Maun

The couple ran their camp deep in the Kalahari on a shoestring budget.

The Owens were furious that when they made their once every three months trip into Maun to buy groceries, their old Land Rover, whose locks were broken, was robbed and their supply of flour and sugar, along with other grocery items, was stolen.

On a limited budget, these supplies could not easily be replaced.

Just before the Owens made their next supply trip to Maun, the Owens spotted two 10-foot black mambas climbing the trees above their dining tent, looking for birds or eggs.

In Mark's own words, "I shot the snakes and I took them to Maun with us and I coiled them over the pile of fresh supplies in the back of the Land Rover.

It didn't matter that they were dead.

The first curious young lad who strolled past our tent, trailing his fingers along the side of the window, suddenly leaped back with a yell and disappeared through the village.

How we get there? We only reached via Mount International Airport.

So our guests most frequently fly via South Africa, through Johannesburg or Cape Town onwards to Maun and from there they jump onto smaller Cessna aircrafts or helicopters that take them deep into the Okuranga Delta.

Is there a difference in whether you travel by fixed wing or helicopter?

In the most recent years, we've had so many more helicopters in the Delta, where the Delta was more historically known for being one of the most busiest fixed wings locations in Southern Africa or the Southern Hemisphere, shall I even say.

And then, of course, our helicopters are there to save the day and help our guests get from A to B.

You know, Ryan, whenever I'm traveling, I always like to think that from the time that I depart, the adventure begins.

Is it really impossible for people to drive from Mound to the lodges? Is that something that you also offer?

Unfortunately not.

Mm

... especially down in Maun where, you know, where it, where it's really important.

So maybe what Europe should be doing is thinking, okay, elephants aren't the same as wolves, but there are similar human-wildlife conflicts going on between what happens in the Okavango and what happens in European areas where there are wolves.

How has the Okavango managed to deal with it? They've slowly, and it hasn't happened overnight, Tommy, it takes decades, they slowly changed local communities' way that they view large animals like, like elephants.

But what a sense of freedom!' Back at the lodge on the third night, and having first connected the fridge in the chalet for one final boost on mains power, we packed our boards back onto the trailer which we chained to a tree, with the owner's permission I should add, and repaired once more to the bar to finalise our one nagging decision, clockwise or anti-clockwise.

As it was, we were still considering both options the next morning for the ten-minute drive from the Lodge to the crucial junction, where, in effect, turning left would take us west to Mound, while carrying straight on would take us north to the Chobey.

And after so many beers spent analysing all the various ramifications over the previous evenings, we ended up committing ourselves to travelling anti-clockwise, simply on the basis that we didn't have to slow down if we carried straight on.

another small but welcome dose of freedom.

When I mentioned with the snigger that if he weren't for his huge lens, he could have got a great shot of the second crocodile as it got up right in front of him.

We spent that whole day just cruising around the lush pans and forest areas of the Okavango's Moreno Park, and we did indeed get some great photos, albeit with a good deal of manoeuvring for the benefit of Fitz's lens.

We could have stayed longer, but Fitz knew that one of his planes and a pilot would be in Maung the next day, and being just two blokes, we decided on a whim during supper that evening that we'd use the opportunity to see if we could fly to one of the camps deep in the delta.

Nothing was certain, but we just thought, well, why not try? And we duly set off early the next morning.

We are in the southern part of Botswana, Khabarovni, etc.

But up north, you're looking at Kasani and Maun.

So there are direct flights from Cape Town, from Johannesburg.

And many tourists, even from Europe and the rest of the world, come to Johannesburg.

And then from there, they fly direct into Maun International Airport or Kasani International Airport, etc., Because those are the actual main tourist areas in Botswana.

One

is by air and then obviously you can also access Botswana by road.

So there