5 PLACES VISITED: NAMIBIA: 1) Rundu. BOTSWANA: 1) Maun, 2) Okavango Delta (Ditshiping Island), 3) Ditshiping Village, 4) Nata, 5) Kasane.
7 OVERNIGHTS: BOTSWANA: 1) Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m), 2) Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m), 3-4) Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m), 5) Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m), 6) Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m), 7) Room at “Thebe River Safari Campsite”, Kasane (Elev 918m).
5 RUNS: NAMIBIA: Tsintsabis. BOTSWANA: Maun (2), Kasane (2).
31 UNIQUE WILDLIFE: BOTSWANA: 1) Elephant, 2) Zebra, 3) Giraffe, 4) Fish Eagle, 5) Hippopotamus, 6) Impala, 7) Wildebeest, 8) Black-headed Iris, 9) Sacred Iris, 10) Buffalo, 11) Falcon, 12) Yellow Horn Bill, 13) Warthog, 14) Striped Mongoose, 15) Lion, 16) Red-billed Francolin, 17) Guinea Fowl, 18) Baboon, 19) Reed Cormorant, 20) Egyptian Goose, 21) Crocodile, 22) Spoonbill, 23) African Jacana, 24) White-faced Wisdom Duck, 25) White-faced Vulture, 26) Blue-breasted Lilac, 27) Cattle Egress (bird), 28) Kudu, 29) Red-billed Hornbill, 30) Crested Francolin, 31) African Data (bird).
BLOG POST TRAILER:
Welcome to my 78th country of BOTSWANA and Solo Trip 8 that adds one more night to the fabulous Chobe National Park. In this blog I also break through the 30,000km mark! This post continues the wildlife theme and features two very good encounters: one on Ditshiping Island in the Okavango Delta and the other in the Chobe National Park. BOTSWANA has more elephants than any other country in the world. Put simply, it is “Elephant Kingdom”. Elephants here are also the largest since food and water is plentiful and disease is lower. In fact elephants migrate here under their own steam from all parts of Africa. Current count is 120,000 and rising. Not bad for a country of only 2.1 million people! Many of the local tour guides mentioned that culling was not too far away - there has been too much damage to farm grazing and growing land and even village hut dwellings.
We entered BOTSWANA after bush camping near a giant Baobab Tree, which is not only the symbol of NAMIBIA but present all over Africa. The one we saw had a trunk, 20m in diameter and 5m tall but these babies can reach 30m trunk and 10m tall. Ours was 1000yrs old and the record is 5000yrs old. Amazing. Maun (Pop 50,000) is the gateway town for the entire Okavango Delta which covers an area of 18,000 sqm. It is the result of two huge inland rivers, the Okavango and Thonge colliding together and forming a network of thousands of watery channels. This is not swamp. This is not wetlands. Just rivers colliding producing veins of water channels. Strange. The whole truck group left Andi/Grant to travel via a large ute and an open-cut canoe called a “Mokoro” to a magical place called Ditshiping Island. A covered oasis under tree and bush. It is an “island” by virtue that it is surrounded by channels.
The whole delta is like this except for many areas where there is open water or large lakes. The mokoro itself used to be made from a tree of the same name but nowadays they are all fibreglass. U-shaped and flat-bottomed with high walls to keep the crocs at bay and prevent water from splashing in. They are propelled by a person standing at the rear pushing them along with a long wooden stick with a “y-shaped” fork called simply a “pole”. Hence the term “poler” for the driver and “poling” for the action. Poling is sufficient because the channels are very shallow and the mokoro is well-suited to these channels because it can glide over reeds and obstructions without getting stuck. We had a total of 11 polers including four female cooks. They loaded and unloaded all our gear but we did the cooking. They cooked for themselves. Travelling through the channels is very relaxing. No engine sounds. Just the sound of the breeze through the reeds and the plopping sound of the water against the dipping pole.
The weather was perfect. Blue skies, 25C, gentle breeze, dry and a gentler non-burning sun. Our island was only 2.1km from where the large ute dropped us off but it took close to an hour to get there. The drive alone was 3hrs from our camp in Maun so we were glad to get there and relax. The best thing about the delta and this style of trip is the walking and canoe safaris since there are no roads or cars. We undertook four walking safaris and one mokoro safari over the three days and two nights that we were there. For walking we split into 3 groups, each with two guides. The most prominent animals were elephants but we also saw plenty of giraffes, impala and kudu. On the sunset walk we also saw two hippos submerged in a lake - my first. Very exciting. I wanted to see them out of the water but we did not get this chance on the delta. We also got within 100m of 4 hippos in the Mokoro. The guides were very cautious around the hippos.
