Mokoro Cruising

Cruising

A Mokoro is traditionally a dug-out canoe made from a single tree.

The availability of inexpensive alternatives means that most tour companies use boats made from plastic or fibreglass.

The boat is not the important part, the adventure we had is.

After travelling from Khama Rhino Sanctuary, we were picked up from our hotel early in the morning and were taken to the edge of Maun city where we waited for a motorboat to be ready for us. The boat was to take us up the river to the Mokoro pickup site.

The trip upriver was beautiful. So far we had seen dry yellow grasses but near the river, plants were thriving and green. All along the banks of the river were farms. Many animals had escaped their fences and stood belly deep in the waters to eat the best plants they could find.

When you arrive on-site there are many Mokoro and many people loading them with supplies. There is also the tourists who do their best to stay out of the way and wait until it is their time to leave.

When you do leave you get into your canoe, hoping not to tip. Then you are pushed offshore and your poler (the person steering the canoe) hops aboard. You travel through paths in the reeds that are narrow and unused by the motorboats. The paths seem to be made just for the canoes. We later learned that this was not so. The paths were made by hippos walking along and crushing the reeds. After that, you hope you don’t run into one because all you can think about is that hippos are the deadliest animals in Africa.

The trip is quiet and relaxing. Occasionally you come to come to a wider space, a hippo pool where the hippos sometimes hang out. We didn’t see any and I have mixed feelings of sadness and safety about that.

We stopped partway through the journey to give the polers a break and to have tea and a snack. I was amazed that they were able to find the tiny island that we had our tea break on. I didn’t see it until just before we hit it.

Camping

Then we were back on the mokoro until we arrived at Chief’s Island in the Okavango Delta. Here others had come ahead with the camping equipment and set up before we arrived. Seeing the camp put together was amazing. They were able to do so much with a few mokoros of things. It was very obvious that they had done this before.

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We arranged our tents and enjoyed the camp while the day was hot. We went for a short walk where we learned about local plants and their food and medicinal properties. Only one impala to be seen.

To escape the sun we returned to camp for a bit. Then it was off for a walk and animal search. We walked what seemed liked hours in the hot sun before we saw anything. We left a bit of a bushy area and there was a watering hole where many zebra and wildebeest were having their dinner and drinks.

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When we turned around to walk back to the camp we came across a giraffe in the distance. We would walk closer, it would get uncomfortable and run away, we would walk closer, it would run away, and the cycle continued a few times until we headed in different directions.

We reached camp just before it became dark, around 6 pm. Dinner needed some more time to cook, so we went to watch the sunset and then mom and I got out the cards and played for a while until dinner was ready.

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Dinner was chicken stew and roasted vegetables. They were delicious and all the more wonderful because they were cooked over the open flames of a campfire. The chef even made pudding for dessert over the fire for us. Everyone worked so hard so we would have an enjoyable time.

After dinner, we sat around the fire for a bit and talked with everyone but after a while, we headed to bed because we were going to be up again to go for a sunrise walk the next morning.

Camp had a toilet that had been dug behind the campsite a bit. We were warned that if we had to use the bathroom at night we should do #1 behind the tent and only do #2 in the bathroom if we really had to. We should go everywhere with a flashlight and scan the bushes for eyes. What a way to freak us out.

I woke up to a strange noise that night. I thought I heard giggling when I woke up. At first, I put it off to dreams at first, until I heard it again. It was at that time I realized two things, #1 I had to pee and #2 there were hyenas somewhere behind camp. I now needed the bathroom more than ever but I was determined to hold it until morning. As I listened to the hyenas I eventually drifted back to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and waited until I heard movement in the camp until I got up. We had a quick cup of tea before beginning our walk. We travelled in the opposite direction of where we went the day before. It wasn’t long before we reached the edge of the island and settled in to watch the sunrise over the neighbouring island.

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While we watched the sunrise a large group of students travelled from their island to our island by Mokoro. They stayed for a while and watched the sunrise before heading off to walk the island. Went the sky faded to blue we headed back to camp for breakfast and to pack up our stuff for the deconstruction of camp.

The camp was broken just as quickly as it was set up, the mokoros were loaded and we were taken back to the station at the village. Along the way, we went through a hippo pool. At the edge of the pool far from us, there was a hippo hiding in the reeds. Mary, who was my poler, thought that the hippo had a young in the reeds and that was why it didn’t come closer or pop it’s head up farther. I was okay with it staying away. The Mokoro didn’t seem that hard to tip. 

We safely made it back to the main station and a boat was there to pick us up and return us to town.