Safari: Explore the wild African delta

	GALLERY

From Teya Ryan and Sharon Collins
For CNN Travel Now

OKAVANGO DELTA, Botswana (CNN) -- Sunrise on Africa's Okavango Delta shimmers in the morning light as herds of elephants, buffalo and hippos make their way across the watery landscape.

It's a remarkable sight amid the 9,000 miles of African wetlands that make Okavango the world's largest inland delta.

"It's a verdant green area in the middle of a fantastically huge desert, which is the Kalahari. So it's a place of incredible contrast and stunning visual scenery," said Cherri Briggs, founder of safari tour company Explore, Inc.

In the midst of it all is Ran's Camp, where you'll find the comforts of home, despite the fact that you're living in the middle of 500,000 acres of wilderness.

"It's incredibly comfortable," tourist Susan Forney said. "You come out to the middle of nowhere, and you've got a private bathroom on the back of your tent.

"So you can shower, you have warm water, a sink, a toilet. It's very, very private and very secure, and you get to lie down at night and listen to this entire world around you."

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Spectacular sights

In addition to the eight wooden cottages, there's an open-air dining room, a full bar and a constant feast of fresh food. And where else can you lounge at a swimming pool and have wild elephants join you?

Outside the camp, the wildlife is even more spectacular. Breeding herds of elephants walk through the forest to drink from delta waters, mothers and daughters each patiently taking a turn.

Jeeps take visitors into a more desertlike section of Okavango. In the distance is a rare sight: a hyena den where two young pups raise their heads while the mother stands guard. On that same drive are jackals, a bat- eared fox and two exhausted male lions with scratched faces, fresh from a fight.

"They sort of tend to see the vehicle as a solid whole, whereas if you're walking outside the car or .. if you're sleeping out alone on the ground at night, they see you as a completely different entity, so that's a lot more dangerous," guide Jeff Gish said.

'Authentic experience'

Later, visitors travel across the delta waters in canoelike boats called mocoros. Every year, 90 percent of the water evaporates, transforming the delta into a desert.

"The Okavango is a unique ecosystem. It's virtually untouched," Briggs said. "You can drink the water out of the Okavango Delta, which most people would never believe. It's a fantastic area. Everybody says it must be the last piece of Eden left on Earth."

Appropriately enough, the next camp is called Eden. Even in this remote spot, dinner is a five-course meal. Eden has all the basics -- two beds and a nightstand. But here you sleep on a platform in the trees.

Adventure-seekers enjoy a meal in the open-air dining room at Ran's Camp

"Not having anybody else around you, living sort of up in the bush itself, is a much more authentic experience rather than going to some really, really hyper-managed game reserve or game lodge where you don't really get the feeling of the wilderness," Gish said.

On safari, something as simple as a walk before dinner brings you incredibly close to a herd of giraffes.

"They're very inquisitive, and if you stay in one place, occasionally they'll even come from there and they'll start walking closer to you to have a closer look," Gish said.

Elephant ride

If you really want to feel the wilderness, there may be no better way than on the back of an elephant.

At Abu's Camp, a home for orphaned elephants, visitors can go for a ride and get an education about one of nature's best.

The camp also is one of the most luxurious facilites in all of Africa. Canvas tents, surrounded by native hardwood decks, house huge sleigh beds and brass-adorned bathtubs. Dinner is a formal affair served on white linen at the edge of the delta.

It is, perhaps, the ride of a lifetime, just another experience to relish along the Okavango Delta.

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Okavango Wildlife Society
Okavango Delta
Explore Africa, Inc.

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