a response one person shouts “Pula Pula” and the rest of us respond in kind, “Pula Pula!”
18.
After a full day of activities, the girls relax with a glass of wine and look at some of the photos Simon took that day. In the stillness of the early evening, the water is as smooth as marble.
19.
Which makes for a perfect star-and-moon-gazing setting…
20.
We fly to our second lodge, Camp Xakanaka, in the Moremi Game Reserve.
21.
Driving from the airstrip to the lodge, our group goes quiet. It’s the green season and the vegetation is rich and dense. The banter is replaced by an awed silence broken only by the occasional one-word expression like “wow”, “beautiful” and Simon saying “lush” in a weird accent. We come across this elephant…
22.
“Wow,” one of us says, “The Okavango Delta must be the world’s most beautiful oasis.”
“Actually,” Ingo says, “an oasis is formed by a spring and this is a delta, so that is incorrect.” His German precision and attention to detail sure is a hoot.
23.
Our game vehicle gets stuck in a pool of water on the road and we need to be rescued by the other vehicle. We share stories of other trips where things didn’t go according to plan but ended up being treasured memories. Just part of the adventure we say. Now heave!
24.
Simon thinks every tree is a giraffe and every log is a crocodile. We keep reversing to find that his ‘sightings’ are imagined. We tell him to concentrate on the photos.
25.
Our busy schedule is catching up with us. Our group goes very quiet on our afternoon game drive. But then we have one drink at a sundowner station in a beautiful area called Paradise Pools and we’re revived, full of laughter and chatter.
26.
On the drive back to the lodge, Ingo muses, “It’s impressive what one drink can do to the spirits of a group.” We then see a franklin running in front of our car, zig-zagging in terror. We laugh at it and Ingo says, “chicken panic.” A moment before, that simple remark would have been met with silence but now the girls in the back find it hysterical and howl with laughter. Ingo smiles and looks at me as if to say. “You see?”
27.
It’s day three and, after a game drive where we come within touching distance of two male lions, we‘re on another short flight, this time into the heart of the Okavango Delta where we land on a small island.
28.
We are then whisked away on two boats, James Bond-style, through the reed-lined waterways towards Xugana Island Lodge where we are greeted like old friends. Pula pula!
29.
We have lunch and are then back on the boats to our next lodge, Camp Okavango. We’re in the middle of the Okavango wilderness and our guides announce it’s time to park the boats and have a dip. I think they’ve gone mad. We’ve just seen crocodiles upriver, small ones sure, but the mama crocs must be nearby, right? The guides jump in. A few of us follow. Nerves give way to adrenalin and we call in the rest of our group. We yell, “When else will you get the chance to swim in the Delta?” One by one we jump in.
30.
The sun is warm on our faces and the soft breeze cooling us down, we’re so giddy we make up a song. “Oh oh oh tomorrow | there’s no time for sorrow | in a mokoro | tomorrow | in the Okavangoooo.” As uncreative as it may sound, I can assure you, our singing was even worse. That evening we go on the mokoro ride we’ve all been waiting for, and it’s as lovely and blissful and as we hoped it would be. 
31.
Our mokoro ride finishes just as the sun hits the horizon. We’re greeted by the staff with drinks and a medley of songs. It’s the same wherever we go. The singing is always beautiful and powerful and full of passion and vitality. I find it so moving that I often have to blink extra hard to preserve my steeliness.
32.
One song is preceded by a poem. A man stands up front and recites. His opening lines are, “I’m so happy I’m like a carmine bee-eater when he finds an insect. And my friends are so happy they’re like the Okavango Delta after it receives the floods from the Angolan Highlands.”
33.
Oh, and our rooms aren’t too shabby either. In fact, each one we stay in has a private balcony, oodles of space, lovely touches and is well spaced out from the other rooms. The perfect places to come back to after our busy days. 
34.
Just before dinner, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 reverberates around Botswana. I am in my room and think Simon is trying to mess with me by shaking the house. Camilla and Kim think it is a hippo stampede, Mai and Janine think it is monkeys playing on their roof, and Ingo, who at the time is just out the shower and drying himself, just thinks he is really strong.
35.
On the fourth day, we get ready to go on another adventure. Despite the early hour, Janine is as excited as ever…
36.
We take boats to a 3-km-wide island called Buffalo Island that is brimming with elephants. We go on a walk and encounter them around every turn.
37.
The elephants almost seem to be surrounding us. Every few steps we find more. I love the sounds of the African bush in this video…
38.
We then fly to Savute Safari Lodge where we have lunch overlooking a waterhole and spend the afternoon exploring the Savute Marsh, a beautiful region of green grass and plenty of large game.
39.
Ingo’s brought a remote sensor camera with him. The first few days he just gets photos of himself picking the camera up after a fruitless night. But on the fourth night, the camera takes hundreds of photos of a family of porcupines.
40.
The next day is our last full one. We have a quick flight to Kasane, where we are picked up and taken to Chobe Game Lodge. We get orientated and have a drink on their Chobe Deck of Fame.
41.
In the afternoon, we climb aboard an electric skimmer boat and head onto the Chobe River for one of their famous sunset cruises.
42.
Ingo and I are staying in the honeymoon suite, which delights the rest of the group. We also, unknowingly, coordinate our outfits. 
43.
On our final morning game drive, we have an impromptu yoga session – safari style. We contort our bodies like giraffes drinking at a river, elephants flapping their trunks, meerkats standing sentry and flamingos standing in water.
44.
And then, tragically, it’s time to leave. It’s hard to believe that our trip was just five days, considering how much we saw and did. We feel revitalised, inspired and united. Driving back to the airport, Camilla shouts, “You see, I told you we’d be best friends by the end of this!”
45.
Cheers to Desert & Delta for an incredible trip! If you’d like to find out how you can enjoy a similar holiday, have a no-obligations chat with one of our lovely consultants. 