The Adventures of Bertha, Queen of the Delta

My first visitors from the States arrived a couple weeks ago, Jim, one of my best friends since high school, and his boyfriend Derek. After a week in Capetown, they came to visit me for six fun-filled days. We took advantage of one of Botswana’s 4-day holiday weekends to go explore the Okavango Delta, a pristine piece of African wilderness just north of my village, a place I have yet to explore. One of my friends from Maun, Dwight, also came with us.

It was adventure that was constantly about the journey itself, and rarely about the destination. To get us through all of the rough roads that took us directly to all of the wildlife Botswana has to offer was Bertha, our fearless guide for the weekend, with Jim as our courageous driver for most of the way. We didn’t know until the second day of our journey that Bertha was a hippo, and discovering this would turn into an adventure in itself.

We began soon-to-be adventure with a guided game drive near the south gate of Moremi and saw more than we expected. We found this lioness and her 3 cubs, and they paraded right behind our car.

We stumbled upon this small herd of elephants crossing the road:

And we found a giraffe in its most vulnerable position. Giraffes rarely drink water because it makes them more susceptible to predators. They drink so little that their urine is gelatinous.

After our game drive, we took Bertha up to Xakanaxa (the “X”s in Setswana are a clicking sound). Xakanaxa is a luxury camp on the northern end of the Moremi game reserve. We saw a lot of wildlife on our way, and just before we got to the Xakanaxa gate, we came to our first big puddle. We would later realize that Bertha is a hippo, but before that important discovery, we were quite apprehensive about driving through this:

We thought about it for a few minutes, noticed all of the tire tracks going in and out, and we all knew we were in for some rough driving, so we went through. Panic struck us as water flowed over the hood of the car, but we made it through with no problem. Bertha is a beast. At this moment, our engine appeared to be smoking as hot steam emanated from the hood. We then saw several other trucks take the same plunge, so we felt confident we were doing the right thing, but still a little unsure of Bertha’s capabilities.

We spent the evening, night and morning at the luxurious Xakanaxa Camp.

Our first day of adventure ended with sunset boat cruise on the Delta where we found pods of hippos, many beautiful birds and colors dancing on the horizon.

The next morning, we departed right after breakfast to begin our ambitious drive through Moremi and Chobe Game Reserves all the way to Kasane, about 150 miles of dirt and deep sand roads in pristine African wilderness. Only a mile out of Xakanxa we came to a series of puddles through which we weren’t sure if we could make it or not, so we made the bad decision of driving around one of them. We got stuck.

After about 30 minutes of digging mud from under the tires and trying wedge sticks under the wheels to gain traction, we gave up. One safari truck drove by and radioed for help, but we wanted to have a back up. Derek and I walked back to the camp, through deep puddles, in lion country, and got help. The folks at Xakanaxa were extremely helpful. Over the next two hours, they would pull our car out of the mud and patch our newly discovered flat tire so we still had a spare. They also gave us the useful advice of always going through the puddles. The soil is compacted, and our 4X4, diesel-running Bertha is a hippo.

Despite our own frustrations of getting stuck and losing 3 hours of our day, we were able to laugh at ourselves, and the people from Xakanaxa were wonderful, big smiles as they waved us on our way.

After seeing more elephants, a hippo standing by the side of the road and a herd of crossing buffalo, we made it to North Gate and exited Moremi. Our day of adventure and unforeseen obstacles had only just begun.

The guard at North Gate gave us directions and pointed to key points on our map to get us to the Mababe gate on the south end of Chobe and how to avoid the flooded roads. After driving for about 30 minutes with no problems we came to flooded depression that we thought we couldn’t possibly drive through due to its length. We tried to drive around it three times with no avail.

Eventually, we ran into a couple of vehicles filled with German tourists. They had a GPS device, so we asked them for advice. After a confusing conversation, they admitted that even with the GPS, they weren’t sure where they were or how we would get to Mababe.

Part of our challenge at this point was the complete lack of any roads or directions, on top of the flooded depressions and confusing river. Moremi and Chobe are well-preserved, so there are only a few driving paths that are very clear from the repeated driving over the same long patches of dirt and sand. Between Moremi and Chobe, where we were at this point, it’s open land and tire marks criss-crossing in an intricate web of inchoate patterns.

