Travels with Kathryn

Our last “big” travel day would have us covering around 160km traveling from our Savuti which is in the western part of Chobe National Park, towards the edge of the Chobe river (near Kasane). So a long travel day, but the riverfront is the area which is meant to have the highest concentration of elephants in the national park which also has the highest concentration of elephants in Africa, so I was both excited and hopeful.

A 5am wake-up and by 5.30am my bag was outside the tent and the team were already starting to break the camp. I think they were enjoying the fact that they could do this in the dry with zero chance of rain.

And off we went:

• Southern ground hornbill – a much better photo.
• LIONS! You can tell we are in the territory of the “northern pride” and having first found a male lion actually standing up roaring (athough then needing a sit down a big yawn to recover) before then finding a whole family at the waterhole. This included the male brother, various females and around six cubs.
• Banded mongoose.
• Kori bustard – this guy was strutting about having pouffed up his neck feathers, apparently this is a courtship display, however, it was unclear who he was displaying for as there was not a whiff of a female anywhere. He was evidently not the brightest, which is probably why the ladies were not interested.
• Jackal.
• Giraffes.
• Buffalo.
• Impala – only noted as it was a bachelor crew with a single (loser) wilderbeast. Maybe they could commiserate their lack of success with the females and share tips. Perhaps the Kori bustard should join them?
• Kori bustards – the male was just in the wrong place the wrong time.

After all this excitement, it was time for a tea and toilet stop. Mum managed to not get lost, however, much use of spades was required. By this point in the trip 3/6 (including Mum) of us developed stomach cramps and diarrhoea, including the two young healthy Swiss. At the time, we put it down to safari belly, but as symptoms were still ongoing after the allotted 5 days and Mum ended up being prescribed antibiotics we now think it may have been some contaminated water. Anyway, she has lived to tell the tale (and is now merely suffering from a cold, but no gastric effects), and got most efficient with her shovel…

Off we went again, and there were a few sightings before and after we turned onto the road including:

• Slender mongoose.
• Giraffe.
• Ostritch.
• Elephant – this was our first sighting of a dead (of natual causes) elephant, and you could really smell the meat on the breeze (even if it was quite dried out by this stage). On death, it becomes a meal for a variety of animals including a large flock of vultures. Circle of life right there.
• Steenbok

A couple of hours along the road we went through our first gate, the Ghoha Gate.

After driving through the gate, my notes state “nothing much to see. Too hot” however, there was an exciting big hill to drive up and down complete with signage:

We eventually stopped for lunch by the side of a road under a tree (with data!) for a meal of tuna pasta (I do loath tinned tuna), cauliflower in yellow mayonnaise (surprisingly ok), sliced meat (fine) and bread (dry). The plan was to shelter here from the actual sun so we didn’t leave until 3pm, and I got progressively hotter and hotter, and could not wait to get back into the jeep to pick up some breeze which was a possibility as we were back on tarmac. My seat in the jeep was in full sun BUT there was in breeze so I started to feel I may be able to cope.

The flood plains of the Chobe river flood every year in the wet season, and last year was the largest flood for the last 12 years. This river is the border between Botswana and Namibia- the Botswanian side is all a National Park, whereas the Namibian side is farming land (and some of the best agricultural land they have) and the Namibians can also fish th river, which the Botswanans cannot.

If you look at a map you will notice that Namibia has a sticky out bit separating Botswana and Zambia, this is know as the Caprivi Strip. This was acquired by German South West Africa in 1890 from the UK in exchange for Germany giving up its interest in Zanzibar and an island called Heligoland in the North Sea. They wanted it as they thought it would provide a trade route via the Zambezi river to the east coast, however, they had not reallised that Victoria Falls might make this a non-option. I bet they wish they had held onto that claim to Zanzibar. I hear its lovely.

We re-entered Chobe Park via the Nagoma gate and once it (finally) cooled down, were finally able to see some animals again:

• Impala (I was so ready for animals I noted down impalas).
• Zebra (they’re back!).
• Warthogs.
• Kudu.
• Jackal – I mentioned how stupid guinea fowl are (and note that guinea fowl do not make the list, as they are rubbish)? This jackal was chasing said guinea fowl, and rather than it flying way (what with it having the power of flight) it ran and then eventually managed to remember it could fly. duh.
• Crocodile.
• Hippo.
• Giraffes.
• Southern Carmine Bee eater – this is a pretty red bird, it was nice and there was a nice flock of them in a tree, but I felt people got overly excited.
• Chacma baboon.
• Giraffes.
• Kudu.
• Buffalos coming down to the river for a little evening drink.
• Waterbuck (the toilet seat antelope)

We finally arrived into camp, and we had a lovely spot right on the river and I had a delightful shower (this was noted and much needed after such a hot day). However, I also noted that dinner was rather late (8.30pm) as I was really hungry (that cauliflower for lunch had just not filled me up!) and we had pea soup, steak, roasted sweet potato, green beans and banoffee pie.

Given the fact that all I had done all day was sit in the jeep and sweat (let us be honest) it is amazing how tired you get on safari, or maybe it was the fact that I did not get my nap today. Maybe I am becoming an old person? Or maybe I have just fully settled into safari life? This is our last camp, and we only had 3 nights left to enjoy the whole experience so I got my head down to fully enjoy the last couple of days.