I don't think words can describe how it feels to watch the water creeps along the channels and fill the floodplains... We spent the whole day (13th of March 2018) watching its progress, followed by hundreds of egrets and herons feasting on the insects pushed away by the water.

And the next day when we woke up, the flood plains in front of Jumbo Junction were full with water and it was time to take the mokoros out...

Here is a time-lapse video of the flood...

Foggy morning above the floodplains

When the flood is here...

Getting back to Jumbo Junction on a mokoro

Jumbo Junction tented camp

Sunrise from the lapa

What a treat to see a pack if these stunning predators!

A visit in the delta would not be complete without the lions, so here they are!

Stout & Wetu

Lentswe

Wetu

A small cat following a big one...

Lentswe with an easy prey...

Yummy!

If a look could kill...

Mating pair, Lentswe & Shitatiya

Stout & Shishatiya

A tired male

The Okavango delta is a place steaming with wildlife no matter what season you visit. It is a truly magical place and getting to spend 3 months there and watch the flood come in was a  once in a lifetime experience...

Juvenile carmine bee-eater

One of the numerous pans

Endangered wattle cranes

African skimmers

Sunrise over the mist

Flame lily

At the north west of Maun lays the Mababe depression. The are used to be covered by   a lake a very long time ago, and due to its soil with a very high clay content, the area still fills up with a lot of water after the rains making driving there almost impossible. But fortunately, in Dec 217 when we were there, the rains hadn't really started and it been a dry week, so we managed to dry almost everywhere without getting stuck in the mud!

It is an ideal placet to observe water birds and large herds of buffaloes. Lions, wild dogs and other large predators also roam free in the area.

Hippos in the Khwai river

Herd of red leeches on the banks of the Khwai river

Squacco heron on the hunt

Waterbuck portrait

Storm over the Khwai river

Night heron

Malachite kingfisher

Wood sandpiper

Yellow-billed kites (they were there by the hundreds!!)

Pied kingfisher

Khwai river

Hottentot teals

Grey heron

African darter drying its wings

Taking care of an itch

Pair of female knob-billed ducks

Monitor lizard

Sacred ibis

Great egret

Openbill

African fish eagle 

Black-headed heron

Male knob-bill duck

Group of white-face whistling ducks