July 2008 found me back once again in Africa, but this time to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, whilst quite a few people do venture out on the Delta on safari trips there are relatively few people that are lucky enough to get the chance to dive the Delta. The primary target of our trip was to try and get some underwater footage of crocodiles as below!
We drove from Johannesburg to Maun, Botswana where we met up with 
Mark and Gail Addison who had driven overland to Maun with the scuba diving equipment. After the first day on scuba I opted to ditch the tanks and go in on snorkel, far less gear to faff around with!
Here we are transferring the gear onto the boats that were going to then be our form of transport taking us deep into the Delta. We seemed to have a huge amount of equipment, food and tents of course being a part of it, but the main bulk was diving and photography gear.
Heading out on the Okavango Delta the scenery was stunning, camera shutters were snapping away throughout the group as we chugged along keeping a lookout for the wildlife.
Diving the Okavango Delta was simply unforgettable, it was incredibly beautiful underwater, the flood waters were rising rapidly and the current in many of the channels was swift flowing. I really wasn't expecting to see such vibrant colour underwater, fanning papyrus, water lilies and many other species of beautiful underwater plants and grasses. Fish darted through the reeds. The water was crystal clear and as this was our drinking water for the entire trip there was no need to get thirsty on a dive, just remove your reg or snorkel and take a drink!
We were certainly exploring an area not many people venture, we only saw one other safari
group, I was freediving down the river and it was funny to see the absolute astonishment on their faces as their boat glided past, I could imagine their guide " Over there you can see hippos, and some elephants, and over to your left there is a croc sitting on the bank, oh... and errm.. there is a freediver, a species seldom spotted in these parts" !
We certainly tried our hardest to get some underwater footage of crocs, but only Mark managed to get a few quick snippets, there were plenty of them around, and we were definitely in close proximity to them in the water as we entered at the same time as they slid off the bank into the delta, I would peer under the banks whilst diving as this is where they could sometimes be found but no luck.
The hippos provided hours of entertainment, with the group taking it in turns to donate their camera to go inside "the raptor" (our name for our remote control specially made hippo hunting machine), we would stay safely in the boats whilst we sent the raptor into the hippo pools in an attempt to get underwater hippo footage.
Although we obviously tried to avoid the hippos whilst diving we were of course in the middle of the Delta and diving along hippo trails as below, so there were certainly no guarantees that we wouldn't bump into them. We did have a surprise encounter with one hippo on a dive but luckily for us he was more alarmed than we were and quickly departed!
Below is the raptor in action along with the its intended target, the hippo.
We would be out on the boats most of the day, gliding through the different waterways, often stopping at some of the islands and exploring on foot. Animals were abundant, elephants with babies at their feet, giraffes, impalas, bush buck, hippos, buffalo, wart hogs, baboons ..
and an incredible amount of birdlife...
We had stunning sunsets most evenings also, we'd generally be heading back into camp around this time.
And I mustn't forget this fellow (below), we were stalking him on foot whilst he was stalking lechwee, only the lechwee got spooked and the lion then turned his attention on us, charging towards us roaring, luckily there was a few of us in the group so we probably looked too large a number to be taken on, our guide said afterwards it could well have been a different story had there been only one or two people.
