THE IRISH FIELD, Saturday, June 19, 2010

TRAVEL FEATURE A59

‘Ithink now would bea good time toleave,’’ our guideJohn said as the six-tonne lone bull be-

gan to make shapes. A trum-pet or two would have beenapt, but no, the charmerwaited until my back wasturned to make a move on us!

It was the photo opportu-nity we were hoping for, but,with our subject unwilling topose for the mounted papar-azzi, we wasted no time ex-ecuting a calm retreat beforereflecting on our latest ‘Out ofAfrica’ experience.

Encounters with elephantsare par for the course when onhorseback in the wilds ofAfrica and, make no mistake,a riding safari is not the samewithout one. The excitementwhen a distant sighting isfollowed by a staring contest;the trust in your bombproofhorse when he stands hisground less than 200 yardsfrom the imposing beast, andthe adrenalin rush when itemerges, perhaps, that youare no longer welcome at theshow – all truly unmissable.

At no point, however, didwe feel in danger, our owntrust in our armed lead guideand back-up being reinforcedin the knowledge that unne-cessary risks are non-runnerswhen it comes to wild ani-mals. This is the OkavangoDelta, and this is about as wildas it gets. You cannot afford tobe complacent.

My latest adventure hadtaken me back to Botswana,where I’d hadmy first African

riding safari two years ear-lier. That one had beenclassed as ‘the holiday of alifetime’ but I soon realised itwas going to be impossible todraw comparisons.

I had been told that Maca-too Camp, the home of AfricanHorseback Safaris, was re-mote, but little did I knowexactly how much until Iarrived at Maun Airport. Ihad been met there by thecompany’s marketing man-ager Riana Fourie, who toldme not to waste time buyingtoothpaste in the shop – shewould make sure a tube wasflown into camp the very nextday. A Colgate package on achartered Cessna? Well, notquite. Some other supplieswere arriving also.

Indeed, thanks to this sametrusty Cessna, my marathonjourney from Dublin-Paris-Johannesburg-Maun and, fi-nally, to camp deep in theDelta, was drawing to a close.My pilot had just dropped off aGerman couple on their wayto a different safari lodge, and,like a bus, the light aircraftwas off and then down again25 minutes later at the camp’sairstrip, which, I’d been told,was roughly nine hours’ drivefrom the nearest town. Onlynow was the whole ‘supplieson a plane’ story beginning tomake perfect sense.

My charming local back-upguide for the week, MotsugiSamokwasi, was waiting pa-tiently to take me on my nextleg of the journey, and anopen jeep took us to the edgeof the water, where a short

boat ride would take me to myfinal destination – a five-staroasis, but not a television ortelephone in sight.

Normally the jeep wouldhave gone the distance, butunprecedented rainfall in thisvast wetland two months ear-lier had resulted in Macatoobeing practically marooned.Bar a helicopter, for an emer-gency evacuation, there wasonly one way in, and one wayout. Water levels were higherthan normal and, as the land-scape changed, so too did theguests’ itinerary. A week atMacatoo in November (duringAfrica’s summer) might fea-ture fast gallops across open,dry plains, and occasional

sleep-outs. However, this wasmid-May and swimming inopen water was top of the list.

Nobody was complainingthough and an early morningdip in the saddle was a given –an additional canter throughflooded dirt paths some fourhours later, being a welcomecoolant as we returned to basefor lunch.

Of course, nothing is guar-anteed in the Delta, or any-where else involving animalsin the wild, and sightings ofshy creatures can be some-times sporadic. However,trained guides know this ter-ritory back to front, and in-side out, and owner JohnSobey and his team are all

well-seasoned spotters.A native of Cornwall in

England, the 42-year-oldwould, to some, seem like afish out of water running ariding safari company in thedepths of Africa.

But this is no amateur and15-plus years of experience inthe business has seen himgraduate as an assistant in his20s to owning and runningone of the most popular ridingsafari companies on this con-tinent. So much so, for thesecond year running, it wonthe Best Riding Safari Opera-tor Award in Africa earlierthis year.

