We originally had a booked accommodation with Chobe River Lodge, a lodge and camping ground that had been recommended along the Chobe River, however we arrived to find that the river was flooded and many of the spots covered with water. Those that were remaining had an aura of mosquito haven. Being a malaria-risk area, we decided it would be wise to stay in a lodge closer to the town, without the same excess flooding hoping to reduce our run ins with the pesky large mosquitoes. Kasane is a relatively ‘large’ town (for Botswana), and lies at the meeting point of four countries, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and the confluence of two major rivers the Chobe and the Zambezi. The town is the northern gateway to Chobe National Park, and visitors to Kasane are typically here for the park – either by an overland safari or boat trip. We booked a family lodge room at a great resort, the Chobe Safari Lodge – a full service facility, with a nice pool, restaurant, bar and reservation centre for the Park attractions and the lodge seemed to attraction families with kids (which our kids enjoyed playing with). We explored the small town, with our regular stop offs to the grocery store, bank, telecom and laundry (yeah, more drop off/pick!).
Our course the highlight of our stay here was the park visits. Chobe is known for their large herds of elephants which do not tend to shy away too much to the safari vehicle, allowing you to drive right up to them. Our guide, Raita, was a wealth of knowledge and extremely good with the kids, letting them take the time to ask questions, look, experience and she even tolerated the occasion loud outburst from Sam. If you have guide safaried before, one other key element to the game drive is silence. Given that most drives are 3-4 hours, this can be challenging on the best of days. I have learnt to pack accordingly – and we bring snacks, more drinks and extra cameras, so everyone can be a photographer! We tend to need at least one bathroom stop (which in the wild can be hard from a safety aspect) – luckily so far, no one has had any bathroom accidents. Raita had detailed information on every animal we saw, including the most common kid’s questions like – who eats them? Who do they eat? How long do they live? Kids like the gore, and this safari did not disappoint. We saw a wild dog, that had been clawed by a lion and the vultures were picking away at the skeletal remains; we heard about the python squeezing the warthog to death at the early morning drive, and we listened as she recounted stories about the animal predator hunting and the natural cycle of decomposition.
Chobe is home to virtually every mammal in Southern Africa (except the Rhino), and we were able to see them all in our tours. Elephants – large, small and babies, lions, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, pods of hippos, monkeys, sables, bushbucks, pukus, all the variety of antelope, and prolific birdlife. We also spotted 3 lions at the waterfront, getting a drink, our guide, Raita was also so excited to see them out of their typical day position (which is sleeping under acacia shrubs and trees) that she drove right up to them, and followed them so closely that one crossed the front of the vehicle, and the other two crossed at the rear. We were so close that we could clearly see their yellow eyes, as they crossed and stared us down. Poor Anna was quite frightened, but astute enough not to make a noise.
Our river safari was equally as exciting, and we were able to see the hippo pods in the water up close, including a mother with a 2 month old baby on her back. Hippos live in pods, dominated by one male. Other males can be also in the pod, but if they are naughty, will get kicked out of the pod to live a solitary life. The male is so protective over his domain, that when a mother gives birth, she must leave the pod for a while in order to protect her baby from being eaten by the male. We have heard some crazy stories about the natural habits of some of these animals. We also saw numerous lizards (very large) and crocodiles up to 2.5 m in length, basking in the sun along the river banks and floating on the surface of the water. As tempting as the River looks for swimming, you certainly do not want to dip your feet in for a swim here. There was also severall variety of birds, and it seemed like every time one landed it was a different species.
Our lodge was overrun by vervet monkeys, who can cause havoc on the resort, particularly at the open-aired restaurant. The monkeys loved the sugar packages put out on tables for morning coffee, and would swing down to pick up as many as possible, from right under your nose. There was staff on hand every morning, to throw nuts from the trees, at the monkeys, to scare them away. What seemed like a futile job, would actually result in success and eventually the monkeys would retract back to the trees and enjoy some of the tree fruits and sleep in the trees for the heat of the day.
Botswana has a relatively small population (1.7 million) with a high population of rural communities throughout the country who farm (cattle, sheep primarily) and agriculture in wetter lands. It has a relatively stable economy, with good educational and health care services. The people are gentle, kind, easy to smile and honesty seems to be an integral part of the fabric of the community. Again, we had a few instances of leaving expensive items behind (phones!), all of which were recovered and made as a priority to return to us. The operating tourism industry runs on a low volume, high experience system, so needless to say, the costs associated with travelling to this region (Chobe, Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavango Delta) are high. We decided that an overland safari from Kasane, through Moremi to Maun, would not fit into our time frame, and Chobe had allowed us to see abundant wildlife so we routed through the tar road of Naat to reach Maun. The overland safari through Chobe sounds like an amazing experience, but requires a 4x4 completely self sufficient and geared up (including fuel and water) and you must be proficient in driving through the unpredictable wet weather floods. The only other way to overland through Moremi (if money allows), is to hire a guided tour through. These guided tours sound like an amazing experience, with essentially a vehicle ahead of you that sets up bush camps for your arrival and does all the catering, packing and unpacking. The parks limit the number of vehicles through the park, so we heard that some people never encounter anyone else during their trip. All you are required to do is program in the GPS coordinates for the next day’s camp site and when you arrive your food, accommodation and help is waiting for you. Now that’s my kind of camping! We made a few inquiries in Kasane in regards to the fly-in safaris to the Okavango Delta, but we were having a hard time justifying the costs ($40,000 Pula ($6,000) for 2 nights!). We decided maybe we would have better luck in Maun with booking a Delta experience, so we left Kasane with no set plans on how we would experience the Delta.
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