There was a baby amongst them and both mum and dad are known to charge the mokoros with no warning. This is what makes the hippo the most dangerous of all the African wildlife. No warning. The highlight of the stay came when one of our walking groups were chased by three male elephants! They had stumbled upon a family in the bushes that contained a baby. They say they were terrified but I say they were very lucky to have that experience - I was insanely jealous. This is was my primary mission and again it was down to the luck of the draw! From Maun the truck spent one night in the bush before arriving at Kasane, the gateway to the Chobe National Park. I had other plans. I decided to travel to Kasane immediately and spend an extra night there having heard the opportunity to see buffalos up-close, hippos out of the water and leopards. These were the three things I had yet to see on the wildlife front. Tim and I caught two vans over 6.5hrs to get there. We stayed at separate places, not resorts as there are no hostels in Kasane.
They were lavishly appointed and a welcome break from tents, dorms and simple rooms. The resorts were right on the Chobe River which borders with Namibia and further downstream meets the Maitwngwe River which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because these two rivers meet or intersect each other (criss-cross), they form a border for all four countries - there is a large diamond-shaped sand bank at this junction which is actually “no mans land” for all four countries. This is the only place on Earth where four countries meet! I passed by it when I entered Zimbabwe. Sadly you cannot actually visit/step on the diamond sand bank because it is inaccessible and controversial - the locals at the border post told me that there has been constant problems with its governance. Many have used it to cross borders diagonally giving rise to confusion about which country has the right to prosecute.
The town of Kazungula sits very close to this geographical landmark. Kanas itself is a very lacklustre town and completely undeveloped considering the resorts and national park that it is meant to showcase. All the resorts organise their own safaris and my early arrival there meant that I could do a sunrise safari before the truck arrived whereupon I did a sunset cruise safari on the river with he rest of the group. This is what makes Chobe unique. You can see most animals from a boat or a jeep.
The sunrise jeep safari was fantastic. In 3 hours we saw 23 different kinds of animals. By contrast, we saw only 8 from the boat. There is a good reason for this. The boat was simply too big and too slow. It was designed for overland trucks and thousands of screaming teens.
The resorts on the other hand, hire very small aluminium runabouts that seat 10 on one row of seats running the length of the boat. This means you can photograph left or right without obstruction and they are fast! You cover way more ground and therefore see much more.
I thought the sunset cruise safari was included in our trip cost but it wasn’t - if I had known this I would have organised my own via the resort. We live and learn. I would get more shots at this in my own Solo 9 trip to Zambia (next post).
The one delight of a big boat was the ample space and open top deck allowing me to wine, cheese and olive under a setting sun whilst watching the hippos and elephants eating water reeds in the river. It was a magic atmosphere that afternoon. Sadly no hippos out of the water and no leopards. I did see my buffalos and very close - one down, two to go. From Kasane we headed to Victoria Falls only 80km away, the name given to the mighty waterfalls and the town right next to it in ZIMBABWE. The subject of my next post...
BLOG POST DETAIL:
DAY 176 of 273, Fri 6MAY16, 447km, Bush Camp “Giant Baobab Tree” 42km east of Tsintsabis (Elev 1186m, Run11) NAMIBIA to Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m) BOTSWANA (Country 18). Today was BOTSWANA day. Everyone was excited about a new country even though we all liked NAMIBIA very much. It was my favourite to date given its incredible landscapes. We set off at 7:30am and the drive was fairly ordinary in the morning. We headed east then north east to enter the strange thin pan handle known as the Caprivi Strip. The landscape before the handle was very flat but full of trees. Back to the bush. No more desert. We stopped in Rundu Near the start of the (Caprivi Strip) for my cook shop and to spend the last of our Namibian Dollars.
The drive out to lunch and beyond was till flat and bushy but now we noticed a return to black thatched huts and even some food stalls on the roads - classic Africa had only sightly returned. The border was easy. Just 30min to get through both sides. The clocks went forward one hour in BOTSWANA (same time as SOUTH AFRICA).
BOTSWANA was more like West Africa - more smaller villages with thatched roofs, smiling, yelling, waving children. The good news was no garbage. Everything still had the neatness of NAMIBIA. The road was not as good. We camped right on sunset - a little later than usual. We could hear a lot of donkeys wailing nearby. Roberto, Riza and I cooked tonight and it went well except for the “gravy” that we tried to make with gravox - turned out like glue! No more gravy attempts for us! It was definitely cooler and a little moist at night.
