Perched in the middle of the southern part of the African continent is the Okavango Delta – an inspiring mosaic of wet and dry, with an abundance of wildlife, breathtaking landscapes, and grasses that would blow your socks off (and probably get attached to them given half a chance).
Last month, I was one of 24 lucky souls to spend about 10 days submersed in the Delta – a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Ramsar wetland that is formed when the Okavango River, flowing from Angola and Namibia, reaches a tectonic trough in Botswana where is it spills over the land to form a 15,000 sq km delta.
King’s Geography, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales and Arizona State University via PLuS Alliance, run a river basin management field course there, which is expertly led by Richard Kingsford from UNSW.
Spotted hyena having a feast 
Vegetation surveys (aka lion bait) 
Making mud pies to examine plants in the soil seed bank 
High drama as two male hippos had a tussle over a pool & a female.
We had staff and students from all three universities plus the University of Botswana, so it was a wonderful melting pot of experience, expertise, backgrounds and interests – all set against the backdrop of this amazing system and river basin.
It was an unusually a dry year, but that didn’t detract from the place. The many, many highlights included:
- elephants regularly wandering through our camp (run by aptly-named Elephants Without Borders),
- watching hyenas and vultures feast on a dead elephant,
- measuring water quality in floodwaters that were rolling down the system (unnervingly close to crocodiles and hippos…),
- some mighty magnificent grasses,
- trotting warthogs and graceful impala, and
- the company of the students and staff on the trip.
The best tent mate EVER! Claire McWilliams from ASU 
The King’s crew!
Ecological Change 