Chobe: Just a dab of Botswana

After we finished our 7 day tour of the Serengeti and nearby parks in Tanzania Michael and I thought we would check African Safari off our list (at least for this trip). The Serengeti has always been my idea of the quintessential African landscape, and getting to see that park as well as the very unique landscapes and ecosystems in nearby Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Manyara - it surpassed all of my expectations, even if I didn't get to see all of the 'Big 5'!

But, as it turns out, traveling is not really about checking things off a bucket list - we've talked to some people we've met on the road and it turns out that the more you see and the more people you meet and talk to about their experiences, the must-see list just gets longer and longer. It's like that cliche that goes something like, 'the more you learn the more you realize how little you know' or in this case, 'the more you see the more you realize how much more there is to see'. So, rather than check 'African Safari' off our list, we realized that we could kinda check off 'Tanzanian Northern Safari circuit in the dry season' but we needed to add: Serengeti in the wet season, wildebeest migration and mass birthing of wildebeest calves (apparently best seen in February), the Masai Mara in Kenya, South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, Kruger in South Africa, and The Okavango Delta and Chobe National park in Botswana. Also still to be experienced remained the canoe safari, the night safari, the walking safari, and even the hot air balloon safari - to name a few.



Another little thrill of traveling is collecting all those stamps in your passport - the more stamps that overlap on another and smudge together, the more of a cool little memento that passport becomes, so while it seems silly to admit it, many travelers are tempted by the opportunity to acquire another stamp or 2. Therefore, after recovering from Michael's near-death experience at Devil's hole, when we looked at the map and saw just how close Livingstone was to the border with Botswana, and then learned that US and Canadian citizens don't even need to pay for a visa to go there, it wasn't very hard for us to get hooked by an overnight camping trip to Chobe.



Just one more safari, just a short one, just a dab of Botswana...



So at 7AM, bags packed, we hopped into the open back of the Canvas-topped shuttle to the Kazungula border crossing. (The border between Zambia and Botswana is said to be the shortest between any two countries in the world) The hour and a half drive to the border was surprisingly chilly, but wool blankets were provided to keep us warm. The countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia converge at the Kazungula crossing, and the exact lines that indicate where one ends and the neighbor begins is still controversial according to some sources. Nonetheless, it was quite peaceful and surprisingly organized as we got stamped out of Zambia, bordered a small (maybe 21-ft) motor boat across the Zambezi (past a patch of

Namibia), and entered Botswana where we headed through immigration, wiped our feet on the 'foot and mouth disease control' mat, and boarded another vehicle with an astonishing lack of hassle. (I have to check the science on how well a wet mat protects against foot and mouth disease, but I suspect at least as well as taking off one's shoes protects against airline hijacking.)



Immediately over the border, Botswana had a decidedly different feel. The roads had not only tarmac, but recently painted yellow and white lines to mark the lanes, little orange reflectors on the side, wide paved shoulders, and even street lights. There were modern-looking street signs and even a golf course! Most buildings were made of cement and had a recent coat of paint, and even the more ramshackle buildings looked like they were standing pretty firmly. Where barbed wire was indicated, there was actual barbed wire, rather than the collection of broken class lining the walls that we had been seeing. Now it didn't look particularly affluent, unless of course you had recently traveled overland through rural Tanzania and Zambia...

Enter Chobe National Park. Even in Tanzania, each of the parks we visited had its own personality, and while one can make comparisons, it is really not possible to say one is better or worse than another, just that each is truly unique, and this was again the case here in Chobe. The most dominant personality here seemed to be the water. Sounds ridiculous, but we are visiting Africa in the dry season, so water comes at a premium. The common theme (not rocket science) is that all the animals that depend on fresh water sources must seek them out in the dry season. In the Serengeti this meant a trickle of a stream here or a watering hole there. Here we found the Chobe River - not a parched river bed, but a fully flowing river! We boarded a ferry and rode up the river to see what we would see - and guess what we saw? All the animals had found the river too! There they all were, just where you would expect them to be, along the edge of the river enjoying the water.  After wandering from dried up to not-yet-fully dried up waterhole in the Serengeti this was almost too easy! The animals looked like they had reached the land of mild and honey. I may be reading too much into this but they looked happier and less stressed...like they were just enjoying a day at the beach. Water to drink, grass to eat, mud to bathe in - what more could one want? Even the wart hogs didn't look so pathetic.

Along the river all the wildlife was much more concentrated than what we had seen before, so there were no long drives over vast desert landscape...after the boat ride our game drives consisted of repeating the same loop along the river road. Also, since this was a bonus safari for us we did not feel as rushed, not wanting to miss anything, but could just relax and take it all in - just a day at the beach - like the animals. And we had an amazing guide who knew the park his own backyard and the sense, or instinct to predict what the animals would do if we only had the patience to sit and watch and wait until...

 -a herd of elephants swam across the river ahead of our boat.

 -an incredibly large hippo decided we got too close for his liking and charged our boat (swam so fast after us that it left its own wake!)

 -an elephant carcass on the other side of the river got consumed by flocks of vultures (even at half a kilometer away, that smelled incredibly awful!)

-we heard the shots of a poacher from our campsite.

-we saw a leopard climb up a tree from which we could hear (but not see) it rip apart the carcass of its prey before coming down to sit in the sun and calmly lick the blood off its paws (sorry, Aileen...but the rhino still eludes us)

-we got to witness a pride of lions hunt a wart hog. The choreography was amazing - watching them approach from different directions to surround their prey. (Unfortunately for us the wart-hog ran through the brush and out of our site so we did not get to see how that turned out!)



That and a couple of stamps in our passport - not so bad for an overnight in Botswana...

(By the way; it's now been over 2 weeks since our Botswana safari - the trip from there back to Tanzania has been quite the adventure - stay tuned for details from Michael...)

Colleen

Lake Tanganyika Hotel

Kigoma, Tanzania