Chobe National Park
The border crossing from Zambia into Botswana is at the border post of Kazungula. The truck ride on the Kazungula Ferry across the Zambezi River is not much of a hassle. Rod tells us that one year the ferry sank and about 40 people died; we sit silently during the crossing.
The topography becomes almost perfectly flat and we see thousands of acres of sunflower fields and scrub brush far as the eye can see in all directions. To the little town of Kasane to fill up with gas, go to the Bureau de Change, buy camera batteries, and blankets because it is winter here now and the nights will be cold the rest of the way. Stocked up on junk food again in the small market; Botswana has a good trade relationship with South Africa so we see things in the stores here that we haven’t seen since we got to the continent.
Kasane sits amid a shady, riverine woodland at the meeting point of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe and the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers. It is the administrative center and the gateweay to Chobe National Park so the small town is full of activity. Then we drove down the road to Chobe Resort for the afternoon where we had cold drinks in the bar and some of the girls swam in the ice cold swimming pool.
Chobe National Park
Rod contracted with a Safari company to take us in raised-seat land rovers through the Park about an hour before dark when all the animals will be feeding and watering around the Chobe River. On the way, the driver calls the elephant dung on the highway “chocolate cake.” The driver talks about elephants…eats 250 kg of food a day so he has huge dung. They have 7 sets of teeth so when he has used all his teeth you can tell he is older because you see bark and sticks in the dung.
Elephants are so bad at destroying trees-just because they can, the driver says-and overgrazing-so that the elephant herds have to be culled. Sometimes a couple hundred at a time. They have to make sure they kill all the members of a family, however, or any remaining members will return to get retribution.
Hippos run 40 km an hour and can swim 30 km an hour to find grass…the water monitor (snake) didn’t have a shower because he didn’t know you were coming for a picture, the driver says. About 20 female elephants and their babies are in the water-males always off alone…Southland Giraffe…Impala society-only one male to a herd so these young males will soon have to fight to stay or be kicked out of the herd…Bob says Homo Sapiens are known for not getting along either…everyone laughs. Kudu Antelope have huge antlers on the male…when giraffes drink they spread their front legs which really looks funny…Impalas make a noise like a pig…we see a lioness with large teats so she must have cubs near…we follow her…the African light on the red clay landscape is breathtaking….water buffalo…but the hilarious part of the trip is the driver…look, there is a rare Red Sable, he says as he roars by…we finally get him to stop at the Kudo but when he stops so all we see are bushes…!
Camp at Thebe River Lodge near Kasane
As we drove in we wave to the woman from New York that used to live in Walla Walla and the guy from Seoul that were on the Booze Cruise with us at Victoria Falls-their tour group on the same route. James the camp dog happily greeted us; the camps all have watch dogs that will warn us if strange two or four legged animals enter the camp at night. When I went into the bar for a Fanta (think the whole third world has a monopoly on Fanta), I noticed a black board advertising Bone Marrow Soup so I ordered a small bowl before dinner; was good but was so spicy couldn’t really taste the marrow.
By this time Bob had joined me and while we were there the woman from Walla Walla came in. She had been a school teacher (I had guessed it). Now she has decided she wants to work for a Methodist Aid group in Nairobi-I want to do something in Africa she says-I really like “The Blacks.” The way she said it made me feel very uncomfortable. She kept making references to Bob about finding what he was looking for…finally Bob told her he wasn’t looking for a thing. Maybe she knew more than he did…or maybe it was she that was looking…
Tags: African Continent, Botswana, National Parks, Safaris, Truck
Zoe
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