Chobe

Botswana
March 21st, 2009

Our final stop in Botswana was to yet another one of her stunning National Parks. Due to wet conditions we were unable to drive to Chobe through Moremi and Savuti, and had to make a slight several hundred kilometre detour through Nata. What’s in Nata you ask? Well Nada. However it was well worth the detour.

Staying at Kasane we entered the national park gates promptly at six and were the first to arrive. The park had stillness to it and dawn was just beginning to rise. The only fresh tracks on the sandy roads were of animals not of wheels. Heaven. As we winded along the trail we saw a spotted hyena and some giraffe. The complete peacefulness wasn’t to last as it soon became apparent that we weren’t the only ones in the park. The pimp wagons, as Karel fondly refers to them (a.k.a. the game trucks), rolled in- in incredible number. They did prove useful though, as they were the first to spot lion. There were two lioness moving across the thick pale yellow grass into some bush. Luckily one of the lioness sat in a perfect viewing point and we happily watched her for thirty minutes whilst enjoying some peanut butter sammies.

Driving for the better part of the day we mostly enjoyed taking in the incredible scenery. The park is largely based around the Zambezi River, which flows powerfully this time of year (the wet season) and creates one of the seven natural wonders of the world also known as Victoria Falls. We were constantly amazing with how full the river is and how stunning it looks carrying with it large clumps of grass and wood.

We spotted some game during the day, but the really exciting viewings happened around 4pm when all of the animals started making their way to the river to drink. Navigating through a field of elephant was amazing. Literally hundreds of them were on the river banks, on the hillside and bathing in the river. In awe and just starting to process what we had just witnessed, we arrived in the mist of even more elephants. Especially amazing were the little ones. We think we saw around three hundred- three hundred in the space of an hour. Sheer magic. We were also lucky enough to see a huge herd of seventy plus buffalo grazing around and in the water.

p.s. Also had snake sightings four and five- both from the safety of our car. Four was a black mamba making it’s way very quickly across the road. Five was a boa who stopped in the middle of the road and we were able to take a quick snap before it raced into the thick bushes