Iguazu Falls, Argentina: Number 181 of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die

Growing up as a child I always had the desire to visit each of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the 7 ancient wonders of the world and the 7 industrial wonders of the world. And so it was rather exciting to be visiting what is widely billed as a given inclusion in the forthcoming new 7 wonders of nature. ... albeit a review of the finalists for this had some inclusions Id never heard of as being "must see's""...the Bay of Fundy? Je Ju Island? Cliffs of Moher?

I had endured a rather tortuous 17 hours of flying from South Africa before I finally landed at midnight at the small airport servicing the falls in Brazil. Having heard from other travellers that it was cheaper and better to stay on the Argentinian side and see the falls from there (as an aside two-thirds of the falls are on the Argentinian side), I clambered into a taxi, crossed another border, got another country in my passport and headed for the hotel. I was staying at the rather lovely Panoramic Hotel- which- according to the website had an amazing pool overlooking the falls. Reality- it did overlook the Iguazu river that the falls were situated on but it was spring cleaning time for the pool so that was shut. 


Nonetheless the breakfast was a real treat- aside from the usual items youd expect in a 5*, there were some- I presume Argentinian usuals- dulce de leche for your toast, ricotta torte, chocolate brownies, pear tarte, fruit bread, almond croissants. Yummy!! Sadly Id been wiped by plane flu, was desperately hoping I wasnt going to wake up sweating as then Id need a malaria test from my trip to Botswana, and hadnt been exercising for two weeks so it was fruit salad for me.


snookum bears aka brazilian aardvarks



Having entered the national park containing the falls I decided first stop would be to have a look at somewildlife. I meandered down a jungle path, skipping alongside fluttering butterflies, jumping over some amazingly ferocious large ants, watching some rather odd tree climbing raccoony looking animals (found out later they were coatis- a brazilian aardvark but I prefer their slang name of snookum bears), whistling a care free tune, rounded a bend and came face to face with......well, hard to describe it really given that I was in the middle of a tropical jungle.

 Picture some rather exotic animals on mass, white luminescent skins, tribal markings on some bodies, chattering away quite excitedly next to a boat....and wearing bikinis for the female species and Bonds underpants for the male species. Homo sapiens Australis.
 

homo sapiens australis




Before.....

 I had inadvertently stumbled on the departure jetty for the boat ride to the falls...being Australian however I felt no fear joining this motley group of naked tourists and clambered on myself- fully clothed of course. Im half English!! What followed was 45 minutes of laughter as we roared along in a hovercraft up to the falls- first stop...Devil's Throat- the most impressive of the waterfalls- 82 metres high, 150 metres wide and 700 metres long. The grinning captain floored the hovercraft right underneath them.......ah...now I understood the various stages of naked undress in the boat!! Thoroughly soaked he then whipped us backwards and.................repeated the exercise again as if the first time was not enough!

After!!

By now, thankful that I was at the very back of the boat as I was definately winning the wet t-shirt competition, we then roared around the other side to another set of waterfalls. Again the insane captain repeated his madness....and just in case we hadnt been fully finished off then did it again.

Bedraggled, cold, and with fully wet clothes I clamboured back on dry land to find a sunny spot to dry off. Sadly it was raining so there was only one thing to do....hike along to the one hotel in the park- the Sheraton- and treat myself to the hand dryer in their toilets, before dripping up to the bar to order a caipirinha and a toasted sandwich. Excellent!!

The next day I decided to brave the park again and do the choooochoooo train tour and a jungle adventure tour. The latter was not really that adventurous- a stick shift truck roaring along a well cut path in the jungle while the tour guide pointed out various trees such as wild papaya and palms...oh and a few toucans lazily flying overhead.

The chooochooo train however was great fun...meandering through the jungle between food stops and the kilometre long walkway right to the top of Devil's throat. Given that you could see the power of the water rushing underneath the grills of the walkway as you traversed to the edge of the largest waterfall in the system, it was a rather slow and nervous crossing. 

 

On one side, slowly rusting in the water, you could see an earlier walkway that had been condemmed. This new one however went right out to the edge of the waterfall...crossing several smaller waterfalls on the way. The roar of the water was deafening- some 1800 cubic metres of water go over it per second.....and in peak floods its been recorded up to some 12,800 cubic metres a second. Perching on the edge of this waterfall you can see why no Harry Houdini has ever tried to go over in a barrel!!. While Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe has the largest amount of water, Iguazu is wider but hampered on taking the water volume prize as it is split into about 270 separate waterfalls. Taller and twice the width of Niagara Falls, it is reported that the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said "Poor Niagara!" when she first saw it.

