Chobe National Park – Nata

29/8/19

After meeting up at the bar to have some cake for Brenton’s birthday, we ran into the boss of our tour company, currently spending a few days of holiday in Livingstone. We attempted to get him to help us out in our plight of course, but he claimed to have no connections at the Namibian immigration. I suppose by this stage it would make no difference anyway, and we had accepted this fate.

We eventually all hopped into 2 taxis and headed out to the restaurant Pete had recommended. We’d understood he was very keen to go and were delighted to take him and Francis there. Especially when he told us it had been about 5 years since he last went out to dinner with his tour group further proving that we are by far the best group ever!

It turned out to e a brutal dinner. The food was very nice, as were our drinks, and we had a great time there. But when we finally got around to each of us giving a small farewell speech, it was not easy for anyone. Not to mention this was also our last night with Jess, TJ and Jo who would be going down to Pretoria instead of Cape Town. A few of us – myself included – definitely got tearful, and watching Pete’s face only made it harder.

In the end we finished dinner so late that we decided to cancel the clubbing plans and head back to camp. We started to say our farewells here, it soon enough decided it just wasn’t right and that we would all just get up early to see each other off. For my part, I headed out to my new tent, since we had swapped out. My amazing and easy hooks were now gone, replaced by a tent with bad hooks and a very high door – one I was sure to trip over at some point going for a night bathroom run.

I was awake nice and early, packing up my tent with Sarah’s help – who having lost Jess, would be my new tent buddy moving forward. As we were finished in time, we all met up and made our way to the truck heading down to Pretoria. There we met our 3 family members leaving the tour, along with Pete and Francis coming to wave them off. Some very heartfelt goodbyes went down, and before long were were chasing after their truck as they left.

We then went back to our truck for some breakfast with the new people. We started packing up everything, and to our horror, Justin packs the truck different to Francis. I could see he looked none too pleased about his baby being packed wrong, but what can you do?

Soon enough, the final farewells came about. We grabbed a few more photos all together, lots of hugs, and climbed onto the truck. I think the newbies on our tour think we are all crazy, as we drove off with our group hanging out the windows yelling goodbyes at our tour leaders yelling back at us. Only those joining the tour from Pretoria understand our difficulties, having just spent a week together before also splitting from their group and leaders.

And then, with a turn of a corner, there were only 8 left. In a group of 23, plus Justin in the back with us, but that’s not the point of course. Off we headed towards the Chobe river, which acts as a natural border between Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Although they are currently building a bridge to connect all countries to facilitate crossing, for now it’s a good old fashioned ferry that acts as a transition.

We were stamped out of Zambia and then jumped onto the ferry. Out of the 3. Ferries available, 2 of them were out of order, leaving only the one which frankly did not inspire a lot of confidence. The control tower was on more of an angle than the tower of Pisa, and when we got on, one of the crew welcomed us by saying “you can all swim right?”. The river wasn’t so large that it couldn’t be swum, but I strongly suspect the crocs or hippos would have gotten us before making it to the other side!

But without too much trouble, we made it across and went to get stamped in. We walked through a bucket with wet cloths to wash our shoes and limit the risk of foot and mouth disease coming into the country, and then we were off. So welcome to Botswana!

About an hour or so later, we stopped at a shopping centre to get some cash out and pick up some snacks and drinks before heading straight to our campsite. We made it there by lunch time and immediately put up our tents in a hurry. The heat was insane, and it’s hard to believe this is actually winter time for this country, but at least we wouldn’t have to actually get into our tents until after the sun had gone down.

We rushed off to start our game drive straight from the campsite. Somehow the drive trucks that picked us up worked out to a small and a large one, meaning the 8 of us fit into the small one perfectly with the rest of the group climbing into the larger one. We felt bad isolating ourselves from the group for the second day in a row – having skipped the sunset cruise and dinner the night before in favour of our farewell dinner – but the reality was that after 40 days of travelling together, and all the emotions that came with it, the idea of splitting up to mingle with others was not an option.

So off we went to our first game drive in almost 3 weeks! I’m sure know you’ve all missed stories about wildlife as much as we’ve missed seeing them, so here goes! We started out by running into some kudus, another type of antelope with very curvy horns – which can grow up to a metre long! – and some light stripes on their back. They also have a weird hump on their back making them almost look like camels, but very pretty camels.

We saw a few impalas along the way, the odd gazelle here and there and even a giraffe. Different to the Masai giraffes that we have gotten used to, this one was lighter in colour with smaller patches. Still, a giraffe is a giraffe, and it’s a beautiful animal. We also spotted several hippos in the water and a surprising amount walking on grassland in the distance, grazing on one of the islands along the Chobe river. Good old standing hippos.

One of the surprising highlights of this drive was a juvenile owl we spotted in a tree. For a nocturnal creature, he sure was making a lot of noise up there! But what a beautiful bird – look at me birdwatching all of a sudden… – and what an impressive beak it has. I would not want to be one of the cute little banded mongoose we saw in the park when this thing flies out to hunt…

The main highlight of the drive was actually the elephants. Chobe National Park is home to about 150,000 elephants, and given the intense heat provided with the dry season, they all have to congregate at the river bank to find water, lest they die of dehydration. We actually came across a poor elephant who had died a few days earlier from a heat stroke, yet somehow had not yet started to get eaten by the cats – despite the intense smell he gave out.

In any case, the need for water meant we could see maybe a hundred elephants around the river, or running down the sandy slopes in front of our car to get to the river. Some were drinking – with the babies still struggling to figure out their trunks to get the process going – while others were enjoying one hell of a mud bath to protect from the sun. The best were the elephants we spotted crossing the river to get to the islands, with their little snorkels/trunks sticking out from the water like a weird snake. I love elephants!

After our game drive, we were taken directly to a safari boat landing to do a game cruise. By this point, most of us were quite tired – especially those of us who had already done many game drives – and the insanely hot sun did nothing to help this. Not to mention the lack of drinks available on the boat – this was no booze cruise!

The boat cruise was pleasant enough though. We spotted quite a few hippos and crocodiles, a few buffalos of course and a large number of elephants splashing around in the water. The cutest was the mother elephant trying to teach her calf to cross water in a shallow location, but failing miserably as the little one would waddle in until his tummy touched the water and then promptly run back out!

Around 18:30 we finally made it back to the campsite, absolutely shattered. We helped Justin out with the cooking, which turned out as a very nice past bake. It’s not Pete and Francis, but it will do! A quick shower and run up to the bar for some Wi-Fi, and it was bed time. As an introduction to Sarah as her new tent buddy, I decided to bring forward my prediction and tripped my way into the tent. Fun times!

30/8/19

We were awarded a luxurious sleep-in this morning, which unfortunately my body clock decided to ignore. As we were ready well in advance, we helped Justin with making some breakfast and packing up everything, and hit the road by 9:00.

We stopped at the shops once again for a last minute round of snack shopping and alcohol supplies before heading off. We took another quick bathroom/shop stop a few hours later, and then continued to drive on in the sweltering heat of the day.

After a few hours, we hit a health road block, once again working to prevent foot and mouth disease. Botswana is one of the major exporters of cattle meat and a lot of other produce, and therefore they are very strict on ensuring all is kept clean and safe from disease. This involved us walking on the wet cloth mat once again, and putting our extra pairs of shoes on it as well, while an official checked we had no fruit or meat in our truck. Which totally had not been moved to a locker temporarily until after the border…

Our campsite was very soon after the border, and called Elephant Sands. Because it has a lot of sand, and a lot of elephants. The camp has a man made waterhole in the centre which elephants come to drink at. Unfortunately because of how dry the weather currently is, the actual waterhole was dried up leaving only a small gutter with water flowing in.

Of course, this situation means there is only a small space for all the elephants in a fairly large radius to come for a drink. Which of course leads to a few squabbles between the big guys trying to reach the water. It’s quite impressive to be sitting not 3 metres away from these massive gentle giants when they start trumpeting and chasing each other.

Around the campsite, you can see pointy rocks arranged in several rows around the bar area, toilet block and each cabin. The aim of this being to prevent the elephants from reaching out to the pipes and pulling them out to get water. It works well enough for the bar area – although they apparently sometimes jump over them to reach the pool at night – but the water reservoir at the back of the toilet block is just barely reachable for the large elephants if they are careful with their footing. Smart guys!

We sat down for some dinner quickly, using the truck as our only option for shade, before proceeding to the bar area situated directly in front of the waterhole. The campsite has no Wi-Fi, the pool wasn’t particularly clean and the optional game drive of the afternoon was no longer available. Meaning we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting directly in front of the elephants, watching “African TV”. And honestly, I could have stayed there for days just watching them.

Shortly before dinner, I decided to have a quick shower and make the most of the warm water. I normally prefer to shower alone, but just this once I was willing to make an exception. Instead I showered with 4 dashing young males standing right outside the shower, trunks in the reservoir! Best shower ever! I seriously hoped one would stick his trunk in to catch the falling water as well so I could get a pat, but no luck there. Just a couple of “peeping Tom’s” really!

As the sun went down, walking around the campsite got more and more interesting. Because somehow despite their weight, the elephants move as silently as a cat. And with limited lighting, all you can see is an occasional shadow roaming around the camp. The whole experience was made even more entertaining each time one us went to the bathroom, as you had to look around the corner of the exit carefully before leaving, in case one of them was waiting for us there.

I would say this evening was as exciting as the night we had spent in the Serengeti. Sure, these aren’t lions or hyenas, but when a car starts chasing elephants away from the dish washing area and towards your tent, it’s quite the sight – especially from inside the tent! Needless to say we all listened to the advice of not keeping fruit in our tent tonight – lest one of these beautiful creatures come shake the whole tent to get it out!