Standing up for a paddle in the wild

Published May 3, 2015

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Cape Town - A small band of intrepid adventurers set off from Cape Town in high spirits mixed with nerves and excitement.

Our destination: a little-known former hunting concession area deep inside Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Our mission: to be the first people to explore the far regions of the Delta by stand-up paddle (SUP) board.

There were eight of us on the plane to Maun - four women and four men. A few had only paddled a few times but were still game to come on this pioneering expedition. They weren’t exactly put at ease by the in-flight magazine story by a journalist who narrowly avoided being attacked by an angry hippopotamus in the region.

Andrew Harkness, our guide, picked us up when we arrived in Maun. He has been a guide in the delta for 11 years. He shared some tips and inside knowledge during the three-hour, 4x4 journey to our delta base camp. We spotted almost all of the Big Five before we even reached the drop-off point, but little did we know that the adventure would start before the expedition was officially under way.

We thought we would be driven right to the camp. Wrong. The vehicle stopped just short of the Delta river basin, where we unloaded our gear and inflatable boards. Harkness introduced us to Wako Ngwananoka, a Botswanan guide. Waco went ahead by makoro, the traditional wooden river canoe, to drop off the rest of the gear and equipment at the camp, while we waited at the vehicle to unpack the rest of the gear for a second trip.

While unloading our luggage, a large male elephant appeared from the undergrowth from across the river. It seemed that we were blocking his favourite route across the water. We all jumped back into the safety of the 4x4, waiting with bated breath as the large bull paced along the water’s edge deciding whether to cross over towards us or not.

Luckily the return of the mokoros spooked the bull, and he retreated into the undergrowth. We all breathed a sigh of relief. It was a tense moment.

Our team of eight consisted of some very experienced paddlers and adventurers, and four local mokoro guides, led by Ngwananoka. The guides helped load our SUPs into the mokoros and headed out and around an island to the base camp a few hundred metres away. We gently skirted an area with two large hippos, who were a little perturbed by our presence, judging by their snorts and grunts.

We arrived at the base camp as the sun set, to the warm welcome of local makoro guides and eight dome tents on the river’s edge. They were rustic but comfortable, and just what we needed before setting off the following morning into the wild. At sun up, we loaded our personal gear on to our individual inflatable SUPs, using waterproof bags. The rest would be carried by the local mokoros.

It didn’t take long to realise we were in the wilderness as we paddled along the river banks and peered into the heavily reeded undergrowth of the delta tributaries. We passed hippo, a water snake, elephant, a pair of fish eagles, a herd of waterbuck and giraffe, before stopping in a shallow pool for a lunch break.

It was just after midday and we needed shelter from the sweltering sun. The temperature was 39ºC in the shade. We waited until 3pm before heading off again. The meandering tributaries tunnelled from 40m-wide waterways to streams less than a metre wide, which would barely let us through. The delta changed. There was a new surprise around every bend. The beauty was unfathomable, the tranquillity only matched by the fiery colours of the evening sky that greeted us as we pulled in to a new place to set up camp. After paddling over 12km, we were keen to set up base before the sun went down. But we were stopped by curious, massive, tusked male elephant who would not budge.

The guides finally persuaded the huge creature to move off, and we quickly set up our overnight camp, lit a big fire to braai our dinner, and shared some drinks and stories around the campfire, until the exhaustion of the day’s paddling got the better of us. One by one, we headed off to sleep to the sounds of the wild - lions roared and the high pitch of the hyenas called through the night, and baboons warning of the predators that lurked in the shadows while we were sleeping.

The warmth of the morning sun woke us for our second, and last, day on the water.

After a quick breakfast and coffee from the fire, we broke our camp, packed up and headed out to the deeper Delta before we headed back that evening. With the water levels in the Delta the lowest they had been the entire year, some areas become very tight and difficult to paddle through. Some channels were so narrow we could barely fit through, whether on a paddleboard or makoro. We couldn’t always see what was around us, but the high reeds and thickets created little secluded pools for safe rest stops. Too shallow for hippos and crocs to enter, the pools were perfect places to unwind, rehydrate and snack, before continuing on again.

We stopped under some vultures circling over a dead buffalo, and had to be re-routed when our main tributary was blocked by six very disgruntled hippos. They may be cute from afar, but people forget that the hippo is considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.

For safety reasons we decided not to even attempt skirting them, and found an alternative route back to our main base camp. We arrived late that afternoon - but not before we all got a little adrenalin pumping as the lead mokoro bought us to a silent standstill to let a large hippo come through the tall undergrowth and up the bank to see who had disturbed his late afternoon grazing time. It was a timely reminder of why safety on a trip like this was paramount and of the need for experienced guides. We unloaded our gear and stored our stuff in the tents before setting off on foot into the deep undergrowth in search of early evening game.

Ngwananoka is an experienced tracker and Harkness, with his rifle ready, led the way.

We were treated to very close encounters with giraffe, buffalo, zebra, warthog, monkey and various antelope, before heading back to the safety of the fire at base camp. As the sun set over the delta, drawing the end to another magical day, we were surrounded by the most amazing evening sky, and serenaded by the birds, beetles and beasts bustling around in the twilight, before night set in and the predators came out.

That evening the campfire stories were alive with passion and excitement as everyone recounted the day’s highlights, and shared adventure stories from previous expeditions. We were treated to an amazing bushfire dinner of local dishes from the bush oven, with plenty of beer and wine. A group of waterbuck came roaming through the camp, and a rare Pel’s fishing owl perched above us in the tree, watching us all get sleepier.

The following morning we packed up our gear and had a hearty breakfast, before heading back over to the mainland. We sighted more game driving back out of the delta and we had successfully explored an area that had never been explored by SUP.

It was a bold expedition; we experienced a new world and connected with nature, in its most raw and primal state.

Weekend Argus

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