Adventure begins #CrossOkavango
Thalefang Charles | Friday May 29, 2015 15:07
I am feeling excitedly nervous. Or, maybe it is nervously excited? But there are some feelings of nervousness and excitement. It is the usual feeling before a big expedition. I am pretty sure that my travel buddy, Pako Lesejane feels the same way too right now.
It has been more than five years doing these travel expeditions, but this one feels very special in many ways. Through the years we have been saving up for these experiences. While friends were building concrete dreams in bricks, we have been saving up for tickets, pushing the passion, while building mansions of dreams - it has always been ditena versus diticket.
Although there has been overwhelming media coverage about this expedition, detailing the reasons for embarking on the Okavango Delta with mekoro (dugouts) for 17 days, we have been getting worried and bemused looks when we mention the mekoro part.
The mekoro part is where the adventure is. That is why responding to worried questions like; ‘are you not scared?’ are difficult to answer. Before a major Everest expedition, famous adventurer, George Mallory, was once asked, “What’s the use of climbing Mount Everest?”
He responded: “What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for”.
I like Mallory’s response because it sheds light on an adventurer’s mind before a major expedition. Mallory never made it from Everest and may his adventurous soul rest in peace, but it is adventurous and curious souls like Mallorys, Hillarys, and Lesejanes that led man to explore the universe.
Without adventure, man would not have stepped on Everest’s peak, or on the moon. He would have been too scared to cross the deep oceans and harsh deserts. This trip is our call to the adventure.
After the tedious and sometimes frustrating process of planning such a big trip, which involves long phone calls, meetings, presentations, begging, smiling, convincing, luck and waiting before getting the nods and nays here and there, our biggest worries now are whether we will surpass our private challenges of delivering incredible work.
It is the artist’s challenge, of wanting to be better and better. Our challenge is to tell the story of the Okavango from a Motswana’s perspective.
This beautiful area that attracts thousands of moneyed tourists every year has been seen through the eyes of visitors. Few native Batswana have had the opportunity to tell this story.
The story of swimming lions, large herds of stomping buffaloes, the gentle giants that are elephants, the leopards, the hyenas, the giraffes and more game.
We expect to meet the territorial hippos and crocodiles as we glide downstream from Shakawe to Maun. It will be a journey with the soundtrack of bird chirps, hyena laughs, and lion roars. We will be on the ancient route that was used by the great-grand fathers of the Makololo and the Lozi as well as the river people from Linyanti and we expect to meet and hear about the people of the Okavango.
*Thalefang Charles is the Expedition Leader of the Cross Okavango Delta Expedition. Together with Lesejane they will be travelling from Shakawe to Maun starting tomorrow followed by a film crew. The expedition is supported by Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), Hospitality & Tourism Association Botswana (HATAB), Air Botswana, Yarona fm and Mmegi.
You can follow the expedition updates through social media, Cross Okavango Delta Expedition on Facebook, daily updates on Yarona fm and articles in Mmegi.