DAY 177 of 273, Sat 7MAY16, 340km, Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m) to Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run1) BOTSWANA. What a fabulous sunrise. Textbook African sun - big red ball of flame rising on a horizon with the outline of umbrella shared trees in front. Pop-up was covered in dew but inside it was OK. We did brekkie - I remembered thinking just how easy it was after all this time. Cook group was now almost enjoyable since it was something different to do on arrival. I was OK. On arrival at a campsite I always had the choice of running or blogging or talking. Most people just set up their tents and sat around on the stools talking. Time was now starting to pass quickly. Today was 175 days on the truck! In another week I would close out 6 calendar months on this trip. Amazing. The two-thirds mark at my door step! Even our geographical movement on the map was more visible than the west. We were already half-way across the west-east breadth of the continent and a fair way up from the bottom. In a few days we would really start to move north. Cairo was still too far away for me but it was featuring more and more in our conversation. Before I know it, I would start thinking about booking my return airfare. Still too far. I had to get back to my focus on today and on my 78th country BOTSWANA!
Our morning drive was cool and quiet. It was jackets and blankets for everyone. I decided to work on my film since I was up to date on the blog. Still desperate to find internet so I could publish Post 22. Every town from now on, I planned to run around like a maniac to find internet just like I had done in the west. The landscape was the same as at the border. Flat and very bushy with lots of trees. We saw many donkeys on the roadside - some wild some carrying people and goods. Donkeys seem to be characteristic of this area. By lunch the sun was burning hot and the bush thinned out. The road also improved. It was a good day for me as I got back into the swing of my film and managed to sequence GUINEA and get to a total of 28min for the first 1.5mths of my trip.
Our first stop and experience of BOTSWANA was the town of Maun (Pop 40,000) which is the main tourist base for the Okavango Delta. A simple place full of supermarkets and even a KFC! I was on a mission to find the internet cafe that I saw coming in. I did but it was lousy. No way I could load my blog - kept timing out. All I managed to do was to answer a few emails, not even all of them. I was now getting desperate - would I ever post blog 22? If internet was bad in town, what chance did I have at our campsite tonight! As we drove out of Moan at around 4pm, I noticed more stray donkeys on the side of the road! Was BOTSWANA to become “the land of donkeys” for me? Is this how I would remember it? I hope not! Our camp was only 15km out of town but it took a while to get there due to the sandy road leading to it. On arrival we were briefed on our two night “mokoro” (dug-out canoe) to a small island out in the middle of the Okavango Delta. I just managed to get a run in before last light at 6:30pm and was very glad that I could notch up my 73rd country run. After dinner I grabbed my laptop and headed for the bar where the WIFI was located and held my breath (expecting nothing). To my HUGE surprise my blog went up in minutes! All the emails that I could not send in town just disappeared and I was in business! What a HUGE relief. I was not only posted but rang mum and several of my friends - reception was excellent! I was happy again! It turned out to be a fabulous day. Film, blog, run, calls - what more could I ask for...
DAY 178 of 273, Sun 8MAY16, 84km, Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run1) to Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) BOTSWANA. Today was DELTA day. After a fabulous sleep we all gathered at the truck with smaller packs and the truck’s eskis full of truck food. A diesel truck with huge tyres and two long covered benches at the back came by to pick us up. Off we went (without Andi and Grant). Cool morning with blue sky. I sat in the cabin along with Tim wh along with Denise had returned to the truck at Maun. We drove only 80km towards the north but half of it was on a very soft uneven track resulting in close to a 3hr drive. We only stopped once for a pee break. The landscape remained flat but the spread out trees and bushes were soon replaced by grassland, long reeds and palms. The area soon resembled a typical swamp land or wetland area.
The open truck dropped us off at open area containing 14 mokoro and 11 local “polers” who would load and unload all our gear and propel the mokoro using a long pole with a “Y” shaped end. We would still do the tenting and cooking. We met our leader Waco who introduced us to his staff. He then summarised what we would be doing and some hints and tips on safety. It was not long till all the gear was in the mokoro along with two of us in each one. Our camping destination was in the bush on Ditshiping Island. It took the mokoro one hour to get there but it was only 2.1km away. The reason is that the poling action is slow and it takes time to navigate the many narrow channels full of tall reeds. We also stopped to the photos of the lily pads, flowers and surrounding bush. The “delta” itself is actually caused by the collision of two rivers inland, the Zambezi and the Maitwngwe. The result is a split of the two rivers into hundreds of main channels or waterways and these subsequently split into thousands of smaller one metre wide water ways.
The result is not quite a wetland or swamp but lots of channels or veins of water snaking their way through grassland bush. These channels also form hundreds if not thousand of “islands", i.e., pieces of land surrounded by channels of water. We stayed on one of the bigger ones, called Ditshiping and it even has a village on it! Our campsite on Ditshiping Island was at the end of one of the channels. It was an idyllic spot, a labyrinth of trees creating one huge shaded area, almost like a cave. There was a central clearing for the campfire and an overturned mokoro served as a preparation table for food. We all pitched our tents under select trees and I chose to put up my pop-up at the furthest edge where animals are known to walk past at night - I needed some action! We then made lunch and went for a swim and poling lesson! The channel lake was only a short walk next to our campsite. Six of us went along with two of the guides to watch out for incoming hippos or elephants which use it regularly. You can see the giant elephant footprints and poo leading from the water’s edge into the bush.
