So life at Oppi-Koppi continues. This morning we have been for a little walk, been into the village to get supplies, then done some domestic chores. That more or less sums up an average start to the day - not dissimilar to my life in Weston! We did hit rather a low patch yesterday when we realised that it will now be getting too late in the season for us to cope with weather conditions as we travel further north (heavy rain but also serious heat, especially in Sudan). We have a few options to consider but at this stage don't know if any of them are really viable. Trying to figure that out will probably be one of the things we do this weekend. The other scare has been the cost of travel in the Okavango Delta. This is one area that we are both very keen to visit and we have realised that we now have to either pay a fortune even to do some quite limited activities there, or really cut down on what we do, which will not be very satisfying after all the effort to get here. Prices are 2 - 3 times those listed in our book, which is only 3 years old!
Luckily there was an interesting diversion yesterday in the form of some gem-hunters who stayed on the campsite: 6 chaps from Scandinavia and Cape Town, having a ball on their 5-week expedition. They were totally charming, very knowledgeable, and we really enjoyed spending time with them. Most of their finds were carefully wrapped up but they showed us some fascinating stones, including some dioptase, a beautiful aquamarine and a truly awesome quartz crystal weighing at least 50kg and taking up the whole of one passenger footwell in their car. They even found stones of interest knocking about the campsite. You just never know who you are going to meet next.
The wildlife at the campsite continues to be interesting. We have seen both yellow mongoose and slender mongoose coming to the feeding station near the swimming pool on quiet days, and I have finally figured out what the Monteiro's hornbills are hunting and eating - huge locusts. S.
Luckily there was an interesting diversion yesterday in the form of some gem-hunters who stayed on the campsite: 6 chaps from Scandinavia and Cape Town, having a ball on their 5-week expedition. They were totally charming, very knowledgeable, and we really enjoyed spending time with them. Most of their finds were carefully wrapped up but they showed us some fascinating stones, including some dioptase, a beautiful aquamarine and a truly awesome quartz crystal weighing at least 50kg and taking up the whole of one passenger footwell in their car. They even found stones of interest knocking about the campsite. You just never know who you are going to meet next.
The wildlife at the campsite continues to be interesting. We have seen both yellow mongoose and slender mongoose coming to the feeding station near the swimming pool on quiet days, and I have finally figured out what the Monteiro's hornbills are hunting and eating - huge locusts. S.