The waterfalls were first discovered (at least by Europeans that is!!) by a Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541 but were not rediscovered until the end of the nineteenth century by the explorer Boselli. Hard to believe that a 3km width of waterfalls at that height, creating that amount of noise, could be swallowed by the jungle for so long.

Ending the fantastic two day visit, I wondered into the information centre and was told that tribal legend says that a big snake called "Boi" lived in the river. To calm its rage, aborigines sacrificed a woman every year as an offering. However one year a brave aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from death by escaping through the river. Boi burst in anger, curled its body and split the river forming the cataracts to separate the man and the woman. Lovely!

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Sun City, Johannesburg: Number 180 of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die

It was a slightly refreshed body that clambered into my friend's car to head out to Sun City for the weekend, keen to discover another of the 1000 Places. The gutteral tones of the Afrikaans accent filled the car as we headed out of town and I got an update of the improvements in Johannesburg as a result of the FIFA World Cup- largely roads and stadiums!! Still, even after all these improvements, being Joburg, the estimates of the time it would take to get to Sun City varied from 1 to 2.5 hours.

As it was, we had the misfortune to choose a highway congested with cars, three traffic accidents as well as workers installing the new toll gates - all with a rather complicated charging system depending on the time of day, whether the car has an electronic number plate and the number of times you use that road. Roughly translating at about £5 for the short...and very common drive of Sandton to Pretoria...it would create hell when up and running as people duck and wove to use side roads as their entrance points into town.
Joburg already had a non-existent public transport system, too many people living on the edges who came in to the city to work and therefore needed to have a car, a poor road design system that even with the addition of more offshoot roads and the widening of the highway would still result in pretty much permanent gridlock and now... a road tax.

Anyhow, up we trundled to the North West Province to tick another one in the 1000 Places book. From all I'd heard about Sun City over the years I have to admit that this was one place I was not looking forward to seeing. The words garish sprung to mind as soon as I thought of the place.

Sun City was the brainchild of Sol Kerzner- a South African who is now perhaps more globally famous for being the owner of the One & Only resorts and being the developer of the Atlantis Resort in Dubai, a $1.5 billion, 1,500-room, water-themed resort which opened in late 2008 on The Palm Jumeirah.

However in an apartheid South Africa in 1979 when gambling was illegal he devised the concept of Sun City and over a period of ten years built the most ambitious resort project seen to date in South Africa- four hotels, a man-made lake, two Gary Player golf courses and an entertainment center with an indoor 6,000-seat multi-purpose arena which hosted concerts and was the venue of many World Title fights. A little slice of Disney fantasy world in the middle of one of the richest mining belts in the world.

Anyhow, we arrived......

Now, it could have been the plethora of plebs (im unsure what you call a group of plebians but that sounds good!) jumping on the dinky toy train to take them back down to the car park while we had travelled in the opposite direction- all sunburnt, bare feet, slightly inebriated, carrying towels with strong Afrikaans accents jostling over each other after a raucous day in the complex that made me just not want to go inside.

It might have been that with the traffic we didnt get there until 5pm, despite leaving at 1pm, and were starving and that the restaurants had stopped serving food at 4pm so the only choices was fast food- Indian Halal, Hot Dogs or Steers Burgers (we went for Steers).

It could have been that we had to eat while sitting in some gigantically ghastly setting, replete with faux baobab tree and a painted jungle complete with every species including flamingos sitting near lion's heads (see below) while watching desperate gamblers light up in the Smoking Casino and sink pennies into slot machines.

It might have been on the mad dash to the Valley of the Waves to take some photos we had to jostle pass hundreds of grumpy parents and tired children all heading in the opposite direction, while a cacophony of noise blasted our eardrums as all these side alley horrors like shooting ducks, grabbing stuffed toys with steel pincers, throwing darts and disco dancing lined up every side and at times in the middle of the route into the Valley. Each run by young teenagers who just had that whiff of desperation that one hour till closing time on the key ride in their section will bring.

