Toto visited two beautiful national parks in Botswana. The first was the Okavango River Delta National Park. A delta is formed when a river comes to its end, emptying either into the ocean or a lake, and starts spreading out so that it looks like a triangle. The Greek letter 'delta' looks like a triangle, so that is why we call the end of a river that looks like this a 'river delta'. Other famous river deltas you might have heard of are the Mississippi River Delta near New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam.
The Okavango River flows from Angola, forming part of the border between Namibia and Angola before turning south into Botswana. Instead of emptying into the ocean or a lake like other rivers, the Okavango River empties into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. I had never seen a river that just flows into the ground. Actually, I didn't really see it flow into the ground, as it forms a very large wetland for miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers) around. I was in the opposite of a desert, because as far as we could see there was water with small islands everywhere. But eventually all this water drains into the land rather than the ocean.
Since there is so much water, the only way to get around is to take shallow boats made by the locals called 'mokoros'. The local men have a very good sense of balance, as they stand up in the back of the boat and push you forward with a pole through all the reeds and papyrus grass. Often the water is only a few inches deep, other times it is a several meters deep. Because the mokoros are so flat and shallow, you don't need much water to push yourself forward.
All this water attracts many animals. There are elephants, hippos, antelope, and even lions in this park. But because there is so much water everywhere, you don't see too many animals. We did see several wild elephants on the island where we camped and heard one running through the water while we were in a mokoro. Elephants certainly make a lot of noise splashing through the water!
Throughout this area I did see lots of baobab trees like this one. For each meter of circumference, the tree is a hundred years old. (Circumference is the distance around the outside of a circle.) So I walked around the bottom of this tree and measured twenty meters (you can see me at the bottom of the tree by double clicking on the photo). That means this tree is about 2000 years old! Because they are so old, the local San people many years ago used to consider them holy trees and believed the spirits of their ancestors lived inside them. These trees are actually more like cactuses, as they use fiber (and not sap) throughout the tree to bring water up to the top. The San people learned long ago that they could hollow out a hole in the tree to keep their meat cold. Because the baobab tree has water from underground running up the fibers in the middle, the hole stayed cold like a natural refrigerator!
From the Okavango Delta, I drove to the Chobe National Park, which is one of my favorite sites so far. The Chobe River forms the border between Botswana and part of Namibia. We took a boat along the river at sunset and saw lots and lots of hippopotomi, elephants, crocodiles and Cape buffalo all next to each other. I have to say that the hippos were the most interesting. We were able to pull the boat up very close. We were very careful because hippos may seem cute, but they are actually quite dangerous. They kill more humans than any other animal in Africa, as they get very defensive around their babies or if you get between them and water.
Hippos have very powerful jaws with four big teeth to defend themselves. (They don't need the teeth to eat the grass; they just use their gums.) Hippos weigh around 1500 kg, but are actually quite fast. They can run 45 kpm (30 mph) and swim very quickly - both faster than a human. They can also hold their breath for 5-7 minutes. So while they look big and slow, they are actually quite quick and dangerous if you are not careful around them. Mothers are especially defensive around their babies, as I am sure the mama hippo in these photos would have been. Fortunately we just admired these beautiful animals from a boat a safe distance away.
Travel Questions about Botswana:
- What is is a river delta?
- Why is it called a 'delta'?
- The national parks Toto visited in Botswana are named after two rivers. What are their names?
- What is the name of the boats the locals use to get around the wetlands in the delta?
- For every meter of circumference, how old is a Boabab tree?
- How did the San people store their meat a long time ago?
- What is true about Hippos:
A) They are skinny. B) They eat meat. C) They cannot hold their breath.
D) They can run fast.
Global Nomad Questions on Botswana:
- Draw a picture of you in a mokoro in the Okavango Delta National Park. Be sure and include some animals!
- The Okavango River starts in Angola. Research what language they speak in Angola.
- Toto listed the names of three river deltas - the Okavango, Mississippi and the Mekong. Research another river delta. Write its name, where it is located and anything else you learned about it that you found interesting.
- If the Boabab tree Toto saw was 2000 years old, list three things that happened in world history while that tree was alive.
- There are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram. How many pounds does a 1500 kg hippo weigh? (Note: 'kg' is the abbreviation for kilogram.)
Epilogue:
Several months later when Toto was on the island of Lamu, Kenya, where the locals sell the seeds of the Baobab tree as candy. Apparently it was the season for the trees to drop their seed pods. The locals collect the peanut-sized seeds from the pods that are about the size of a large avocado. They then add some sugar and red coloring and sell them in packages like these. The seed is too hard to chew, so I really just sucked on the fuzzy and tasty covering to the sweet seeds. The local kids were happy to get the extra seeds I gave them, so they must enjoy them a lot.
I also was able to see a Baobab tree with leaves, as it was the one month of the year that the trees had leaves. I took this picture from the beach, in case you were wondering what a Baobab tree looks like with leaves, as it's rare to see them so green!
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