Okavango Delta

Great viewing of big cats, various antelopes, baboons, giraffe, and elephants. The saddle-billed storks and lilac-breasted rollers were stunning.

It's not really a "safari" destination, but a great destination for river enthusiasts. Elephants, hippos, monitor lizzards and spider nests gallore!

Probably one of the last truely completely remote wildlife destinations in Africa !

Other than crocodiles and hippos, land animals are hidden by the papyrus lining the banks of the delta. Abundant birdlife.

Large variety of animals and abundant bird life and limited amenities.

Visiting the Okavango Delta is an amazing, unforgettable experience

For the duration of the trip, I traveled with a guide from Zimbabwe who currently resides South Africa. For the trip to Okavango Delta, we met up with 8-10 polers who helped us navigate the delta and assisted us with the campsite and dinner.

Highlights:

Our guide. That man worked his butt off to make sure things went right, even when every other turn seemed to present some other problem. He turned the "bad" stuff into just a blip on our vacation timeline.

The Okavango Delta. The whole trip was amazing. Our campsite was only available by "polers" pushing us along in Makoros along hippo-created paths along the reeds. SO amazing. And the polers were friendly and fun and awesome to spend time with.
Seeing elephants. And zebras. And rhinos... no glass or fence separation. Just us with the animals. Not that that meant better photos of said experiences, however. We kept cracking jokes that people who went to a local zoo would have better pictures that we did, but only because those visitors had convenient protection from being attacked. ;-)

The helicopter ride (without helicopter doors!!) just after we exited the delta. The ride was an add-on but 100% worth it.

Seriously. I don't think there was a single place who wouldn't bend over backwards to help others.

The trip far, far exceeded my expectations.

initial camp of our first safari, by the river bank and wildlife everywhere - a stunning scenery

The flight with a small Cessna over the Okavango Delta was one of the highlights of our trip. We spotted lots of wildlife in and around the water.

My preferred: due to the river, no big wildlife, but a real possibility to walk in the bush (fantastic way to get the feel of Africa) and go with the boats to see many hippo, crocodiles and fantasmagoric birds.

Ok now, Im rating this as a three ONLY because I am absolutely terrified of spiders now because of my trip there :D. The animals hadn't migrated the way they usually do during the dry season so our mokoro boats had to cut through the reeds. What they didnt tell was that there are thousands (probably millions) of orb weaver spiders that build their webs at eye level (when you are sitting in the boat) in the reeds so we spent 3 hours there and 3 hours back ducking, weaving, and basically freaking out trying to avoid them. I know they aren't poisonous but who wants a spider in their face! Despite that our polers were wonderful and they even fished out my notebook when I threw it into the water after getting a web stuck on it. It was definitely the most "bushy" part of our trip.