Or perhaps it was on finally entering the "Bridge of Time" (presumably time backwards as the Valley of Waves was set in some faux Inca style) replete with its many elephants, passing through the Monkey Spring Plaza (a multitude of crouching monkeys sitting on top of a fountain) and rounding the bend to gaze upon...Macchu Picchu fully cleared? Babylon? Some place in Africa that has been lost to a jungle?

 

The designers had certainly gone to town at the Valley of the Waves with their foam blocks and concrete on this one (ah yes- that week long concrete decorating class I did in Phoenix Arizona finally paid off and I now know how Disneyland and other theme parks have been built). From the Temple of Courage one could do an 17m water slide. There was a Lazy River to float around with an Adventure Mountain in the middle. The wave pool (okay I photographed it when it had closed!) was flanked by a sandy beach complete with Royal Baths and the Mamba and Viper tube slides.

Even now, having had to wait 24 hours before I wrote this blog on Sun City as I can still feel the distaste bubbling in me, I can just picture the entire Valley of Waves heaving with squealing all-the-colours-of-the-rainbow children, bloated mothers eating ice-creams on the side while dads reclaimed their lost youth catching simulated waves, hotdogs and tomato sauce smeared all over the loungers, pop music blaring over the speakers, the rush of bodies slipping down the water slides, the slap of rubber as tubes collided.

Closing time I have decided is the only time one should go to the Valley of Waves.

Back to the non welcoming Welcome Centre where we decided, just for the sake of the 1000 places to see before you die book as it promised to do my head utterly in, we would stay overnight in the complex and drive back in the morning. Realising, from the pleb plethora we had encountered on their way out, that the casino- the entire reason why this complex was built in the first place- was going to be more like Hooters Casino in Vegas than the Bellagio, we felt perfectly comfortable settling in for a night of blackjack while wearing shorts and flip flops.

Alas, perhaps the final straw was when they couldnt book us a room in one of the 4 hotels in the complex but could only give us a central reservations number....which answered with a recorded message "We close at 4pm. Thank you for your call" before disconnecting me.

Or perhaps it might have been when I enquired to the man behind the welcome counter as to the possibility of seeing the Palace of the Lost City Hotel (had to see who in their right mind would pay US$300 a night to overlook the ghastly Valley of Waves), I was told that access was only on one of the 5 tours, all of which had.....you guessed it....finished.

Or perhaps the camel's back was broken when I politely enquired as to what suggestions he could give me to do at 6pm in Sun City and he suggested a walk in the garden. It was raining.

Anyhow, click here if you want to see pictures of the Palace of the Lost City Hotel and are seriously mad enough to contemplate even driving to this little slice of hell in the sticks. This place does not deserve a spot in the 1000 Places book...and sadly no locals could think of a replacement Joburg entry.

I meanwhile, having reclaimed my weekend, am off to Sandton for some shopping and massage before heading off to Brazil for Carnevale. Far better use of my time!!

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Part 2 Abu's Camp, Okavango Delta: Number 179 of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die

It was bad enough being led to the single prop Cessna 206 plane- quite another seeing it was the smallest plane on the runway...and another to realise that I'd be bouncing along it in on the way to the remote Abu's Camp on the western part of the Delta. The floods from the Angolan Highlands were expected in a week and so in the interim only the seasonal rains had cast patchy dark green water pans over the scrub of the Delta basin. 40 minutes later we touched down and I was greeted by a cocktail and Jacko who was to be my guide for my stay. He joyfully advised me as we headed into camp that his first task had been to arrive ten minutes before our arrival and clear the runway of game - this boded well for the next three day safari.

Off to Abu's camp

Up there as one of the first and therefore most famous camps in Botswana (the other contender being Jack's Camp in the Kalahari and perhaps Mombo on Chief's Island in the Delta), Abu's Camp was the brainchild of Randall Moore who had a vision of rehabilitating trained African elephants back into the wild and eventually chose a spot in the Western Delta as his base for both a luxury lodge, a research centre, and an elephant riding school. A few km away the sister lodge, Seba had been built, catering more at the family end- or as they say in the Delta- a "classic" camp meaning full capacity was 20 people rather than Abu's at 12 guests.


Now Abu's is not a cheap place to stay. It may not even at certain times of the year be deemed the best based on game viewings standard (Abu/Seba only has the Big 4 and is missing the rhino which only exists at Chief's Island in the middle of the Delta after it was reintroduced there recently) . It probably, on any scale, wont rank as best value, not that that is necessarily a sound measure anyhow. But as Mastercard promises..............some things are priceless!!

