Tips 👏
- It’s a very remote area, composed by small islands and accessible only by boat.
- It’s run by local communities, working together with the guides.
- Only possible safari are walking safaris.
- Bring some cash with you to give tips at the end of the stay.
- While it’s in a delta with water everywhere, there was very few moskitos.
🏠 Accommodation
We slept two nights in a wild camping on one of the many islands of the delta.
🚲 Getting there
We drove around 2h from the lodge in sandy road, and then did a 2h mokoro (traditional kayaks) ride to the campsite.
⏱ Duration
We stayed two nights and three days there in total, which was a good duration considering how remote it is.
Walking Safari 🚶
Once arrived at the boarding spot nearby Marutso, we’ve been greeted by a team composed of local community folks (about 5 people). With the assistance of our guide, they boarded all the camping equipement, our luggages and food on the Mokoro, all the way to our island campsite. They then setup the camp while we were relaxing and enjoying our surrounding, before we headed to our first walking safari when the heat was down.
We left the camp by foot around 4PM, and made our way in the Savana with our local guide while the rest of the them was setting up dinner with Rock. We walked in the wild for about 2h, and saw our first Zebras and Giraffe drinking in the water hole at the sunset. After this incredible walk, we headed back to the camp for a delicious BBQ and beers, and went to bed for the early wake up of the next day.
Early wake-up at 6AM to enjoy coffee with sunrise and view on giraffes, before heading to the second walking safari. This time we walked for about 4h and covered around 10kms. We’ve been lucky enough to see again Giraffes, Zebras, Impalas (antilope), along with a group of baboons and few flying eagles. We then came back to the camp at lunch time for food and nap.
Mid-afternoon the guides suggested we could go for a bath in the delta, as well as learning how to guide Mokoros which we did. We were a bit anxious about the bath after seeing so many hippos and learnt that there was lots of leeches, but that’s the local way. Our guide brought us to the bathing spot around 3PM where we did a quick dip, before heading back to the camp to practice Mokoro.
After grabbing a quick shower back at the camp, we headed to our last walking safari at the sunset, this time half by boat half by walk. It was probably the best one since this time we also saw wilderbeasts, crocodiles, pumbas and hippos with the stunning sunset colors.
Camp and traditions 🏕️
Once back at the camp and post-dinner, we joined another group staying on a close-by island to assist and engage with local dancing and singing traditions. The local folks made a big bonfire, and sang traditional songs around it while inviting us to dance with them. While it can sound fairly cheesy and fake, it actually felt really authentic and nice, and was great fun! If you go there, ask for the frog dance (a total hit).
After that, we headed back to the camp where we gathered around our fire and played riddle and games made by the Mrs President and the Minister of Entertainment (ask for those guys), and listening to amazing stories around the fire before heading to bed.
The next day, we woke up around 6AM. We had our breakfast watching giraffes and a black mamba dead skin, and started to made our way by boat around 8AM. We then arrived back at the car and, after the staff finished to pack everything in the car, started to make our way to our next stop around 10AM.
Honestly, the local folks were incredibly nice, and we were actually sad to leave them. We took plenty of pictures with them, and left them a good tip in local currency along with some clothes and things and encourage you to do the same since they live in hard conditions.
Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.