Ten minutes later, we found a group of Indian tourists, also with GPS, and with the same confused idea of where we might be. They were, however, at least confident that they could get us around the flood. For the next two hours, we drove around this patch of land trying to get around the flood. At one point, through a tight patch of trees, we busted our sideview mirror ($6) and dented our bumper (a deeper dent beginning from one that was already there) backing into a tree. The truth is that Jim and I don’t think it was a real adventure unless the car comes back muddy and damaged.

We came to another large puddle, but this one, we thought Bertha could drive across because we saw a safari truck driving in the other direction. Finally, we made it around the flood! We stopped the oncoming vehicle to ask how close we were to Mababe gate. He looked at us, befuddled, and said “you’re at North gate.”

When we drove back 1 kilometer and came to the familiar airstrip, we felt deflated. Driving around for 3 hours and we were right back where we started. Thankfully, this safari guide was heading to Mababe, so we were able to follow him. Soon thereafter, a caravan of 6 other lost vehicles were following us. We never would have been able to make it without the guide as we discovered we were to drive through about 15 very large puddles and small ponds. Bertha made us very proud because we had no idea she could do this.

It was also during our drive of confusion and driving through the multiple puddles that we saw the most wildlife. Elephants, giraffes, hippos and Zebras all ventured right next to our car. One truly has to go on the roughest roads to find the most undisturbed pieces of wilderness.

By the time we got to Mababe gate, it was 5PM, 6 hours later than we had hoped. I knew the Wildlife Officers at the gate were not going to let us through, and we would have to stay there the night. Since we were staying in huts the first nights of our journey and planning to stay with PCVs in Kasane, we didn’t pack any camping gear beyond sleeping bags, blankets, and food, no tents.

I walked into the Mababe gate office and met my new friend Bogosi. I gave him our story, and he was very understanding and helpful. He wrote a letter to extend out permit for another day and said we could camp near the gate and leave first thing in the morning. Since we’ve been staying in huts and on our way to stay with friends in Kasane, I told him we didn’t have tents but we had sleeping bags and blankets and didn’t mind sleeping in the car. The last thing I wanted to take care of was contacting our friends in Kasane who were expecting us that night. In the middle of the wild, with no cell network for days, I couldn’t call that easily.

I told Bogosi that I work for the American government and that people in Kasane were waiting for me. If I didn’t call them, they would worry, call the American embassy and send out a search party. At first, he said I couldn’t use their phone because he would be charged for any non-work related calls. I told him I would just pay him 20 Pula to cover the charges, but that made him more apprehensive. “oh, no, we can’t take money from you. We are discouraged from corruption,” he said very sternly. I responded “no, no, I just want to pay you for the call.” Eventually I convinced to let me make a call when I gave him my cell number and told him to call me when he gets the charge and I would mail him the money. As of this post, I still haven’t heard from him.

We also met a couple from Switzerland who was traveling a similar route to us and were in a similar predicament of getting to Chobe too late to drive through. We shared a campfire and some food.

As we collected firewood, we came across an elephant and heard lions in the distance, a reminder of the African wilderness that surrounded us. Just before the sunset, Bogosi came to find me and told me he felt bad that we were going to sleep in the car. His house is just behind the gate, and he offered for us to sleep on his living room floor. It was so sweet of him to offer, and we couldn’t say no. We had a nice roof over our head, hot water and a flush toilet.

At 6AM the next morning, we set out on our drive through Chobe, the elephant capital of the world, and another piece of pristine wilderness filled with wildlife. For Another 100 km, we would drive through deep sandy roads.

An hour into our drive, Dwight saw some “antelope” up ahead, but couldn’t tell what kind they were. When we got closer, we discovered these were no antelope:

Later, we found a small herd of giraffes:

And plenty of elephants. This one walked directly behind our car, so close that I couldn’t zoom out far enough on my camera.

Toward the end of our drive through Chobe, we came to some baby elephants crossing the road. With trees on both sides of us on a narrow sand road with no turnoffs, we were trapped. Just we took out our cameras to take photos, we discovered that we had separated the mother elephant from her babies. I wasn’t aware that elephants could jump until this moment. She was screaming, trunk flailing, ears flapping, and we had nowhere to go until the babies finished crossing the road. Knowing that elephants are quite capable of charging and turning over Bertha, my heart stopped until we were able to move and continue on our journey. The adventure of a lifetime indeed.

Click here for a full map of our travels.

Click below for the full slideshow of pictures from our adventure.