What a way to go (on safari)
 

Looks like if I go gamewatching in the Okavango, it won't be in a canoe!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...ml?source=mypi

Wow! So much for the "great, greasy green Limpopo River." ("I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner." - The Elephant's Child, by Rudyard Kipling.) Now we know what they have for dinner. (Admittedly, perhaps a swift death like that is easier... )

The Okavango is also full of crocs, some of them large ones - but I've never had troubles cruising in a makoro (dugout.) OTOH, one German lady who decided to sunbathe topless on the nicely groomed (by hippos) grass by the big deadfall at Xaxanaxa was taken by a croc about the time we were there in 1993... and I have some pix of us swimming at the bridge with the crocodile warning sign (one of us stayed out watching the upstream location they tend to come from.)

I suggested taking a mask, fins, and snorkel to the Okavango to my travel agent. They convinced me otherwise.

I assume you mean Third Bridge? That sign was put up early in 1990, after an incident during Christmas when an intoxicated camper tried to fill a bucket of water from the bridge in the dead of night. The croc who grabbed his arm came from under the bridge, not upstream. Fortunately for the victim, the croc was not all that large, so all he needed was 60+ stitches. Why he did not use the water faucet at the campsite (yes, it was working at the time) is a good question.

I crossed the Limpopo in a canoe in February 1996, when the river was coming down in flood. Water levels were so high that the cable car at Pont Drif was under water. We started a considerable distance upstream. I sat in the front with my bag in my lap whilst the guide in the back paddled like crazy. He obviously had considerable experience, because we reached the opposite shore right in front of the border post. I must confess that I did not give crocs a thought during the crossing, tree trunks and other debris hurtling downstream were a far greater hazard.

By the way, February 1996 was also the time when the Limpopo crocodile population was considerably augmented. A crocodile farm on the aptly named Crocodile River, a tributary of the Limpopo, was flooded by heavy rainfall, and most of the crocodiles were washed into the river.

Johan

A sad account from the coxswain:

http://www.mmegi.bw/2006/March/Tuesd...601129652.html

My cousin was there, actually, in the same group. They had just held a free clinic the day before. They did not know the area was dangerous. She saw the whole thing happen. Apparently, the crocodile was 4.5 meters. I have not spoken to her yet, personally, but she said it was pretty horrible, as you can imagine. Needless to say, she's not going anywhere near a river for quite a while...

fuzz