The world’s largest inland delta is like being in a zoo where fences, tourists and waiting lines have been removed.

The Okavango Delta is… ehm… a delta. In other words an area where the river mouth carries sediment out, usually into the ocean. However, in some cases the river terminates inland, creating an inland delta. The Okavango Delta is the largest in the world of this kind. On a permanent basis the delta covers 6000 square kilometers, a huge area by itself. But in the rainy season it expands to 18 000 square kilometers, that is huge!

The delta consists of rivers, wetlands and dry land. And the most interesting feature is the plethora of wildlife living here.

We embark on our journey in what is called the Pan Handle. The river with the delta looks like a frying pan from the sky and the Pan Handle is the final part of the Okavango river before the delta itself. From the Pan Handle we travel 53 km in a boat along the smaller rivers within the delta towards the centre of the delta itself. The journey takes almost 3 hours, but it is far from boring. The area is rich in bird life, such as eagles, pelicans and marabou storks. The latter is featured on a Norwegian milk chocolate and is a special sight for Norwegians. A true chocolate bird!

While driving downstream we also encounter crocodiles along the riverbanks. They quickly disappear into the water as we approach, but after realising that they like to lie on the sand banks we are prepared and manage to snap a few photos before they disappear into the water.

Hippos are also present and a few poke their heads out of the water as we pass by.

After nearly three hours we arrive at the lodging, an island with tents, a few small buildings and not much else. No electricity, no Internet and a whole lot of nature. We are also given a basic safety brief. We may walk in between the tents, toilets and the two buildings where food is served. All other places are off limits. The reason is quite simple: The list of animals that can shorten your life drastically is rather long: Crocodiles, elephants, hippos, lions, snakes, you name it. We are also told to use a flash light to see where we are going in case there are snakes up ahead. If you are bitten by a black mamba you are in big trouble. Luckily the guide tries to make it a bit less scary by adding: “If you get bitten you will not die. We put on a tourniquet and there is a small chance that you might actually survive …If you are bitten in the arms or the legs.”. Furthermore he adds that although we should use our flashlights to look out for snakes we should never point it towards hippos or take pictures of them with a flash. They will get very angry and run towards the light. They key here is certainly to be somewhere else than where you were just a few seconds ago if this happens to you, otherwise you might be a bit less alive. The bushmen in the delta are not exactly good at bedtime stories…

Next morning we are set to walk the area that is off limits, but this time with a guide. Again we are given a safety brief. It is simple, yet not so reassuring: “If I say do not run, you stand still. Even if a large elephant is running towards you, do not run away. But if I say run, you run!”. What could possibly go wrong with such an air tight plan?

50 meters into the forest we see our first animal: a large elephant. It grazes at a fair distance from us and we continue walking without interrupting. To get from our current island to another one we need to paddle in canoes, or mekoro as the local ones are called. On our journey through the reeds we see a hippo relaxing in the water. It is not entirely happy with our presence and splashes the water around and opens its mouth. We are very pleased with this as it allows us to get some great photos, but after a while we pull back to leave the animal in peace.

Back on dry land on the second island we see various wildlife such as warthogs and kudus, but more interesting is a large elephant a few hundred meters from us. We get fairly close and get some good photos, but all of a sudden it looks straight at us. Our guide quietly says “do not move” and we do not need to be told twice. For a few tense seconds we wait to see what happens, luckily the elephant decides we weren’t that interesting and walks away.

The final part of our visit to the delta was from a very different perspective: the air! We had rented a small airplane to take us above the delta for an hour; this was an amazing view and something we can really recommend to others. Up in the air we quickly learned that photographing from an airplane is very different from standing on the ground, but we managed to snap a few OK shots of the animals. We also got an overview of the delta that would otherwise be hard to get from ground level.

From above we see lions, elephants, a warthogs, giraffes, hippos and buffaloes, the final animal we had to see to complete the Big Five in Africa. Mission accomplished!