Cantering alongside giraffe is one of the most thrilling aspects of a riding safari

OKAVANGO DELTA FACT FILE

THE Okavango Delta (or Oka-vango Swamp), in Botswana,is the world’s largest inlanddelta. It is formed where theOkavango River empties ontoa swamp in an endorheicbasin in the Kalahari Desert,where most of the water islost to evaporation and tran-spiration instead of draininginto the sea. It is 3,000kilometres in length and1,000 in width. It is said tohave first been discovered in1849 when visited by DavidLivingstone and his fellowexplorers William Cotton Os-

well and Mungo Murray.Major features, in and

around the Okavango Delta,include the Panhandle, abroad valley of permanentswamp, the alluvial fan withareas that are permanentlyflooded, seasonal swampsthat are inundated each year,and occasional floodplainswhich only flood in years withexceptional high flows.

It is both a permanent andseasonal home to a widevariety of wildlife. Speciesinclude elephant, buffalo,hippopotamus, lechwe, topi,

blue wildebeest, giraffe, cro-codile, lion, cheetah, leopard,brown hyena, spotted hyena,greater kudu, sable antelope,black rhinoceros, white rhi-noceros, plains zebra,warthog and chacma baboon.Notably the endangered afri-can wild dog still surviveswithin the Okavango Delta,exhibiting one of the richestpack densities in Africa. TheDelta also includes over 400species of birds, 112 of thosebeing aquatic, 64 species ofreptiles, 117 species of fishand 1,300 species of plants.

The majority of the esti-mated 200,000 large mam-mals in and around the Deltaare not year round residents.They leave with the summerrains to find renewed fields ofgrass to graze on and trees tobrowse, then make their wayback as winter approaches.Large herds of buffalo andelephant total about 30,000.

The town of Maun is thegateway to the Delta and inrecent years has developedgreatly with the introductionof new roadways and touristshops.

OUT OFAFRICATHE ULTIMATEEXPERIENCESiobhan English recently travelled tothe Okavango Delta in Botswana,where, with African HorsebackSafaris, adventures were aplenty

Continued >> A60

The day ofour close

encounter weacknowledged thepatience needed totrain horses tohave this level oftrust; they all stoodmotionless aswe gazed inamazement

THE IRISH FIELD, Saturday, June 19, 2010

A60 TRAVEL FEATURE

One would wonder what per-suaded Sobey to leave hishomeland to live and workwith Botswana natives. Therewas one simple answer, themid-1980s movieOut of Africa.

‘‘When the movie came outI was completely fascinatedwith the place,’’ he said. ‘‘I hadalways been involved withhorses at home and did a stintin Denmark, but I was con-stantly drawn here.’’

It was only through achance meeting with Bristol-born Sarah-Jane Gullick thathe finally got the opportunityto come to Botswana for athree-week holiday. Clearlyhooked, he returned home,but with itchy feet, and withina few months, and now in hismid-20s, he was back in thecountry training to be anapprentice guide.

Like most intense jobs withsuch responsibility, this re-quired years of training and,in order to obtain a licence, alot of hard work. ‘‘It was justat a time when Sarah-Janewas thinking of starting abusiness and she asked me if Iwould be interested in work-ing with her.’’ Needless to sayhe didn’t have to be askedtwice and, after three yearsrunning a riding safari withinMacateer, when Sarah-Janemade a move to set up anindependent company, John’sambitions of running his ownplace came another step clo-

ser to reality.‘‘It was Boxing Day 1998

when we moved to Macatooand we set about building onit with all the facilities and astable of horses.’’ As is nowstill the case, anything thatcouldn’t be flown in had to bebrought in by road, and thatincluded the horses.

Nowadays, once guestssoak up their magical sur-roundings on arrival, theysoon appreciate the effort thatgoes into running a touristbusiness in the company’s500,000 acres of wilderness.

In 2004 John made the de-cision to return to England torun his own business specia-

lising in bespoke safaris, butit was not long before he wasback in camp, this time asowner/managing director in2007 when Sarah-Jane decidedto move to pastures new.

Since then Macatoo hasgrown further into a luxuryriding safari company with afull complement of 40 horses,and more on the way. Theyare mainly sourced from Na-mibia and are of variousbreeds, from Trakehners andHanoverians to the odd thor-oughbred.

One who seems to be en-joying his new life is Savan-nah, who came off the track inZambia and underwent inten-sive career guidance. Myswimming partner for myfirst and last day, he has trulyfound his niche.