Now I've done quite a few safaris in my time.....you, a landrover, following another landrover, following another ten landrovers etc..but nothing compares to the Botswanian safari for starters. Huge private concessions (the Abu/Seba camps are on a 500,000 hectares concession) targeting the high value low volume tourists. And, to make it unique amongst the other camps- Abu's was the first and remains the only Botswanian place to provide all safaris on elephant back. Every day, twice a day, you clamber on board an elephant with a mahout and ride out into the Delta! Abu's herd- consisting currently of 4 elephants that guests can ride, a further 2 being trained up and a young baby, have 18 full time people dedicated to their care. Now elephants cant travel very far quickly, so Ab u's camp isaided in their game drives by the guides at Seba who radio in positions of wildlife as they go about the game drives with their guests.

Nothing can describe that moment when I met Cathy , the matriach of Abu's herd who I would ride on my first day. At a whopping 3.8 tonnes, she stood 2.4 metres from her front five toenails to the top of the neck. Add a rounded back, and a saddle, and I sat a good 3 metres off the ground. My mahout demonstrated the "stretch down" command and brought this 51 year old elephant to a gentle kneeling down position whereupon, aided by a junior mahout's knees, I clambered aboard my own little maharini saddle, swung my legs down both sides, and gripped the tops hard as she lumboured back to her feet.

On Cathy

The first ride- a short introduction- was quite a contest between looking at my wonderful elephant (who would have known they had hairs on their trunks and ears and the world's longest eyelashes), the 2 babies following her who couldnt resist rolling around in the water, diving with just their trunks showing and generally getting in the way most of the time, or spend my time looking for wild life. Thankfully my mahout, firmly wedged behind Cathy's ears, took care of the latter leaving me time to watch the interaction between these amazing mammals and marvel at how close we could get to the wildlife without any signs of agitation on either side.

At this juncture, I probably should fess up two things. The first is that I couldn't actually stay at Abu's as they had razed most it to the ground for a complete rebuild and it wont open until April 2011......so I was staying at the sister lodge Seba a few kilometres away. However in a lovely twist - they allowed us to use the Abu's elephants as if we were Abu's guests. Normally Seba guests only have access to talks by the elephant research people (there are normally about 5 on site doing various projects on the 7 elephants that have been released back into the wild as well as the surrounding wild elephants), and perhaps go and see Abu's herd once.

Now when both resorts are open again shortly, Seba will average about $1200 a day with Abu at US$2500 per day. Which one to pick? I'd have to say Abu's Camp- even though it's actually still in construction but the luxuriousness of a resort that is built in 2011 can not be underestimated. However the obvious reason why I'd pick Abu's is the elephants and the unlimited interaction with them from just hanging out in the boma with them to the twice daily game drives.I was treated by the Seba camp manager to a tour of Abu's in the making so to speak. It looks "luxury" already - sweeping decks, amazing tents all with outdoor baths overlooking the Delta, chesterfields in a library stacked full of books, original artwork to admire, nooks and crannies to tuck into, large pool, gym, wifi etc. The honeymoon tent (view from the deck pictured below) was mind blowing with heated floors, outdoor bath, private plunge pool and a stunning deck overlooking a water hole replete with resident hippos and thousands of white water lillies ( I wouldnt have left that tent so its comforting to know that dinners on your deck can be provided) . 
The Stargazer villa- rentable by the night- was a 2 storey feat of wooden engineering right next door to the elephant enclosure replete with bathrooms and outdoor shower on the ground floor and a massive top storey deck with no walls and one gigantic mosquito net suspended over the deck. It was a pity it was still in construction as sleeping here, with nothing between yourself and the stars, the sounds of the elephants moving around in the night, the grunts of the hippos in the surrounding water interspersed with the call of the hyenas and if you are lucky the roar of a lion would be I imagine one of the most magical experiences possible in the whole of Africa.

Honeymoon Suite in the Making, Abu's Camp

Star Gazing Deck in the making - Abu's Camp

The second thing I should explain is that the price, at either camp, includes charter plane to the camp, all food and drinks, and 2-3 game safaris a day and the most fabulous private tent. Now" tent" Ive decided is a bit of a misnomer in the Delta. My Seba tent was actually an extremely generous 2 bedroom london size apartments- built on stilts with a wooden base and canvas walls. A massive king size bed, armchairs, built in wardrobes, tiles in the bathroom, private wooden deck (mine with a plunge pool), each individually decorated in the style of a Batswanan tribe....are you getting the idea? Tents on the ground these are not!