The water was a pleasant 21C and a little murky but clean. Then we took turn poling two mokoros that were brought their by the guides. Hilarious. It is bloody hard! Hard to keep your balance and hard to keep the mokoro straight! Nevertheless it was a great way to spend the hot afternoon. I had a small kip at about 3pm and woke to the sound of people yelling my name. An elephant was passing 60m from my tent! I could see it clearly through the trees but I do not think it saw me, so I stayed in my tent and put on my GoPro just in case! Was this the chase I had been waiting for? Sadly no. The beast wandered away. It caused a lot of talk. At 4:30pm we split into 3 groups, each with two guides and went for a sunset safari walk. Spotted individual animals but not a lot of herds. Our guide and overall leader, Waco, together with Jeremy at the back, was quite knowledgeable about the wildlife and the bush. He identified many footprints and told us interesting things about the animals.
For example: an elephant such bad eyesight that if they do not smell you from far away they can literally stumble upon you before they see you - this is why so many elephants charge cars and people. Elephants also have a very bad digestive system. On average they consume 170kg of grass (common reeds and blue rush) every day and expel 150kg of it as poo - only 20kg is actually retained! No wonder there is so much elephant poo in this place! Elephants also change all their teeth once every ten years and this drives how long they will live since sooner or later the last set of teeth will fall out and NOT be replaced and the animal will die of starvation. Amazing. Giraffes have huge hearts - the biggest of any animal in Africa so they can pump enough blood up that long neck to the brain to enable the animal to keep alert and eat. At night a Giraffe will lay its legs and body down but its neck stays upright at 45 degrees so that the heart is not flooded as it works at a constant rate to pump blood to the head. A darker skinned Giraffe indicates an older animal - the darker it is, the older it is!
Giraffes also have an incredible tongue to cope with the thorny acacia tree that they eat. Their tongues are like a thick rubber brush that can twist its way forward around an acacia branch missing the thorns and ripping off all the small acacia leaves and then recoil backwards dragging all the leaves into its mouth. It does eat the thorns and the thorns cannot penetrate the tough tongue. It is like a corkscrew action - fascinating to watch and amazing that the tongue was specifically designed for this tree. The good news for the Giraffe is that no other animal can eat these leaves given the thorns so they have them all to themselves and Africa is covered in Acacias. I enjoyed these details. The highlight was watching two hippos snorting from beneath a large water hole in the glow of a setting sun. Just in time. My first sighting of a hippo in the wilds of Africa. All I saw was the head and jaw open a couple of times but not in time for the camera - I would have to wait for another opportunity! The evening was a lot of fun. We all cooked and cleaned together and shared our food with the guides and polers who also had their own. Then came the story telling. Each of the guides entertained us with their “close encounters” with the wildlife. These guys (even the 3 women who accompanied them to cook) learned to pole as early as 5-6yrs of age. Most people were tired from the sun and walk and retired early so I watched a movie in my tent.
DAY 179 of 273, Mon 9MAY16, 0km, Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) BOTSWANA. One or two howling Hyenas stirred me from my sleep. I looked up and saw the stars and decided to put down my head and not look at my watch. The wind blew for most of the night stirring the many leaves of our home canopy - it sounded like rain drops and was very soothing. It was not cold at all. Dry and comfy. The sleeping bag remained unzipped. Most people had brekkie at 5:30am but I decided that sleep was more important and woke at 6am to make the 6:30am sunrise walking safari.
It was a four hour walk including a visit to Ditshiping village. Instead of individual animals we saw herds of elephant, giraffe and wildebeest - they looked spectacular running together, making lots of noise and kicking up the dirt. That was great but no hippos or buffalo - we would target these in the afternoon mokoro safari. We also saw lots of Aardvark holes but not the animal since it is nocturnal. The visit to Ditshiping village (Pop 406) was easy going. Most dwellings are round huts with walls of sticks and termite mound material mixed with mud and thatched conical roofs. All are surrounded by a talk fence of dried ticks tied with rubber string from old tyres to create a “back yard” and “outdoor kitchen”. Waco took us to one of the huts where we sampled some “maize beer”. This batch was 24hrs old, milky yellow and 3%. In other 24hrs it would hit 6% and its drinkable best. After 3 days it reaches 9% but is very bitter so most villagers will finish off a 5L batch in 1-2days.
