On our last evening in Botswana we decided to go on a mokoro tour of the delta. Mokoro are traditionally made by digging out the trunk of a large straight tree, such as an ebony tree. Modern mokoro, however, are increasingly made of fiber glass, which helps in the preservation of more of the large endangered trees.
Mokoro safaris are a popular way for tourists to visit the delta, but the boats are still a practical means of transport for residents to move around the delta. The boats are very vulnerable to attack by hippopotamus, which can overturn them with ease. Hippopotamus are reputed to have developed this behavior after the use of mokoro and other boats for hunting.
We thought this would be a great way to see the smaller wildlife of the delta. The fish, frogs, reeds, flowers, etc.
We shoved off from shore and our “poler”, Ola, pushed us through the water.
We were less than five minutes from pushing out when we encountered a herd of elephants at the water.
On the other side of the water was a herd of Cape buffalo. According to our guide it was unsafe for us to continue because both the elephants and the buffalo were aware of our presence and unlikely to look upon us kindly. So we turned back.
We did manage to spot an African fish eagle, which is a related of the American bald eagle.
While it was shortened we got a good taste of what being in a mokoro is like.
