Okavango Delta, Botswana

The 1,430km Okavango River spreads 18.5 billion cubic metres of water annually like an open palm across the flat landscape, consumed as it spreads by the thirsty air and swallowed by the Kalahari sands. Eventually, the river loses itself in a 16,000-sq-km maze of lagoons, channels and islands. In this desert country, the incongruous waters of the resulting wetland - known as the Okavango Delta - attacts a myriad of birds, elephants, giraffe, hippos, and other wildlife, as well as most of Botswana's tourists.

Most visitors spend at least some time travelling by mokoro, a shallow-draught dugout canoe hewn from ebony or sausage-tree log (or more recently, moulded fibreglass). The mokoro are poled from a standing position and their precarious appearance belies their amazing stability.

And wow! how sexy are those polers!

Sunset bushwalk..