Have you ever heard about it? It is the second biggest inland delta in the world. The Okavango Delta's ecosystem is amongst the richest and most diverse in Africa. It's been effectively protected for years, and with wildlife tourism now thriving here, this looks set to continue – witness the success, and expansion, of the programme to re-introduce black and white rhino to the area over the last few years (that's what they say, we didn't see any rhino).

Anyway, the all trip was incredible. Starting by the trip to go there. I am not talking about the airport shuttle neither the plane to reach Maun located in the North. No, I am talking about the Buffalo that we took to reach the camp in the heart of the delta. It is a small plane for 12 passengers and you really get to see the delta from the sky. That was my first time in such a small plane and I really enjoyed it. It is so different from the big one I am used to. The flight wasn't bumpy at all and the view is simply amazing.

We were not at the camp yet that we already saw an elephant, some impalas and a sausage tree. Yes, a sausage tree!!! Not the one for the barbecue. I never heard about it maybe because this fruit is not really appreciated by humans but animals are eating them. Especially monkeys and giraffes.

The camp was extremely nice and the service over there was exceptional. I don't want to talk about the chocolate mousse, I am feeling hungry just by thinking about it. The rooms have breathtaking view and if you still feel a bit down with all of that, the open bar will cheer you up.
The game drive coming with the despicable wakeup call at 5:00 AM gets to show you the beauty of the place. The nature is so wild, the colors so intense that you want to stop every 2 minutes to see every single part of it. The sunset and the dusk are particularly impressive. The drink in the delta at the sunset was one of these moment that I will remember forever.

Regarding animals, we didn't get to find out the leopards despite the efforts of our guide who really tried hard. But we saw some hippos, wild dogs, a buffalo, a lioness,...
At the end, it was a fabulous experience. I am lucky because I got a chance to go there even if 3 months ago, I couldn't even tell where was Botswana. Life is so nice with me lately, I can just be grateful.
The program is ending very soon now (actually, tomorrow because I am posting a bit late). I cannot believe I left 4 weeks ago. Time flies so fast.

This weekend was a bit more relax because I decided to stay in Gaborone. Not that I couldn't stand with the group anymore but more for budget reason. Also, the 8 hours bus road trip to go didn't help to convince me. I was not the only one staying and I had the great honour to stay with Michelle and Tom in the capital. Beside having some decent sleeps, eating and especially drinking a bit more than usual, we went to climb the Kgale hill on Sunday morning following the suggestion of Michelle.
So here we are, Sunday morning at 7:00 AM at the reception on our way to Kgale. We were told that it will be a 20 minutes hike until the top. Wrong!!! It was 20 minutes to go there by taxi but then it was a one hour hike to go on top and it was quite steep to reach the top. But you know what, we did it. And it was great. We had the surprise to have a chorale when we arrived on top of the hill. It was quite unrealistic to see that.
I also met a bunch of kids on top who wanted to be on my pictures so we did a shooting there with them. But then, we even push forward Tom and I. Following this group of kids, we went on the top of the top. It was not hiking anymore but real climbing to access it at the end but again, we had the pleasure to enjoy a unique view of Gaborone.

This week, we had the opportunity to participate into a community activity at Stepping Stones international (SSI) in Mochudi. Nothing to do with the alley in your backyard, SSI is a NGO that have for mission to unlock the potential of vulnerable youth ages 12-25 through holistic development, strengthening families and activating sustainable opportunities to become self-sufficient. They offers programmes combining life skills, leadership training, psychosocial support and community mobilisation to enable youth to heal the scars of their past and build brighter futures. If you ask yourself if I came up with this description, the answer is no. I quoted their website that you can visit to know more about them and even do a donation. Think about it, it is almost time to do your tax declaration in Canada, you can get tax return and do a good action.

So we were divided into several groups and I chose to be in the group of "The grannies". Punchline: they want advices on how to start a business. Their idea is to run a poultry farm in or close to a school to also educate kids. Interesting idea. They seem to be full of energy. They previously hosted a beauty contest to raise some funds to help a member of their community (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7yieT8ExCM).
So I personally spend some time on what is important to know to run a poultry farm. You will be glad to know that a chicken is giving approximately 240 eggs per years during the first years. The "production" is then going down and usually, the farmer decides of the retirement (understand slaughter) around 4 or 5 years old.
It was an interesting session where I clearly realized that the language barrier is a huge obstacle. Indeed, most of the grannies didn't speak English. My Setswana after 2 weeks is not that impressive so it didn't really help neither. For this reason, we had a translator. But despite his effort, it was really hard to achieve the goal of the session as they were giving a lot of feedback and had a lot of question and we didn't had enough time to address all of them. But it was a great experience. Unforgettable, a lesson of humility from these grannies who have still resources and energy to raise and educate kids to give them a future. It is simply amazing.

It is not some weird French for "What did he says?". Madikwe is a game reserve located in South Africa right behind the border of Botswana. How convenient isn't it? Thanks to Cathrin who was able to get a last second deal, we were 9 of our group to go to Madikwe for 2 days, 1 night and a lot of animals to observe.
I don't need to say much, the pictures are enough to show how beautiful it was. The lodge was really nice and you don't often get to wake up in front of impalas, zebras, or giraffes.
We also get probably the best ranger of the reserve. James who was able to show us the cheetahs in the blink of an eye. The lions resisted a bit more to him but we finally got them in the second game drive. These two were the most difficult to spot. Impalas, zebras, kudus, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, crocodiles, we were able to see some quite easily. We also saw some rollers (from the name of the team "Flexible rollers"). Couldn't be better.
So I said I didn't have much to say and I am keep typing. Let me shut up and give you some pictures. I'll have more stories to tell you face to face.