Date: October 2013
From our Zambian hotel we are driven to the
Kazungula border post, where, after a quick exit passport check (we don't even need to get out of the van, the guide simply takes in all our passports) we board a small boat. We are crossing the
Zambezi and
Chobe Rivers, at a spot where four countries border each other. To the left is Zimbabwe, to the right Namibia, behind us is Zambia, and we are heading to Botswana.
The boat is a private one, reserved for the 12 of us on the tour. There is a public ferry crossing the river as well, but that seems to be a slower process. Especially for the trucks, which are ferried over the river one by one. No wonder that there is such a huge line of them waiting on both sides of the border. Our guide tells us that trucks might wait up to a week to cross, in the hotel someone mentions three weeks!
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| Our boat at the Kazungula border post, Zambia |
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| Trucks being ferried across the river, Kazungula border post, Botswana |
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| Trucks waiting at Kazungula border crossing, Botswana |
After crossing the river we board a car, and are driven to the Botswana passport control, which is quite fast, because we don't need visas. Because of the foot-and-mouth disease we must walk through a special mat to disinfect our shoe soles.
The first wildlife we spot in Botswana are the naughty
baboons, which seem to have invaded the waiting trucks.
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| Baboons at the Kazungula border post, Botswana |
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| Baboons on the waiting trucks at the Kazungula border post, Botswana |
During our roughly 15-minute drive toward the town of
Kasane the only notable things we see are large
termite mounds by the road, and a huge
baobab tree, which is estimated to be 2,000 years old.
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| Two-thousand year old (est.) baobab tree, Botswana |
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| Termite mound by the road, Botswana |
We arrive to
Mowana Lodge, at the edge of
Chobe National Park, which will be our base for the two safaris we take today: one by boat and one by car. After filling out some paperwork we head for the terrace overlooking the
Chobe River.There, just across the river, is a group of
elephants, as if posing for our pleasure.
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| View of elephants across the Chobe River, Mowana Lodge, Botswana |
Once in the boat that is where we head first (even though according to our guide this is already Namibia). It's incredible how close we can get to the animals. For most of my pictures I don't even need to use a zoom. We are the first boat here, so we have "front row seats". Sitting in the front of the boat, sometimes I feel a little uncomfortably close, as a couple of elephants approach us with curiosity. But mostly they just ignore us, they are probably quite used to humans staring at them by now.
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| Boarding the safari boat, Mowana Lodge, Botswana |
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| Elephant, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
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| Elephants, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
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| This is how close we are to the elephants, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
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| Elephant, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
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| Elephant, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
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| Tourist boat next to the elephants, Namibia across Chobe River from Mowana Lodge |
After passing a couple of hippos we stop to register for entry to the park.
Chobe National Park has one of the highest concentrations of animals in Africa, and this becomes obvious very quickly. While we wait for the registration we see lots of birds,
monkeys, a
warthog, and a medium-sized
crocodile sunning just next to our boat.
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| Chobe National Park registration, Botswana |
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| Crocodile, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Monkey, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Warthog, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
What's amazing about this place is that even without animals it would be worth a visit. The scenery, with the bright blue of the water, the green of the plants and the red of the earth, combined with some fascinating tree formations, is absolutely breathtaking. The Botswana tourism website calls
Chobe River "one of Africa's most beautiful rivers", and I can see why.
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
During our boat safari we will be mostly circling around
Sedudu Island, as it is known in Botswana (called
Kasikili Island in Namibia). The island has about 5 square kilometers (2 square miles), and during the rainy season is submerged in water. But we are here during the dry season, and at this time of the year the fertile soil and relative isolation from predators attract huge numbers of animals. Seems like anything that can swim crosses over to the island, even if it means braving the crocodile-infested waters of the Chobe River.
There are a jaw-dropping number of animals here. It reminds me of paintings of Eden, animals grazing wherever we look. No wonder that the island became the subject of a bitter dispute between Botswana and neighboring Namibia, both countries trying to claim it.
The International Court of Justice ruled in favor of Botswana, and the country promptly planted a huge, unmissable flag on the island.
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
The first thing we notice during our visit is the incredible number and variety of birds here (more than 460 species). They are simply everywhere! (including on our boat). We get a close look at
kingfishers, fluttering at dizzying speed before diving like a rocket into the water. My camera can't handle such wing-speed, but I do manage to take pictures of a stationary one. Then there is the
African Jacana, darting across lily pads. And many many other birds I can't even name.
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| Birds, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Black Heron (?), Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Pied Kingfisher, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Fish Eagle, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Four different birds in one picture, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| African Jacana, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A little bird catching a ride on our boat, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
Another animal we see plenty of are
hippos. There are some individuals, popping up seemingly randomly in the water around us. There are also groups, called "
pods". We get quite close to one of these, and this is when the only hair-raising experience of the day happens: our boat is charged by a young male hippopotamus. Luckily our guide reacts quickly, and we speed away without any harm to us or the hippo (sorry, no pictures, I was too busy holding on and screaming).
