Meet Flood. Flood is one of our guides here at Ride Botswana. His role is mainly focused on rides that are based around the Royal Tree Lodge Reserve and the Thamalakane River. He has been with us for nearly 4 years now and we thought it was about time he was subjected to detailed interrogation for the purpose of my blog.
Flood was born in a small village called Etsha 13 on the edge of the Okavango Delta. He is the third oldest out of 6; with 2 brothers and 3 sisters. He spent a lot of time in and around the Delta growing up; often visiting Maun where his father lived for a short period. Having grown up with the mokoro as an integral part of Delta life – and a name like Flood (!) – it made sense for him to start his career by becoming a poler for Guma Lodge. He then spent 2 years poling in the Delta and gaining his Mokoro License.
Flood first came into contact with horses when he started grooming for a private horse establishment in the Delta . Whilst initially his principle jobs did not involve riding he tried to get as much horse riding experience as he could. By the time he came to Ride Botswana he had the basics sussed but it was here that he really learnt how to ride.
4 years later, this is Flood helping to school one of our youngsters – Cheyne. The two of them are both learning about working in an outline and are beginning to make a great team.
Having been on many rides with Flood and listened avidly to the endless snippets of information he can provide about almost any wildlife, I wanted to know where he had learnt it all?
“You know when I started out I was just a poler not a guide. So I would always be accompanied by a Delta guide in my mokoro. I would listen to them as they explained about the wildlife to the guests and I tried to always remember. After two years I had learnt a lot from them”
What is your favourite fact to tell guests?
“Ahhh” *laughs* “There are so many to choose from”
“Hmm it would probably be about the African Jacana. I like to explain about how they can walk on the lily pads on the water, the Jesus bird. Their breeding is interesting too. It’s called polyandrous which means that one female will breed with several males and then leave the males with the responsibility of looking after the eggs. They lay the eggs on a flimsy nest that sits just on top of the lily pads.”
What’s one of your most memorable guiding experiences?
“A few months ago I was guiding a couple around the reserve when we saw a group of zebra; 2 females with 2 babies and 1 male. Whilst we were watching another male started trying to cause trouble and we watched as the two of them attempted to chase each other off, fighting over the females. It was pretty cool to watch.”
So next question…
“Oh wait wait, I have another interesting thing that happened. You know the white brown sparrow weaver? Well I was showing the nests to some guests and explaining about how the males must build the nests for the females and each male can build up to 7 or 8 nests. If the nests aren’t good enough then the females will come and destroy them and he’ll have to start again. Just as I said that we saw a female come along and she obviously wasn’t happy and started pulling apart the nest just like I’d said. The poor guy just sat there watching.” *laughs*
The obvious question: What is your favourite animal?
“Eesshh, there is many! Can I have a favourite bird and animal?”
“My favourite animal is the Oryx. I just like their life style and to me they are the most beautiful in the reserve.”
“Bird – that’s easy, its the Fork-Tailed Drongo, he is the naughty one. You know, they are cheeky and also very brave. You can see them flying and chasing away much bigger birds like the Yellow Billed Kite. They can also make different calls and mimic other birds. They trick you into thinking its another bird, not good for guiding!”
Who is your favourite horse?
A grin appeared on his face as he told me that that is a difficult question. However he conceded that it would have to be Dupfrie (whose favourite isn’t Dupfrie these days?!).
“Dupfrie is always fit, calm and just looks good in any filming or pictures. He is just beautiful, you know”.
Which ride do you most look forward to guiding?
“I like the Day Ride out to the lunch spot by the river but my favourite is guiding around the reserve, especially down by the river. The guests, they seem to love going through the river and so I always make sure I don’t miss out going down there.”
This week Flood jumped for the first time. He was awesome. Here’s a picture of our star jumper Frankie helping to show him how its done!