My "tent", Seba's camp

Plunge pool on my deck, Seba's camp




Reading tent, Seba's camp


But back to the activities......After the first afternoon elephant drive we had aperitives around a camp fire before sitting down to one big dining table- a safari tradition Im told. Dinner was stuffed mushrooms followed by roast lamb and creme caramel. After a few post dinner digestives, I was walked to my lodge by my guide (for safety after all we are in the middle of wild animals) and sat sipping a rather fine glass of red on my wooden deck overlooking a water pan listening to the night sounds. There was the scent of damp vegetation and water in the air lifted by the pungent sweetness of the wild sage that danced in the light breeze on the paths around my tent. Hippos grunted close by as they grazed on the 4 foot high pampass grass, cicadas churped in the trees and in the distance a few bullfrogs started to practice their mating call- perhaps they had heard like us that the annual flood of waters from Angola was due to arrive in the next four days. Hyenas called to the full moon in the distance, while closer to my toes fish gently plopped out of the still dark waters which were only broken by the whiteness of the stairway to the full moon and the green flashes of fire flies as they danced amongst the reeds. Tiny fruit bats performed acrobatics around my head jostling for the best position in the Moriula tree and a male lion roared in the distance while nightjars called to each other across the lagoon. This was Africa- untainted nature, devoid of signs and sounds of human habitation.Just animals going about their business like they had done for thousands of years when man's footprint on the Earth was negligible.

Its a credit to the Botswanan government that they are very strict about the fragile ecosystem of the Delta. No villages are allowed to be created in the Delta so everything is flown in from Maun, no gardens are allowed to be planted, no seeds taken out, all kitchen waste shredded so that monkeys cant inadvertantly eat seed carrying plants and spread them throughout the fertile plains. Anti poaching units are prevalent along with constant inspections by the government to ensure the lodges are following strict guideliness. All buildings, bar the fuel storage areas, have to be built with wood rather than concrete and brick so that they are in effect semi permanent and can be removed in full at the end of the time frame granted on any concession without any permanent marks on the habitation.

Day 2, slightly stiff from 2 hours with my legs hanging either side of Cathy as well as a late night from star gazing in my plunge pool, we rose for a 6am breakfast . The oranges and reds of dawn had given way to blue skies and a searing heat. by the time we were back on the elephants for the 7am early morning game drive. This time I was on Shirene- without doubt a greedy elephant!! Elephants only digest about 40% of what they eat and so to support such bulk they constantly moved through the vegetation tearing up clumps of grass and munching them without breaking a step nor failing to grab the next morsel ready to be eaten as soon as they had finished the first. They added back to the vegetation by becoming a veritable mobile fertilising machine. 


On the back of Shirene


The mahouts largely worked in silence, urging on the elephants when needed in order to move quickly to the ultimate position, or utilising apparently universal elephant commands such as "come here" (which turns the elephant left) and "get over"(which turns it right). I wonder whether Randall realised when he was training the first herd of elephants that teaching them "left" and "right" was perhaps not a great idea when you had a guest on board and wanted to point them out something and the mahout said "see to your left a lion" and so the elephant started walking left..."and then to your right some impala" and so the elephant turned right. At some stage sooner or later the elephant is just going to sit right down and say "my mahout is missing some marbles". Elephants by the way have the ability to learn more than 2000 commands- all of Abu's herd could raise their trunks and kiss me , shake their ears, rumble to us, lift their trunk, stand on two legs, hold their ears out- and its reward for doing it on command was to have a handful of horse pellets thrown into its mouth by the mahoot.



Two mahouts ready for warning shots if wild elephants came along



Gently swaying in my saddle as this beast ambled out of the boma and into the surrounding water plains, I could not but feel a moment of superiority as I gazed down on the noses of a few juvenile crocodiles basking in the cool muddied waters. Cresting a corner we then waded into a pond and spent an enjoyable 20 minutes looking down from our great height on a family group of hippos including a tiny baby a mere 5 metres away who were completely unconcerned about the elephants. 








