Just like my daddy done

OKAVANGO DELTA, Botswana – For Doug, this is just too cool. Gliding past the hippos and through the weeds in a dugout Mekoro canoe.
His father used to tell stories of heading up rivers in these in the 1930s and '40s. Doug seems to recall him tell about how they had to shoot a baby hippo because it was playing with the boat. Capsizing here makes you dinner. The crocodiles, you see.

We glide through what seems like an ocean of lily pads and reeds. Finally, reach the wilderness camp, where Milton and the local guides have set up the tents for us for the first and last time. (By the way, the tents were a nice example of teamwork. Milton – the professional – asked Doug to time how long he used to set up at tent. 9 minutes. By working together, the other five tourists could set up one tent in less than 2.5 minutes.) They even built us a stylish ''rest room'' (see picture above).

As evening falls. Milton points out that ''This is a dangerous place. And whatever is out there can come in here.''

Food for thought at 3 am when you kinda have to go to the bathroom a little bit but hear lions roaring, elephants trumpeting and hyenas laughing.

Way too early the next morning (BC – Before Coffee) we set off on foot (the evening before we had quickly closed in on some elephants, failing to immediately notice the hyena behind us.) This morning we realy did see notta (not a thing) and headed back to the camp to pack up and have breakfast.

Then we hit the offroad aboard 'The Monster' – a huge 4X4 Unimog truck designed for offroad.

D&E