A few children came to meet us on the main road (sandy track) and they were very cute and friendly. Did not speak much English. We evens topped at the only shop in town - a very small box-shaped kiosk made of concrete blocks and a tin roof. We bought some biscuits and coke to fuel the local economy! Waco then explained that most of the villagers grow maize and corn and have formed a co-operative to try to sell the excess for income. The village also has a chief who heads up 10 citizens in a “trust” that looks after common works in the village much like a local council. Income is from tourists like ourselves. The villagers do not farm or shoot animals since it is not allowed but they do eat plenty of fish. A simple life and a simple existence. When we returned to camp at around 10:30am the other two walking groups had returned and we swapped stories over a campfire cuppa. I could not believe what I heard!
Theresa’s group had been chased by 3 male elephants!!! I died. Why was it not my group I thought. They had stumbled upon a heard of elephants in thick bush (did not see them) and there was a baby amongst them. Not good. The three male elephants simply wanted them away from the baby and they were only 50m away when the elephants started to move toward the group. The lead guide yelled “run”, “run”, “run” - and they did. Initially for 20sec and then stopped. The guide kept yelling “run”” and they went for another 20sec! Heart pounding stuff according to the group - everyone was genuinely scared. I was supremely jealous that it was not me. No-one had time to film it so that was my only consolation - I was happy however that at least one group got to experience this once in a lifetime event and that they got back safely to tell the story! Wow. What a story. Here I am thinking that all the cautions that the guide gave us when we first arrived were just part of a Hollywood act but in fact it is for real! Once I was over my jealousy, I made another cup of tea and sat in my tent to blog for just an hour.
During my morning safari I managed to convince Waco to take me and anyone else that was interested back to the water hole where we saw the hippos yesterday arvo. Only Thierry volunteered to join me so off we went. Sadly the hippos were not there. According to Waco, they may be territorial but they d move if they feel uncomfortable or they run out of food or water. Waco reckons they were uncomfortable with us yesterday and moved. Waco also mentioned that hippos only switch locations at night and that they can walk up to 30km in a single night! Amazing. Saw two groups of elephants on our back and arrived just in time to join the others for another swim.
This time I did a few laps but it was too hard to do my usual 1.5km because it was too shallow and people were poling in the middle. I returned to my tent to work on my film. By the time our 4pm afternoon mokoro safari came around, I had completed clip sequences for Mali and Ivory Coast. I was now up to Ghana and extremely pleased. The afternoon mokoro cruise was terrific. We journeyed further upstream of the camp and it was only 30 minutes before Waco spotted a hippo. He then led each mokoro into a larger open water hole and we went crazy with our cameras.
Many of us climbed onto the reeded banks to get more stable and higher shots. There were 4 hippos in the water, mum, dad and two adolescents. They were 100m away and just kept just their snouts and the tops of their heads above water - not so good for the photos and film. They were constantly submerging themselves and rising to expel the water in their noses and take a breath. Waco explained that hippos cannot swim or float. They prefer to stand on their legs or keep hopping around in deeper water. They cannot breath underwater so they hold their breaths - sometimes for up to 2min. I was wondered when we would see our first close-up hippo out of the water - maybe in Chobe but this was a good start. We then cruised to another island and climbed on top of a huge termite mound to watch the sunset. Spectacular. The cruise back only took 20min. I then helped prepare dinner. We all joined in the cooking and cleaning and made light work of it all. Then a pleasant surprise. The 11 poles all put on a traditional local song and dance show around the campfire. No costumes, just the sounds of sweet harmony, African-style! The dancing was also very surprising with moves resembling Michael Jackson’s “moon-walk”. Lots of rhythm and style - not just foot stomping. They pulled a lot pf people up to dance with them. The mood was great and many kicked on into the evening including many of the polers. I was in the mood for a movie so I watched The Force Awakens. One more walk at 6:30am tomorrow - fingers crossed for an elephant chase!
DAY 180 of 273, Tue 10MAY16, 84km, Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) to Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run2) BOTSWANA. My sleep was terrific. The upside was all the animal and insect sounds including hyenas and lions! The downside is that I needed more sleep. Not because of the sounds but because of the wine! Had a bit too much due to celebrating progress in my film and enjoying Star Wars. Despite this, I was not going to miss another opportunity to be chased by elephants - sleep or no sleep. Only one group of six set outs morning since the walk was optional and most people decided to sleep-in given last night’s festivities. Waco was targeting lions.