This training can take up toone year as the resident

equines are put through theirpaces. All new arrivals areclosely monitored to ratetheir interaction with wildanimals and, for many, it ismonths before they are usedby guests. Some, on the otherhand, simply don’t make thecut and are returned. For leadhorses, training is even morerigorous, as it is these whowill be the first to meet anelephant, or anything else,head on.

The day of our close en-counter we acknowledged thepatience needed to trainhorses to have this level oftrust; they all stood motion-less as we gazed in amaze-ment. Evenwhen the elephantmoved in our direction, thehorses remained calm whilesome of their riders were notso blase.

Back at camp, we relivedthe day’s adventures over asmashing lunch, our time inthe saddle leaving us hungryfor seconds. ‘‘So what did yousee or do?’’ we would questionthe other group of riderswho’d taken a different route.Some saw crocodiles andlions, some didn’t. Others sawa herd of buffalo, while onenight a few of us sippedchampagne by the mess tentwhile watching an elephantmunching his way through alate snack.

This time round the big catmanaged to escape me,although one night from thecomfort of my bed I did re-cognise his distant roar as he

called out for his mate. Roarsin the afternoon, however,were most likely from thebaboons as they gathered bythe plunge pool and hammockon the deck. They alwaysknew when they had an audi-ence.

Apart from the obvious,identifying animal tracks inthe sand is a fine art, and,while we couldn’t miss thetree felling as ‘big feet, bigears’ passed through camp,visiting leopards were oftenmiles away by the time theirmarks were spotted at dawn.As John once commented:‘‘Whether we are out riding orback in camp, there’s no endto the amount of animalswatching our every move.’’

While your run-of-the-millcampsites across the globewill often offer bucketshowers and hole-in-the-ground loos, Macatoo leavesnothing to chance when itcomes to maximum comfortfor its worldly guests.

Staff is in abundance, withsome 40 locals tending toguests’ every single need. Asfor the food, when the chefscan produce a three-tier 50thbirthday cake from a kitchen‘in the middle of nowhere’,you know you really aresomewhere very, very special.

It was Friday night and thefour ladies’ last night in campand Cape Town-based SallyPegg and Viv Marais werealmost overcome with emo-tion as we prepared to bidthem farewell over dinner.

TAKING HIS GUIDANCE

HEAD guide at AfricanHorseback Safaris, BongweMakate, is acknowledged asan expert in the business,having spent the past 11years at Macatoo.

He spent much of his earlylife in Maun and after, work-ing in a livery stable there,moved into the Delta tobegin his career as a guide.This started at OkavangoHorse Safaris and in 1999he moved to Macatoo.

In the early days heworked in the stables, butafter only three years hetrained to be a back-up guidefor the area, and eventuallyhead guide. This process

involved taking severalcourses, some equine-speci-fic, in order to be able tohandle all eventualities withguests and horses.

Nowadays Bongwe over-sees all rides when ownerJohn Sobey is absent and is

supported by a sharp teamof fellow lead guide SekongoKatsotso, along with back-upguides Motsugi Samokwasiand Scorpion Manyema.

With Macatoo being onthe largest concession in theOkavango Delta, covering500,000 acres, Bongwe isall too aware of the con-stantly changing landscapeand he assures riders thatno one ride is ever the same.

Watching Macatoo devel-op into a successful busi-ness has undoubtedly beenrewarding for the 34-year-old, who on an annual basiscan see some 300 guestspass through camp.

Up close and personal with an African elephant

Continued from >> A59

A few of ussipped

champagne by themess tent whilewatching anelephant munchinghis way through alate snack

THE IRISH FIELD, Saturday, June 19, 2010

TRAVEL FEATURE A61

Two nights earlier Ilearned that Sally’s English-based sister Sue and anotherfriend Jane Johnson had alsobeen planning this holiday foryears, a story repeated by twolovely French couples severaldays later.

Romance, we discovered,had not gone out the windowwhen we heard that BrunoPages’ wife Annie had re-ceived 23 letters of the alpha-bet as gifts over a five-yearperiod. The anagram was un-ravelled at Christmas - Afri-can Horseback Safaris - inMay.