To the wildlife- we were just an elephant- rather than an elephant with a person on the back, which enabled us to literally walk right up to game. Such close encounters with the likes of impala, kudu, warthog, buffalo, hippo, crocodile, hyena, giraffe and zebras- all of which were encountered on Day 2, was enough to bring even the most seasoned safari person to speechless silence.







impala and zebras




Day three was another two game drives on the elephants - this time I was on the smaller Gika and we took them to their mud baths. It was so cute watching these massive elephants get down on the ground and roll around in the mud, the little babies sqealing with delight, then it was down to the task of covering themselves with dry sand to further cake their bodies.

 



Baby Abu as unconcerned about the close proximity of the lone male buffalo as we were





Jacko my guide preparing pimms at sunset

 After returning to the camp for lunch we went out to ride them again in the afternoon- all now a rather ghostly grey from the sand- for a leisurely two hour amble through the bush back to Abu's camp. After that pimms on the delta before a return to camp for dinner- tuna mousse with salmon, roast chicken and tarte tatin was followed by a night drive to find the elusive leopard. Sadly it was not to be but we did get to watch a hippo graze on the banks and bush babies nimbly fly from branch to branch.

Visiting the places in the 1000 places to see before you die has meant seeing some incredible sights, visiting some amazing countries and staying in some fabulous places, yet I have to say that, while Abu's camp will no doubt be the height of 5 star luxury - and Seba's is one of the few that cater to families- the experience of such intimate interaction with Abu's herd of elephants is up there in the top two best experiences Ive had so far in this book. The other being the polar bears in churchill.



Cathy and I doing a photo shoot....until she starts looking for treats



Both very different but i have to say- Abu's wins hands down! The sun is always shining, sitting on an elephant a few metres away from the most dangerous animal in Africa the hippo and being completely safe was mindblowing, the incredible hospitality of the Seba camp managers and the ability to see so many wildlife with the assistance of fabulous guides........this is the place so far in the book Id say "number 1"...even though for me its number 179 of the 1000 places Ive seen in the book.

and then gently nudges me out of the way when she cant find any!

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Number 178 - Okavango Delta, Bostwana - Part 1

This entry is a two part as I did one at the edge of the Delta (178) and one at Abu's Camp in the Delta (179).



View from the Island Safari Lodge deck

 ......It was dark by the time we got back to our base, the Island Safari Lodge Maun on the Thamalakane river which is feb by the Okavango River, after an exhausting 16 hours seeing a mine site outside of Maun, Botswana.



The half moon had settled its luminenscence over the inky green waters bathing it in a swathe of grey and blues, highlighted by the pads of the water lillies, their perfumed flowers on 7 foot stems now closed for the night. African Jacana's, also known as Jesus birds, bounced nimbly on the pads, their name an apt shoice as from a distance they did appear to be walking on the water. Underneath, their fat bodies swallowed by the might of the highest Delta waters seen in a decade for this time of the year, bullfrogs competed for attention, their loud chorus echoing through the still night, interrupted only by the occassional fish plopping out of the water. Deeper still in the tranquil flooded plains lurked crocodiles searching for food- but I had yet to sight these- or indeed the 3 tonne bull hippo which had slipped into camp during fence repair work and was content not hitting the river bank and swimming to someone else's problem upstream.

It was hardly of comfort, as I had checked in during the night time when these beasts are grazing on the banks that im overlooking, that I hadnt known about him at the time and was only alerted after walking 400 metres down a barely lit path to my lodge to find a note from management on my bed warning me of his existance. Handy hints such as "do not scream or wave your arms about or make a noise" seemed extremely belated. Known to kill more people in Africa than any other animal I couldnt have vouched I would have acted like the instructions advised if Id rounded a corner with my suitcase and came face to face with that!

Anyhow the next day at least progressed without incident. Nursing the slight vestiges of a hangover which had only been marginally tempered with a late night swim in the pool, I clambered aboard a boat for a 4 hour excursion to the edge of the delta. Too tired for much else I figured Id save the main attraction of going deep in the Delta for the following day.

I am here in February where the levels are slowly rising but in 3 months time they will be in full flood. This year is expected to be very high-  on average the Angolan highlands receive an annual rainfall of 1.2 to 2 metres a year....yet this year in the panhandle where it is already coming through, the water levels have already risen three metres. Such levels havent been seen in 25 years and there was much nervousness by local home owners as to the loss of livelihood that would occur this year, especially after the massive floods they had in 2009. The greatest surge of water recorded to date was in 1984- some 1100 cubic metres per second entered the panhandle.