Of course he had heard them last night and thought he knew where they were. We headed off in a different direction and enjoyed a terrific sunrise. I reckon there is no such thing as a lousy sunrise or sunset in Africa! They are all unreal! We saw the usual pot poure of zebra, giraffe and elephants but no lions. Waco even heard a leopard but we couldn’t spot it. The walk was very good for me in terms of taking panorama photosof the rising sun against many different types of vegetation. I did not take many animal shots since they further away than Etosha and did not want multiples of the same thing. If I saw an animal doing something strange or there was a peculiar symmetry about the scene then I was ready to shoot - a photo or film, that is!!! We got back to camp at 8:15am with enough time to cook an omelette and pack our things for our 9am departure back to the Delta Rain camp site. The mokoro journey was the reverse of what we had done two sleeps ago except that there was a lot more plant material in the water - our poler, Jeremy explained that this is often caused by the elephants coming too close to the waters edge and dislocating large amounts of material into the channel.
The truck ride home was more interesting and a welcome relief. We saw a large herd of Buffalos about 150m from the road about 20min drive from the mokoros. UNfortunealty they were very bunched up, did not move much and most were behind bushes so the photos were very limited (as you can see in this blog). Even though I had now seen all of “Big 5” African wildlife I still wanted to see buffalo closer up, a hippo out of the water and a leopard in the wild! Only 3 moths to go to give me this - should be plenty! I rode up-front in the truck cabin with Tim and we schemed up an excellent solo trip that could start as early as tomorrow. We both wanted to spend one or two more extra nights in Kasane which is the gateway town to the Chobe National Park - supposed to be the best in BOTSWANA and one of the top 10 in Africa!
We arrived at the camp site just outside Maun at 1:30pm and I took off for a run since at 3:30pm I was due to meet Andi to finalise the sending of my second passport to Canberra to get the Ethiopian VISA while we were in Zimbabwe an pick it up in the capital Harare. The run was great thanks to a cool breeze. Not a cloud in the sky. The whole place shimmering in the midday sun. Lots of cows and goats (and of course donkeys) grazing on the side of the well surfaced bitumen road. On my return I took up the same cabin that I stayed in before the delta trip and showered just in time for the passport meeting. After that I finally settled down to emails and a call to Greece to check on my uncle - he was in hospital due to drain excess fluid and revisit medication due to years of heart condition - just like my father. He was doing well. What a relief. Could not call Australia because they were asleep so I updated all my runs online. At 7:30pm we all sat down to a delicious meal of beef stew with a bean and coleslaw salad - finally, something GREEN! Ate heaps of green beans and carrot. Then an eighties/nineties video show came onto the large screen TV and you had to guess the year each song was released. We even danced to a few of the classics. It was amusing to see some of the younger people not familiar with some of he songs that I had grown up with. Not too sure what time I slept but I was packed and ready for “Solo Trip Number 8” or just Solo8 which would take me to Kasane tomorrow with an extra night there. Just a short solo but it would be followed by a much longer one (Solo 9) into ZAMBIA featured in my next Post, number 24.
DAY 181 of 273, Wed 11MAY16, 566km, Solo8, Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m) to Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m, Run3) BOTSWANA. Today was Solo8 day. Another opportunity to spend more time seeing Africa on my own. Sadly, Roberto and Riza declined Solo8 as they were watching their budget. Tim however was in but would be staying at a luxury hotel in town. I was bound for the hostel that the truck would be staying at the day after tomorrow since I could hang out with the group and a boat tour was organised to leave from here. I also only pay the difference between the camping fee and the cabin fee making it cheaper than a hotel town. The hostel is close to town but if I found it to be too far away then I would look at staying in a cheap hotel in town. The taxi arrived at 7:30am to take Tim and I to Maun bus station. Beautiful morning with clear blue skies - cool at around 16C.
We got to the bus station at 8am, just in time for the 8:30am 27-seat van to Nata. It would take 3hrs followed by another 3hr van to Kasane. The station was not really a station. Just a bunch of outdoor parking bays with vans and larger buses parked. On each bay were several stalls selling food and drink. They do not look like much but I was amazed with what they sold on closer inspection. I managed to find bananas, apples, 100% juice, coffee and even a peanut butter sandwich on brown bread! All this for the princely sum of $AUD5! A great brekkie in the most unexpected place. We set out on time with only 3 spare seats - all locals and strangely mostly women with some children. No more waiting around until the van filled up like in West Africa. For most of the morning drive I blogged and read up on ZAMBIA. I was keen to go since the truck was not going and I could get an instant VISA at the border given ZAMBIA is part of the Commonwealth. Excited about the prospect of another African country. By the time we reached Nata at 11:30am I had decided which places I would visit in ZAMBIA: Lusaka, canoe safari in the Lower Zambezi and driving/walking safaris in the South Luangwa National Park.