While Sobey no longerguides on a regular basis, hewas back in camp from hisbase in Maun to lead ourgroup that included his goodfriend Mike from Cirencester,whose visits to Macatoo in thepast 10 years now numberclose to 30.

A missing link on this visithad been another friend oftheirs from home, Roger Nut-land, who passed away lastyear but whose memory livedon at nearby Lion Island. Oneof his favourite parts of theDelta, some of his ashes hadbeen scattered here, wherecrocodiles and kingfishershave now built their homes.

A short boat trip had takenthe three of us there oneevening for sundowners,while other guests enjoyed aleisurely hack. This had beenone of several amazing sun-sets spent on the water, othersbeing used to get close to three

sedentary giraffes and twolively hippos on the move.We’d also gone to the WaterLily Pond just before closingtime to see these stunningflowers glow in the eveninglight.

Indeed giraffes were plen-tiful during our rides, but sotoo were wildebeest, elephant,zebra, warthog, a wide selec-tion of antelope and a multi-tude of parrots, eagles, owlsand woodpeckers. All areamong some 450 species ofbirds that live on this land.

Traversing from island toisland in search of such ani-mals puts demands on thehorses, but a rota saw themused only every other day,and nomore than two or threemornings a week, when theirfitness is tested to the limit.

However, their rewardswere great and, after a day inthe bush, an afternoon graz-ing in a nearby sunny pad-dock proved to be the idealbattery recharger before theevening’s hard feed.

One who was late home one

evening was Bismarck, whothat morning had managed tooffload the other groups’ leadguide Bongwe Makate inwater, but thankfully, unlikethe German battleship thatsank, he safely made his wayback to base in time for sup-per. His rider, on the otherhand, had a rather long walkhome. Indeed our own can-dlelit three-course supper thatevening proved most enter-taining as the camp’s headguide had his adventuresplayed and replayed like a

broken record by his highly-amused colleagues. But thelaughing didn’t stop there,and as regular as it was hys-terical, the following day itwas John at the receiving endwhen his internal GPS mys-teriously ran out of batteries.

‘‘Do you know where youare going,’’ we heardMike callout from the back of the ride,his giggle being enough toknow John was, indeed, lost.We’d been on the move forsome time after our break, butit was all rather silent now upthe front as he attempted toget off this very large round-about. ‘‘Look there’s somegiraffe,’’ said Justine Andrewand Claire Nixon from York,but no, there was no time forviewing as we all moved in theopposite direction.

We were not heading backto camp, but rather to a newly-built high platform overlook-ing the water, where ourlunch awaited us, alongwith achange of dry clothes orga-nised as part of the surpriseby our ever-efficient team. Wewere a good 40 minutes lateand our hungry fellow riderswere bewildered as theypeered down through thetrees. John got lost? Yes, canyou believe it!

Indeed that lunch had beenone of the most memorable, ashad the previous night’s din-ner on the deck, lit by acandle-filled chandelier hang-ing from a bow of a tree over-head. Drip went the wax ontothe table as the stories and

tales were shared over wine.The main course that night

was game stew, kudu to beprecise, this largest memberof the antelope family in Afri-ca being one of the mostspectacular when in full flightacross his terrain.

Moving at a more leisurelypace were the giraffes, who,on my final morning’s ride,had obliged us greatly whenspotted down by their ownGiraffe Pool. Gathered in acollective journey, they can-tered with immense grace andlet us ride alongside thembefore disappearing into thetrees. Not only was it a thrill,but an honour to join them,even for those few brief mo-ments.

Back at camp, we againshared our stories as some ofus prepared to leave for home.A 6.30am wake-up call, and7am breakfast around thecampfire before our ride andone final lunch by the water,my last supper was to befollowed by a night on theplatform, with only the skyfor a roof. Equipped with amattress apiece, and a mos-quito net overhead, we playedJenga to moonlight beforebedding down to the sounds ofthe wild.

Dinner at sunset. Each night the table napkins changed to a different shape of animal

Lounging about in the hammock. Baboons passed through camp dailySwimming home

Posing beside a baobob tree believed to be 3,000 years old

Playing Jenga on the platform with endless wildlife as spectators

BOOKINGS

Bookings can be madethrough Zara’s Planet. Seewww.zarasplanet.ie or call01-4407477.