27 Jul 2016

Passion for adventure and desire to see Botswana story told by locals inspired the Cross Okavango expedition through use of dugout canoes (mokoro).

Okavango Delta, famous for its pristine beauty and lately recognised as a World heritage site, was mainly documented by international natives.

It was on this backdrop that the Cross Okavango expedition led by writer/photographer, Thalefang Charles, supported by Botswana Tourism Organisation, (BTO) aimed at telling the delta story through Batswana.
The Cross Okavango 2016 crew began their journey from Seronga in the Okavango Delta panhandle on July 25.

It would take 14 days in dugout canoes (mekoro) across the delta and expected to arrive at Boro (the beach in Maun) on August 7.

The team comprises of seven Bayei poolers experts, musicians; HT and Molefi ‘Stiga Sola’ Monaga of Maun, poet Leshy Lovesong of Chobe, photographer Pako Lesejane, USA Conservation music project artist and a film crew of three documenting the expedition.

In an interview, Charles said the first Cross Okavango expedition 2015 was about adventure and documenting, while the 2016 expedition brought creative people on board to garner inspiration for their arts compositions.
Stiga Sola for example, he said, had composed and released well known songs that talked about villages surrounding the delta.

He did backpacking in the past 10 years, visited Mount Kilimanjaro and some of Africa’s great Lakes.
“Maybe adventure is addictive...,” he said.

Charles said his first experience with a mokoro was near Boro around Maun.
The Cross Okavango expedition, he said, would hopefully be an annual event with different themes.

Charles noted that the 2015 Cross Okavango trip was cut short since foodstuff depleted before time therefore the crew moved faster to Maun.
He expressed that the lead pooler Seitsanye Boitumelo aka ‘C Company’ also known as the ‘GPS’ of the Okavango Delta was a legend who knew how to avert obstacles as Hippopotamus attacks along the way.

In an interview, the 54-year-Boitumelo said although he had never been to school, the river was his profession.
He crossed the Delta from Seronga to Maun on several occasions with a powered boat or mokoro.

The main precaution, he said, was to avoid deeper areas of the delta so as to easily avert catastrophe.
Two other poolers took part in an expedition from Angola to Botswana with the National Geographic crew in 2015. Ends