The van for Kasane was there waiting for us at the Shell Petrol Station. We departed close to midday. It was the same size as the one before and equally as crowded. The seats are way too small for most big African bottoms, especially many of the women. Legroom is designed for kids instead of the many tall, lanky men that I saw. The front seats were taken (no charging today) so I grabbed the seat next to the door because of the extra leg room and for my laptop. The 3.5hr trip to Kasane was taken up culling photos and talking to my neighbour, Oabona, a young guy working at KFC in Kasane for the last 8mths. On the way we saw another semi-trailer accident. It was upside down with the cabin lost crashed and all the load of treated logs (probably for poler poles) spread out on the side of the road. The van stopped and everyone got out to have a look. Luckily the driver was intact with only a few cuts to his head and limbs.
The semi had South African plates so I guessed that the driver either fell asleep at the wheel (its a bloody long haul from South Africa) or one of the logs came loose and he lost control. In any case he was OK but the truck was a write-off. We got into Kasane at 3:30pm and headed straight for the Tourist Office. “Brown” was quite helpful in ringing half a dozen resorts. They were expensive, averaging around $AUD120/night. The reason is that there are no hostels, just resorts. I decided to visit a couple of places on foot since the agent had no phone numbers. No go. They were fully booked for tonight. I finally settled on the “Chobe River Safari” lodge for $AUD180/night - ouch - availability drove the price up. Tim went on ahead to the same place since I wanted to pick up some supplies at the supermarket next door. I then walked to the resort since the locals told me it was close. Wrong. I had still not learned my lesson - most locals have no idea of distances - would have been better to catch a cab. The resort was terrific.
Right on the banks of the Chobe River. My chalet was also right on the water - the river was literally at my doorstep! It was now 5:30pm and sunset wa at 6pm so I dropped everything and went on my run. Beautiful. I headed towards the "Sedudu” entry gate to the Chobe National Park. Thank goodness my 5km range got me literally to the gate because I could not run inside. On my way back, several cars honked at me and one with a park ranger in it said “do not run here, too dangerous”. It is only when I got back that reception told me that there were no fences around the actual national park so all the wildlife was free to walk out - not that many do since they are scared of humans but it explains why the cars honked at me and why I saw several Impalas and Kudu cross the road as I was running. It also explains why there were so many Warthogs in town - one literally smelled our feet as we got off the van! It was 6:30pm when I got back and the Choppies (a big Namibian supermarket chain) next door was closing at 7pm so I just quickly washed my face and scrambled over to buy dinner. This was my favourite. Having dinner on my bed while watching a movie is my favourite way of relaxing. The casserole chicken and chips were great. Before eating, I had booked a 3hr morning drive safari from 6am to 9am. Went to bed early, eager to rise fresh for this safari...
DAY 182 of 273, Thu 12MAY16, 0km, Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m, Run5) to Room at “Thebe River Safari Campsite” Kasane (Elev 918m) BOTSWANA. I was lucky to get the whole back seat on the 15 seat, open-air covered Toyota Landcruiser 4WD safari vehicle run by “Bushtracks Safaris Botswana". There were only 4 others on it - a couple from Missouri USA and a couple for Leeds ENGLAND. There was only slight first light as the sun would rise at 6:36am. It was cold. We were given blankets given the open air configuration of the vehicle. We took the same road that I ran and entered the park travelling down a dirt road that was fairly bumpy. Chobe is unique in that you have a lot of land and the riverside to see animals. Most land animals will come down to the river to drink at sunrise and sunset and the water animals (like Hippos and Crocs) will come out of the water to warm up in the sun and then plop back in to eat. Having a river is like having many water holes, all in a row. You can also see animals from a boat on the river which is what I would do later in the day with the Oasis group. We saw animals the minute we hit riverside starting with a young female lioness - unreal. She was right next to the car, drinking like it was her first! She must have consumed several gallons. Perfect for us as she did not move and the pics/clips were terrific. The land was not heavily wooded. Trees of average size spread out and some open plains perfect for viewing grazing animals. We saw many animals for the 3hrs we were there.
Our guide “Innocent” did a good job covering as much ground as possible but did not stop long for photos - you had to tell him not to go! We also made a coffee/tea break under a huge tree overlooking the river - I would have preferred to spend that time looking for Leopards but sadly we did not see any. This is what we DID see in order of spotting: Impala, Lion, Hippopotamus, Fish Eagle, Red-billed Francolin, Guinea Fowl, Baboon, Reed Cormorant, Egyptian Goose, Crocodile, Sacred Ibis, Spoonbill, African Jacana, White-faced Wisdom Duck, White-faced Vulture, Blue-breasted Lilac, Cattle Egress (bird), Kudu, Buffalo, Red-billed Hornbill, Giraffe, Crested Francolin, Elephant. A total of 23 different animals in just 3hrs. This is the advantage of Chobe over Etosha - you would need to do many more safaris in Etosha to see the same range. I was only a little disappointed that I did to see a Leopard in the wild or a Hippo out of the water - this was my aim. Maybe this afternoon. First thing I did on return to the resort was to book an upgrade to a room at the camp that the truck would be staying at.