The Delta, which is actually Africa's largest oasis, can swell to some 25 000km² when flooded and at the driest time of the year, will shrink to about 6 000km². As a result, it has one of Africa's largest concentration of wildlife with great herds of antelopes, zebra, buffalo and elephants as well as the carnivores- lions, leopards and cheetahs, all dependent on the size of the floodwaters.
    

Aerial views of the Delta


Even though the floods were still a month or so away, the expanse of wetlands was something to behold. Tall trees and thick grass taller than a man lined the banks of the fast flowing river, bending as the swirls and eddies rushed by with little fish gamely trying to swim against the currrents. Everywhere water lillies rose up, their strongly perfumed white petals a refreshing balm against the heat and dampness permeating the air.

In a country which is 80% arid, the waters arriving in the Okavango Delta in Botswana is critical to the survival of one of the largest concentrations of wildlife in Africa. Two seasons exist- summer rains and the winter floods. Rising in the Angolan Highlands, the wet season starts in November and from around early March onwards the Okavango River- which is about 1000 km long- finally enters the Delta in the so called 'pan-handle,'as a wide, fairly swift, flowing river. Due to the overwhelmingly flat landscape as it meanders south it splits into three main channels, each one carrying water in a different direction and creating different ecosystems before flattening out and then completely disappearing, soaked up by the parched land until the following year.

But I was only at Maun- gateway to the Delta- and so while the  river I was travelling down was in full flow, it was none the less only about 5 metres wide. Occassionally as we rounded a bend a lone fisherman would be squatting on the banks with a single line cast out to catch a fish. Heavily laden down boats putted by in the opposite direction carrying 8 foot long bundles of freshly chopped reed to sell. Donkeys brayed across the banks as they mournfully sought friends, the odd one or two yoked to primitive carts carrying fresh water from the banks. Lithe black bodies of semi naked children stopped their frolocking in the shallow banks as we went by to wave and smile at us, a few enthusiastically trying to swim to the boat, secure that they could spot the crocodiles coming given the crystal clear waters. Nearby a cluster of skinny goats in their charge ate steadily, their heads not even lifting as we passed by as they concentrated on the more important task of survival. The contrast between us and the children was sadly staggering- Botswana has one of the youngest populations in Africa with the highest number in the sub 15 years old range- and despite the number of tourists flooding to the Delta each year, this is a country that has prided itself on high cost, low volume eco lodges. I wondered how all these people would get employment when they grew up.

The landscape was dotted with huge trees- some more than 60 metres high. A number of these were dead from the devastating 2009 floods when the waters rose above the height of them for months on end, before they finally succumbed to a watery grave. But out of everything comes something else and these once waterlogged tree trunks, now dry, form the supply of wood to make mokoros, the wooden canoes handcarved out of a fallen tree that provided the means by which the Batswanan people traversed up and down the river systems.

I decided to jump off the boat and hire one. A 9 foot pole was provided to me as the sole means of movement. Hard work trying to steer these unsteady canoes along the banks, I spent the best part of half an hour poling a left , then a right path, wobbling my way in a very jaggged line until I mastered the hang of it and smoothly went a few further kilometres upstream. However it was wonderful to hear the sounds of the bush rather than the noise of a diesel engine, broken intermittently by a few choice words of mine as I hit the rushes on the side banks uncontrollably. 

Rounding a bend I realised that I had hit the edge of the delta and was no longer in a tributory river. The contrast was dramatic with the landscape widening out and a large water pan as far as the eye could see. The vegetation also shifted dramatically with green grass now dominating the landscape and smaller shrubs. Not having purchased the requisite permits to go into the Delta itself I sadly turned around and poled back to the paddlers base to return the mokoro.

When the sun had lost its grip on the earth and was slowly sinking down i embarked on a 2 hour horse ride through the bush. My guide hadnt been out in a few days so was keen to put the horses- and my thighs- for a hard workout. Serves me right for saying I was an experienced rider as we dodged the thorn bushes (and one wasp nest) on a mad gallop to see if we could reach the edge of the delta. After 20 minutes and a rather laboured horse I wheeled it into a canter and advised that just hitting a river would be fine. So imagine my surprise when we went rounded a bend a short while later and there was the river. Well I can hear you saying now "whats the surprise...?" Well that came in the form of 2 ears, 2 nostrils and 2 very beady and somewhat alarmed eyes. Theres always that moment when the brain shuts down its processing power, floods the limbs with go-go juice, and then starts working again to decide if the adrenalin really is needed. And so it ticked into action.....

