By Sophia Balunek from the University of Vermont
Twelve students, four instructors, four vehicles, eight tents, eleven days in the bush, and twelve jars of peanut butter (not enough). Round River’s largest Botswana cohort requires complex logistics. Our schedule takes us in and out of Maun, the Okavango Delta’s main city, where we have access to groceries, doctors, and mechanics. Then we go into the “bush” for roughly two weeks at a time. We must bring all the necessary food and equipment for all of our people, lest we take a full day’s trip back to Maun.
We all met at the Maun International Airport on September 20th. Our bags (approximately two per person) were tightly packed along with us into our trusty Toyota Land Cruisers and Hiluxes—cars that many of us have come to want to have in the U.S. We went to our Maun base camp, Island Safari Lodge, where we camped for six nights and where we will continue to stay for a few days at a time in between field sites.
On September 25th, we had an early wake-up call and spent a good two hours packing the four vehicles with luggage, tents, food (a lot of it), stoves, pots and pans, propane, water, field equipment, camp chairs, and of course, sixteen people. After a grocery store run that involved spicy fried chicken and wrapping up a few other loose ends, we left Maun for Khwai at 12:00 P.M.
The route to the Okavango Delta will soon become very familiar to us. There is one road from Maun to Mababe village where we take a left turn and follow the Khwai River to our first field site. We’re situated on the northeast side of the Delta near the corner of Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve. However, we work within the community concession of NG19 which is run by a Community Trust in Khwai village. Our job is to collect herbivore data to be analyzed by Round River’s science team to aid these communities in detailed population data on the wildlife they live with.
Once the logistics have been taken care of and we understood what we’re here to do, we relaxed and enjoyed the wildlife and scenery of Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
The aforementioned road out of Maun gifted us our first elephant sightings. Massive gray shapes contrasted with the near-white Kalahari sand as they walked across the road in front of us. Slowly marching forward, the elephants faded into the bare gray mopane trees on the other side of the road as we watched in awe.
The game in this region during the dry season is spectacular as there are not many leaves to hide the animals. Only one week in and we’ve seen aardvark, leopard, lion, hippos galore, many an elephant, and countless antelopes of all shapes and sizes. At night in our tents, we can hear lions, hyenas, and hippos just on the other side of the river…and sometimes closer. Not to mention the fantastic bird life that has been converting more people into birders by the day, including cartoon-like saddle-billed storks, raptors of all kinds, tiny finches, talkative hornbills, mini owls, showy roller birds, and many, many more.
In addition to the wildlife, this trip is a journey of growing close to a group of people in a way that feels so different from other relationships. We were all strangers when we met, only knowing each other’s names and universities. We still don’t know much about each other’s lives before this trip, but we know about each other’s reactions to camping, heat, bugs, and wildlife. That is to say we know each other emotionally even if we don’t know the conditions of others’ upbringing or grades in school. I like it this way.
This trip is an opportunity to be present in a place and open to new lessons and experiences. It’s just us sixteen people out here sleeping, cooking, and transecting together in the same space 24/7. The climate is harsh, there are elements we cannot prepare for, but what we can do is be open and adapt. But these few details mean little when you think about where we are: the Okavango Delta. It’s a beautiful place and we’ve already learned so much not only about conservation, but about living. I am not worried about things at home, I’m not planning for the future. I am here with these people and these animals, doing this work and being in the moment.