After this I went for a run into town and beyond and just happened to reach my 5km mark outside the camp that the truck would use today! It was opposite a prison. After my run I called Greece again to check up on my uncle and then my mum, brother and best friend. It was a good internet. At around 1pm I could a share taxi to the truck camp and they had just arrived. I had lunch with the group and told them about the morning safari. I then settled into my room I used the very good camp internet, which was accessible from my room, to research my next Solo 9 trip into Zambia before our 2:45pm departure for the boat safari. The whole group boarded a huge flat double-decker cruiser along with two other overland companies. Everyone brought their own drinks and snacks. The alarm bells went off. This thing would be full of noisy twenty and thirty something year olds drinking and laughing and the boat was so big it would travel at a snails pace how would we get close to the animals or cover enough ground to see enough of them? It turned out like this. The boat did get close to animals drinking at the river’s edge but it took ages to manoeuvre in and out. All around us were these nifty little aluminium runabouts with one central bench running along the length of the boat seating 10. They were close to both edges of the boat and could take photos in either direction. Best of all these things travelled very fast and got very close up to animals with only the conversation of 10 people. That’s what I should have done. All the resorts could organise these smaller craft at similar cost to the drive safari ($AUD45). The reason I did not do this was that I thought that the boat safari was covered by Oasis. It wasn’t and we paid $AUD30 but it was not worth it.
The proof is in the eating. I saw 23 animals on my morning drive safari and only 8 with this cruise - both for 3hrs. The animals we saw in order of appearance: Impala, Kudu, Fish Eagle, Crocodile, Hippo, African Data (bird), Vulture. I had seen all these animals in the morning except the African Data. Not a great result. I felt that there was no point staying an extra day in Kasane since the morning safari was good enough and my time was better invested in Zambia where I would visit another National Park full of animals. The good news about the cruise was that the scenery was stunning and there was plenty of room to spread out and enjoy wine, cheese and olives whilst watching submerged hippos and elephants munch on reeds in the river. The highlight was sunset and the return cruise. The whole sky lit up with glowing hews of red, orange, yellow, crimson, lilac and blue. It was an awesome sight. The weather was spectacular, cool and dry. Most people had fun because they did had not been on a drive safari to know how many more animals they could have seen. Dinner and afterwards at the camp was fairly subdued and I decided to enjoy a movie in my room. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. Border crossing into ZIMBABWE, visiting the mighty Victoria Falls and organising Solo 9 into ZAMBIA. I figured I needed two out of the four nights that the truck would stay in Vic Falls to do all of this and planned to start my next big solo adventure on Sun 15 May.
PS: A LITTLE ABOUT BOTSWANA:
BOTSWANA is a huge 582,000sqkm in size (1100km tall by 960km wide) but only has a little over 2 million people. The ancient San peoples first came here in 17000BC but most modern locals are descendants of the Tswana tribe that was formed in the 14th Centrury by one of three brothers broke away from their Chief father. The Boers (South African white Afrikaners) claimed land in BOTSWANA from 1820 much to the disgust of the locals and by 1885 the whole area became an English territory as a result of the Boer Ward inc which England was victorious over the Boers and Zulu. Independence came in 1966 and the first President served until 1989. His son came to power in 2008 and the country has very stable government and free elections. Diamonds were discovered in 1967 and De Beers appointed sole processor with 75% of revenues going to the government. Unlike other African countries, this early government allocated 30% of income to education with the rest on health and infrastructure and building up small business for tourism. The government was very successful and between 1966 to 2005, Botswana had the highest economic growth rate per capita in the world!
The government was also very effective at reducing the HIV/AIDS rate by supplying free drugs and condoms. Diamonds are still being mined but since 2009 supplies are now steadily declining. There are three main ethnic groups of “Botswana”: Tswana (80%), Bakalanga (11%) and San (3%). The official language is the local “Tswana” but English is very common. Like NAMIBIA and SOUTH AFRICA, BOTSWANA are big game meat eaters without any specific ethnic dishes. The Okavango Delta and The Kalahari Desert are the two most famous geographical icons with the later occupying 85% of the land mass. BOTSWANA also has mor elephants than any other country on Earth. The Moremi Game Reserve inside Okavango has almost every main African animal in it except for Gorillas. Tourism flourishes here with some of the most luxurious and expensive “luxury campsites” in Africa.
PPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:
African music is the basis of the following music types: blues, reggae, Brazilian samba, Puerto Rican salsa.
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