Dispatch from the Delta: You can�t be proud of what you don�t know

Phew! My third transect of the Okavango Delta with mekoro is in the bag. I am writing this from the banks of the Thamalakane River in Maun. Although I am technically out of the Okavango Delta, there are still some wild sounds here. I hear the sounds of swamp boubous, that charming signature duet of the black coloured barberts, and earlier I heard the grand whistle of the African fish eagle calling.

On the last days when we got to the confluence of the Boro and Thamalakane Rivers at Matlapaneng, we saw a herd of elephants grazing behind the Island Safaris Lodge – an indication that although the maps say we have exited the Okavango Delta, we are still close to the wilderness but just on the ‘gateway’, as Maun is popularly known.