Have i seen this before? Yes............ but never so close.
Is it a threat? Holey $%^* its the bloody hippo.

And so I saw the beast. First in line for the thundering affront and its 40cm molars as well. Now they might look like an overfed grey piggish squat legged cow but give them a minute and they can run along at 20-30 km/hour on the ground- guess that is why their name means river horse rather than river cow. Thankfully of course my lodge had provided me the night before with instructions of what not to do! So i didnt belt out Hi ho Silver and feverishly point at the water to my guide while rearing the horse in front of the great beast to make myself look larger and more threatening. No, I calmly brought the horse to an abrupt stop, narrowly avoiding being turfed over its neck right in front of the hippo and just stood still. Good news on my side was that it was 5 metres away and in the water.

After that the brain went into normal hippo thinking mode- am I on one its paths? ( thats why they attack).....hard to say. Can I see a baby? (~F%$£ed if that was the case....no). Will my adventure travel insurance policy cover this? (couldnt remember seeing "being eaten by wildlife" in the clause). So suffice to say my horse, Fox, who I could feel was shaking, was calmly turned around and that was my brief sojour at the river. After the event of course I can say it was a beautiful moment and a highlight of my time at this lodge. After! Still needed a river shot on the back of Fox though......got that slightly later on the way back!

The next day I threw caution to the wind, and a significant amount of dosh and chartered an entire plane for myself for a flight over the Delta to my next point of call- the sister Seba and Abu Camps, on the western edge of the Delta, the latter which is featured in the book 1000 places to see before you die. Sounds rather glamorous doesnt it- a whole plane for myself. The truth is the concierge service didnt give me the right times to be at the airport and so I missed the charter flight carrying everyone to the lodge. As a result they had to send it back just to pick up little ole wee me. Oh...and the $700US that that mistake cost me. I was one extremely grumpy bunny that morning but needed to change my mood before i got in one of those ghastly single prop engines that, after years of dealing with African bush pilots, I just so hate. Time to put my hippo training behind me and start thinking about how to survive in one of Africa's most animal populated areas should the plane go down. Im going for climbing up a tree and gently dropping on the back of an elephant so Im out of range of the carnivores....but not sure that method will work.

And so...on to the next place that I will see before I die.

Number 177 - Sans Souci, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

It was a lovely sunny but slightly nippy day in Berlin. I was booked to take a tour of Sans Souci on one of the many walking tours starting near Brandenburg Gate. To be fair it would be the second one Id taken from the same company and I was quite looking forward to it. The idea of an unpaid student guide who had to work hard to get his tips always appealed to the capitalist in me! What didnt appeal to me was that it would be a 6 hour walking tour!!

Anyhow, refreshed as I was from yet another fabulous night at SOHO House Berlin I set off to the Berlin underground with my guide to head to Potsdam to visit Sans Souci. The former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, it was built to rival Versailles and is a glorious ode to rococo architecture.

It was designed by George Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747 to fulfill King Frederick's desire for a place to relax away from the Berlin court and Sans souci means "without worries." A small palace- a mere ten main rooms, its size is an optical illusion as it is built on the top of a terraced hill. Ingeniously designed, the layers of terraces contain grape vines all housed within structures that allow the doors to be closed on them for frosty nights.  

Its very hard to describe the first moment you see it- its like some frothy concoction afterthought perched on top of a multi tiered wedding cake. Steps disect a multitude of terraces covered in grape vines leading up to the single storey palace on the crest of the hill. Walking on to the top terrace one is greeted with the swirls and flourishes that define rococa, and its more larger sister style- baroque.

The next few hours were pleasantly spent wandering around the park and seeing the many other palaces that exist in these grounds-which used to be a former orchard. Sadly as it was the onset of winter a number of the statues had already been boarded in boxes of straw in order to survive the bitterly cold winter.

A definate place to see in the 1000 places to see before you die

Number 176 - Dead Sea, Israel

Number 175 - The American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem