Date of Entry: November 16th 2016
Date of Writing: April 2nd 2017
We start the day early, and full of excitement, and thanks to my assortment of power packs, all my camera battery’s are fully charged, which would have been a good thing if not for my stupidity later. As we leave the campsite early, a little over an hour from Chobe national park (not counting border delays) we catch site of a few things through the short drive to the border back into Botswana. A lovely young family staring after our truck and a group of baboons who’ve made camp at the border post, stealing and grabbing anything they can. There’s also an amazing tree and some cool bird life this morning. I’d go into more detail but If I keep doing that this blog post will become a novel.
Once past the border we drive on through small sections of the park towards our camp sight for the night. We’re not by any means on safari now, in fact we’re trying to get to the campsite as soon as possible, but of course that all changes when we see a big breeding group of elephants off to our left (my side today). Blessing somewhat against his own will stops and lets us stare at these incredible animals. The group has several babies, some so small they may be less than a month old. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of looking at elephants in nature, they are beautiful, intelligent, kind, and awe inspiring.
Eventually we drive on but not for long as another huge group of elephants is crossing the road just a couple of KM onwards. Again we stop and watch in awe, these incredible animals even closer to us than the first group.
We get to our campsite which has wifi at the restaurant, very slow bt functional, and we pitch our tents, eat an early lunch I believe and then head out to the lobby of the hotel/restaurant. (I should mention that even should you do a camping over landing tour there is still options to upgrade and stay in a room almost every night fees ranging between 10 and 50 usd about, this is something Judy our friendly resident Texan wisely takes advantage of and something I consider more than once, but never end up doing.) We split up into three open air jeeps safari vehicles, me grabbing a corner spot for better photos and then we’re off out of the small town of Kasane and into the safari dirt roads of the incredible Chobe National Park. Hippos graze on the wet grass around the river witch separates Namibia from Botswana, meaning most of these animals are international travellers which is cool. As we drive in just the first few minutes we see them, a baboon,some antelope type species and a fascinating type of crane that looks seriously diseased but is perfectly healthy. This is also the moment I find out that while I brought my two cameras, I only brought two of my five battery’s for my canon despite being so careful to charge them all. Stupid Luke, really stupid.
As we continue on the dirt roads, we find a group of elephants appearing to try to sneak across the border to our side. Are they hereto take our jobs and steal and murder and rape? Only time will tell. (It’s seriously no more absurd in my opinion than that argument made seriously in the united states by so many people) As we keep driving we find another few elephants scraping the last leafs off a few trees very close to the road as a Fish eagle looks on from it’s perch above.
We drive on and get a slightly closer look at the hippos down by the river, though it’s still at the edge of my impressive zoom range. Now, Chobe is renowned for it’s impressive elephant population. There’s so many of them here that pride’s of lions have adapted and learned to hunt elephants on occasion which I wish I could say I saw happen, anyway the point is, it doesn’t take any time at all to find another small family of elephants who eventually cross the road right in front of us. For anyone considering going to Chobe, Botswana, or Africa in general. Believe me, it’s worth it.
We drive on a few more minutes as the skies quickly clear to a beautiful mosaic of blue and white. Again it doesn’t take long before we find another big group of elephants, 30 plus I think, eating walking and investigating us as we putter along to follow their trail watching these incredible creatures and snapping as many photos as I can.
The line just keeps going and so I snap some photos of my new swiss friends to show just how close we are to these incredible elephants. Two elephants, wanting to provide us some extra entertainment and crosses the road again just to poop in the middle of it, followed by his comedic assistant, a small baby elephant who comes to smell, and taste a bit of the poop. Toilet humour works people, even with elephants
I snap a few photos as we drive on, heading down towards the riverbanks in search of hippos up close. This takes a few more minutes than elephants but soon enough we’re looking down at a sleeping hippo in a mud pool right beside the road. This is my first up close hippo and even if it’s sleeping it’s amazing to see. But down worry, Chobe opens the flood gates for hippos on this trip.
As we drive along the river side we start to see lots more hippos some distances off, as well asa massive flock of birds zipping around in unison, reminding me of a paintbrush on canvas in the hands of the master. We also spot a hornbill which always reminds me of zazu from the lion king as well as the toucans I’ve seen across South America.
From here we head back up into the hill and find… you guessed it, a bunch more elephants. First we find a family group with a ton of adorable babies and then two young bull elephants, living together after being kicked out of the family groups for harassing and assaulting the females. Even with elephants, men and men boys need to learn be better to women. Come on elephants, I wanted you as my role models! We also find a part of an elephant skull and some type of antelope.
We come to the end of our exploration into the park (though we still have the route back to the entrance to look forward to) Still the ending is marked by the first big cat in Chobe, as a Lion, barely visible, dozes under a maze of branches, largely protected from the midday sun. Sadly this makes photos and even viewing quite difficult, but I do my best with the camera.
From here, after a quick toilet and snack break we hope back in the jeeps and start driving back towards the entrance, sadly our path back follows a lot of the same trails, but luckily animals move around so it’s almost like a whole new path. In just the first few minutes we see a curu, some cool birds, and of course more elephants.
As we keep driving back towards the exit of the park we run into our first Giraffe in Chobe, and as it approaches us on the road we notice the strange bumps and clumps of hair missing. Our driver, who is awesome but whose name I forget, tells us that sadly this giraffe is diseased and will eventually die from this disease. We get a good view of the harsh side of nature and life in the u.s.a. (I mean life without affordable medical care for all).
Before we find another example of Africa’s rougher edges though we head down to the river again and get our first really good views of hippos not sleeping. They are so cool to watch and among my favourite animals yet. They also make me miss my dad as they’ve always been his favourite animal. It makes me think of my younger days going to the toronto zoo and my dad always sad that only the pygmy hippo was on display that early in the season. They are funny, awkward yet somehow graceful and I’m so happy to get one shot with one of them at least semi yawning.
Eventually we drive on from the viewpoint of all those amazing hippos and drive on. A few minutes later the jeep screaches to a sudden halt and our guide points to the trunk of a tree to the left. How I didn’t see it is beyond me, but there is a huge eagle there, blood on it’s beak, and down in it’s talons we spot a freshly born gazelle, it’s neck broken, it’s life snuffed out like a candle lit in a thunderstorm. I love these pictures, even if they can be perceived as sad. This is Africa. This is Nature.
Eventually we move on from this amazing bird as it is beginning to eye us like we might be a threat to it’s meal and those talons mean business. Of course we’re in Chobe National Park so before long we’re in front of another amazing family of elephants with one particularly adorable baby. Now that I’m out of Africa I really miss the incredible animal life all around us, and I really hope I get a chance to go back.
Aa the midday heat becomes more and more impressive, and we don’t see much in our last 25 minutes in the park as we drive back to the city and almost instantly head to our afternoon/evening safari, which is different than any I’ve done before, as instead of a jeep or a truck, we’re going on a boat. (I guess Okavongo was similar but we didn’t see any big game, and here we definitely do. Our first stop after a delayed departure is at the entrance of the national park where the company nomad has contracted stops to pay our entrance fees. There we find a crazy expensive photography course boat tricked out with amazing cameras and lots of 65 plus folks,and some baboons hopping around the park office.
The first big animal we see checks another big 5 of my list as we find a cape buffalo grazing on some grass in a narrow island of land amidst this wetlands landscape. Next though comes the main stars of the afternoon, the countless hippos. in this case a family of four fully submerged save for the occasional head pop up.. Still the young ones seem extra adorable.
A few more minutes on this big slow double decker boat with lots of people (around 80) but also lots of viewing points, we reach a lone elephant voraciously eating grass while being trailed by a few birds who feast on the insects the elephants efforts make visible. Up top on the boat is insanely hot as we’re not moving fast and there’s no protection from the sun, but it’s less crowded and much better for wildlife viewing so it’s where I spend about 95 percent of the time up there
This elephant is a major hero the way he eats,then decides to swim across the river for better grass, then decides he was wrong and the grass was greener on his first side and swims back, all the while paying no attention whatsoever to us. I’m ashamed to say due to a hard drive failure I seem to have lost the videos I took of this awesome giant, so the photos will have to do.
We eventually move on and find another lone Cape buffalo which is just a massive beast. I can almost understand why it’s one of the big five instead of the hippo. Almost. This particular buffalo has a small friend grooming it’s face constantly, which is pretty fun to watch.
As we keep going my friends crack some cold beers from the cooler we brought along for the ride. I pour on more sunscreen though and head back upstairs as we find more elephants, more hippos, and a huge group of baboons on the main shore. Here we’re told to watch for leopards but I have no luck here completing my big 5 checklist.
We pull in closer to the baboons and also find a big croc sunning itself at the edge of one of the tiny islands. As my attention is split by the two animals a third throws it’s chips into the hand as another family of hippos starts popping up out of the water, stealing a lot of my attention, though the baboons get plenty too, just for how they interact.
Eventually we move on from the baboons and not much time passes before we find another crocodile sunning itself in the grass. This one is joined by what we at first think is a baby croc, but upon closer inspection we find it’s another large lizard. Up top I’m unable to hear what kind of lizard it is but I get better less crowded views for photos. Oh and the hippos are almost an ever present this afternoon. A dream come true.
We continue onwards and find a bunch more elephants on the islands between the two countries and watch them for a while before continuing onwards. We also shortly after find a big group of buffalo being very lazy though the heat makes me sympathetic.
As we turn around and head towards the port in Kasane the sun starts to set behind us, painting the river famed African skies delicious hues of orange, the undeniable son breaking through a heavy blanket of low hanging clouds and adding rays of stunning light to the already beautiful painting. As we near the port we pass the first elephant we saw from the boat, still just devouring huge tufts of wet grass, ripping them out with his trunk and contentedly raising them up and plopping them into his mouth.
Today has been a truly incredible day, one of the best yet In Africa. Really it’s only been missing two key ingredients, real big cat viewings, and of course a shot of a hippo fully opening it’s jaw not taken from a mile away. Well luck’s with me today as one of the two get’s fulfilled just a few minutes from shore and I manage to capture it the second time as a big hippo pops it’s head up in the water and opens it’s impressive jaws. Okay maybe not quite all the way, but still I’m damn proud of these two photos, and I don’t think many in the group got ones like this.
