Horseback safaris in the deep waters of Okavango Delta
Thalefang Charles | Friday September 1, 2017 14:20
“So how deep is this gonna get?” I worriedly asked the guide. The sounds of splashing of the water as horses enjoyed the swimming drowned out my voice and made it inaudible. The guide could not hear me but I did not want to shout out loud lest I startle the horse and it throws me in for a swim.
The horse I was riding, called Boy, was at that point neck deep in the water and we were not in the middle of the river yet. Boy was going in confidently and loving it while I was riding with bated breath wondering how deep would it get. I quietly thought, ‘am I going to drown my last camera after the other one became a lions snack? Why did I even sign for this?’
My trip here started in Maun, over drinks. It was few days after successfully exiting the Okavango Delta from a 15-day mokoro transect with the National Geographic on a research expedition, when I jumped to an invitation from Africa Trails to spend some good time at their Hippo Island camp near Nxaraga along the Kunyere River.
The invitation happened at a poetry show at Kana Jang Restaurant at Nhabe Museum. It was an offer I could not refuse because horseback safaris in the Okavango Delta has been on my bucket list for while and I felt doing it with a local tour operator would be a cherry on top.
The trip to Hippo Island was exciting and adventurous, as we had to drive on 4X4 off-road track and cross three flooded rivers. The first crossing was deep and the guides said the water continues to swell every hour. So when we got to the river a person had to get off and walk across to gauge the depth. The guides said a 24-hour difference of the flood could surprisingly drown the vehicle if it is not prior checked.
Loggy O’mara who is one of the tour guides said that it is their first time in 10 years to see such large volume of the flood in the area. These rivers are the tributaries of the Kunyere River which one of the two big drainage rivers (the other being the Thamalakane/Boteti) from the Okavango Delta.
In the evening at Hippo Island, together with tourists from Luxembourg, we went out for a sunset boat cruise mainly to see the hippos. It was rather ironic for me to be searching for hippos after spending two weeks wishing for hippos to not capsize our mekoro during our transect expedition. I now felt like a typical tourist. But through it all I was waiting for my highlight activity that actually led me in this part of the Okavango.
So in the morning, whle on a horse back when our guide did not respond to my water level enquiry, I thought he probably could not rightly estimate the swell of the flood because it has been more than 24 hours since he rode a horse through the water.
There I was, riding a horse upfront (because I wanted the pictures) in waters of unknown depth, in a river infested with hippos and crocodiles, and that is when I started to get really worried. Horses enjoy swimming and my horse was relishing the deep waters while I was up there with thoughts like, “what if the crocodiles could attack my horse? What if it accidentally steps on a large beast of a sleeping crocodile deep in there?”
But I managed to push out those frightening thoughts out and started to nurture the moment. I reminded myself that, “this is why I am here. I came here to experience this.”
I have spent better part of my life chasing travel experiences and I am very privileged to have done many cool things in this country and the horseback safaris, crossing the deep waterways on a horse back, is surely one of the best of them. Although there is that normal nervous excitement it is an awesome adventure because the horse too is enjoying the water.
*Thalefang Charles was a guest of Africa Trails at their Hippo Island near Nxaraga in the southwestern end of the Okavango Delta.