To most of us not living in Africa hippos can seem misleadingly harmless. They are cute, and look more lazy than anything. But the fact is that they are the single most dangerous species on the continent (or second, after mosquitoes). They are responsible for more human deaths than any other large animal here. They can run surprisingly fast, climb steep banks, are aggressive, and attack boats and humans with seemingly no provocation. With their huge teeth they can literally cut a human in two. Not so cute anymore, right? So the hippo-advice we get from our guide is:
1. never EVER! get between a hippo and the water
2. climb up or jump over something, they can't jump
3. if everything else fails, make sure you are with people who run slower than you...
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| Hippo, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A pod of hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A pod of hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A hippo keeping an eye on us, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A pod of hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A young male hippo returning to the pod after attacking our boat, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
While the water seems to be full of hippos, it takes us quite a while to spot some on the ground. Then finally there they are! They truly look completely harmless out here, like giant grazing gummy bears. But the attack on our boat is still very fresh on our mind, as are the gory descriptions of what happens to humans in a hippo attack, so we stay at a very safe distance.
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| Grazing hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Grazing hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Grazing hippos, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
To continue with dangerous creatures, let's not forget the large number of
crocodiles we see. Some of them are quite big, though not as huge as the ones we saw in Costa Rica a couple of years ago. In any case, they are large enough to eat me, so I am keeping my arms and legs inside the boat.
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| Crocodile, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
One of them has it's mouth wide open, which is a way for crocodiles to reduce their body temperature. We can take a good look at the huge teeth while he is chillin' (yes, pun intended). He is completely motionless for a long time, only the sporadic blinking reveals that he is alive.
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| A large crocodile cooling off, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| A large crocodile cooling off, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
According to our guide one of the animals that dares to take on crocodiles is the
Monitor Lizard, which steals their eggs. This creature is pretty big, but is no match for the crocodile, so if it gets caught and there is a fight it usually doesn't end very well for the lizard.
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| Monitor Lizard, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
Back to herbivores, which we see so many that after a while we stop looking. The most impressive is probably the
Cape Buffalo, but there are also
impalas,
antelopes and
kudus, and who knows what else. I admit that I can't really tell the difference between them, so some of my pictures might be mislabeled. The only ones I can identify (from the back) are
Waterbucks, because they have a white "toilet-seat" mark on their behinds.
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| Cape Buffaloes, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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Cape Buffalo, Chobe National Park, Botswana
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| Impalas?, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Antelope?, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Waterbucks, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Waterbucks, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Cape Buffaloes, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
Perhaps the biggest attraction of Chobe National Park is it's large
elephant population, and we see about a hundred of them today. With our boat we get remarkably close to them, and can observe them drinking (did you know that baby elephants drink directly through their mouths, without using their trunks?), taking mud baths, spraying themselves with dust, and also some of their bathroom habits.
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| Elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants (baby drinking directly by mouth), Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| We are this close to the elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Baby elephant hiding under it's mother, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Mother and baby elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephant rolling in the dust, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
After a tasty buffet lunch at the lodge the group transfers onto two safari cars, and we head out for the second safari of the day. This time on land.
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| Our Safari car, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Entrance to Chobe National Park, Botswana |
According to the Botswana tourism website,
Chobe National Park covers about 11,770 square kilometers (4,500 square miles), and has four different areas. In addition to the
Chobe Riverfront, which we are exploring today, there are also the
Ngwezumba pans,
Savute and
Linyanti.
When we enter the national park we are not directly by the water, and the landscape is very dry. That is why we have seen so many animals around the river. Right now the watering holes in the bush are dried out, so animals must head down to the riverfront to survive. So that is where we are heading too.
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
Viewed from land the number of animals on the waterfront seems even more astonishing. They seem to be everywhere! We see mostly the same ones as from the boat, plus a herd of
zebras in the distance.
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| Animals by the Chobe River, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Animals by the Chobe River, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Waterbuck (?) by the Chobe River, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Hippos by the Chobe River, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
We drive up really close to the
elephants' mud bath, and have an even better view than from the boat.
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephants taking a mud bath, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Elephant throwing dust on itself, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
As we turn away from the river and deeper into the bush the landscape becomes extremely dry. Understandably we don't see huge numbers of animals here, but we do run into a couple of
giraffes, a family of
baboons, a solitary
elephant, and
impalas and
kudus (at least that's what I think they are).
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Kudu (?), Chobe National Park, Botswana |
We watch for a while as the
giraffes munch on the trees. Our guide explains that when the tree "feels" that too many of it's leaves were eaten, it has the capability to turn them bitter, encouraging the animals to move on to another, better tasting tree (I forgot the scientific name of this phenomenon, sorry).
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| Giraffes, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Giraffe, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Giraffe, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Giraffes, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
We come across a noisy
baboon family. One of the adults is disciplining a naughty youngster, that's what all the shrieking is about.
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| Baboons, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Baboon, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
Then no more animals, just a fascinating scorched landscape with many termite mounds.
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Chobe National Park, Botswana |
We leave the national park and are heading toward the border crossing. We are still in the safari car, which is not the best suited for highway driving, but we arrive safely and cross into Zambia. What a lovely day this was!
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| Women at Kazungula border post, Botswana |
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| Women at Kazungula border post, Botswana |
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