Chobe National Park, Botswana

Our trek from Victoria Falls to Cape Town begins in earnest today. First stop is Kasane (not the Cold Chisel variety), entry point the biggest and best national park in Botswana, Chobe National Park.

Minutes out of Vic Falls and we spot out first wild elephants browsing on leaves by the road side. We have a great view from our large truck.

Kasane is only 10 or so kms from Vic Falls, but it takes us a while due to the border crossing from Zimbabwe to Botswana. There are strict controls in place for the current Foot and Mouth problems in southern Africa. We have to bring all of our shoes and clean them before the truck is thoroughly searched. There is also a big crack down on drug smuggling and poaching at the moment. It's still too early on the tour for either of these to be a problem for us.

We stop in at the town centre at Kasane to pick up some supplies and money then head to the campsite. It's nice. A bar and pool and good showers. We have a bit of lunch and prepare for our overnight stay in the middle of Chobe.

Chobe is approximately 11,000 square kms. We enter via the "riverfront" entrance in an open game drive vehicle. 3 hours of game driving awaits us in the hot afternoon sun.

We spot impala very soon after entering. The landscape is rugged and dry, however the river offers some relief. That's where the animals flock to by day before retreating back to the bush by night.

We see elephants in the distance. It looks like something out of a documentary.

A number of baboons are next. They are lazily following the elephant herds, feeding on their... leftovers (a lot of what elephants eat passes through undigested. An easy meal for the baboons).

We run into some giraffes next. They are not too phased by the vehicle. Their darker markings indicate they are older than most.

We see a sable antelope being harassed by some birds. Massive horns sloping backwards. Damn fine looking dude.

We are driving along the river shore at this point and spot our first hippo out of water deep in the mud close by. Is it dead? It's not moving. It flaps it's ears and we are much more comfortable in staring at him doing nothing. We get bogged shortly after this and are baking in the sun thinking about a mud bath; nature's sunscreen.

We see a larger group of hippos nearby in a pool. The smallest in the middle. That looks pretty inviting as well.

Our driver, Jack knows his way around the park and the animals. He situates the truck close to the path of an oncoming elephant and child. They pass by us within meters.

Further on an elephant has died recently close to the road. Natural causes apparently. The first signs of rogamortis are visible. How sad.

Teenage kudu are locking horns in a playful fight. It looks pretty awkward and as though one wrong move could dislodge the horns. The loser loses interest and a touch of dignity and wanders off.
There are a number of vultures eerily hanging around. What do they know that we don't?

Lions are rumoured to have been spotted nearby so off we go down a side track in search. No luck tonight, but we do spot a jackal on the way.

The stunning sun has set again and only a misty dusk is left of the day. We seem to have driven into a giraffe playground. They are everywhere, all close by but still hard to spot in the vegetation and dimming light. Our campsite is 100 meters from these guys. The site is very low footprint. It has nothing but our tents and a truck. We are right in the thick of the Chobe, exposed to everything and anything.

Jack gives us our safety briefing as there is a good chance of wildlife wandering through our site at night. He gives us some hints on going to the toilet and how to determine the animals (and threat) based on the eyes we see with our flash light.

"I want to go for a night walk" blurts an American.

"Well, if you do, that will be breaking rule 1. And that will be the end of that chapter" Jack replies. Hippos have been known to get upset when their path to the water is blocked and a tourist was recently killed in this manner while on a night walk. No night walks were had tonight.

We have some food and hit the hay. Its pretty early but we have an early morning game drive out of the park.

Day 2

We are packed and gone by 6am. Boom! Lioness. About 500 metres from our camp. We hear the calls of her pack in the distance. She hangs out with the sunrise as her backdrop for a while before deciding to rejoin her crew. The nearby giraffe breathes a small sigh of relief (it would take more than one lion to bring it down though).

We do a little more lion hunting and spot some further in the distance before continuing our trek out of the park.

We get up close to a bachelor herd of Buffalo. They are number 2 on the list of the Big 5 due to their power, unpredictability and persistence (many a tourist has had to flee up a tree to avoid a buffalo attack only to have to be air lifted out days later due to the stubborn buffalo waiting at the bottom). Courts thinks they should be in the ugly 5 due to their shocking wig (horns).

On our way back we start to smell something foul. It's the same rotting elephant from yesterday, but it's massively inflated. The back leg is horizontal and it's pizzle...well. Gross. The smell is even putting other safari drivers off. They struggle through it to get their truck of tourists nice and close.

Attached to the end of the trunk is a leopard who is scoring an easy feed. Although that trunk looks like tough work. We get our photos and head off. Everyone is struggling with the stench.

We spot the usual suspects as we exit the park after an amazing night and morning in the Chobe.
We return to the resort, shower and get ready for a sunset cruise along the same Thebe river we were driving by earlier.

We get very close to elephants grazing on an island as well hippos doing the same. Throw in some crocs, buffalo and some might African fish eagles and we are pretty pleased with ourselves. The sunset does its usual thing but still captivates all on board.

We head back to our camp and sleep to the sounds of (very) closeby hippos. We have a quick look for them behind the electric fence on the banks of the river but can't spot them.