Chobe National Park

Chobe is another National Park in Botswana and we were lucky enough to see it both from the river and also two nights bush camping. The bush camping was not quite as luxurious as the Delta although it did feel closer to the animals.

The river cruise lasted around 3 hours and took us along the river between Botswana and Namibia. What was interesting is that the Namibian side is not a national park whereas the Botswanan side is. There were very few animals to be found on the Namibian side as though they knew they were not safe.

The river cruise introduced us to our first Nile crocodiles, Fish eagle and allowed us to get significantly closer to the hippos. We also saw Waterbuck whose tell tale sign is a target looking patch of hair around the bum. The tour concluded with a sunset over the river which had the photographers in a frenzy.

The first game drive into Chobe brought us very close to some sleeping lions along with many elephants. Fortunately we were in 4x4s this time. Other than this we saw many animals that we had already seen on the rivconfirmse.

There are no night game drives in Chobe as the army reservists are out after 7pm trying to catch poachers. Botswana operates a shoot first ask questions later policy with poachers. This has been explained as to protect economic interests and because if the poachers see you first then they will not hesitate to shoot at you.

On the first evening we did not see many animals although hyenas and lions fighting nearby was highly audible. Our guides believed that the lion had likely killed a baby Zebra and the hyena were calling to each other to eventually outnumber the lion and steal the kill. We went looking for the carcass in the morning but could not find it.

The second of our nights in Chobe was far more thrilling. Our guide had been challenged to find a leopard as to date we have still not seen one. Knowing this he spotted a large number of stationary 4x4s near a tree. Heading over there we spotted our first pack of while dogs, and animal thought to be more rare than a leopard.

As though seeing this pack of wild dogs was not exciting enough already the animals all suddenly rose and started chasing after a herd of nearby impala. A filming crew that had been watching the dogs took off after the pack followed very quickly by the other 4x4 vehicles.

The wild dogs managed to isolate an impala who ran off into some nearby water. The wild dogs did not follow but instead stalked the perimeter. Everything went so quiet I was convinced the impala had drowned until we spotted some splashing at the other side of the water. The impala managed to scramble from the water and stood for around a minute before pronking away. For anybody who does not know what pronking is you have to watch it on YouTube, it left our 4x4 in hysterics.

I was actually quite relieved not to have seen a kill as the impala managed the most unlikely of escapes. Impala are built with a scent gland that enables them to find each other after splitting up so hopefully it would have found its way back to the herd.

Returning back to the camp we caught the slightest glimpse of a big cat far away in the trees. Not everybody saw it and those that did likely could not confirm but it was purportedly a leopard. That evening a honey badger visited our camp during dinner. Although very cute these animals are vicious, I was surprised the guides allowed it to get so close.

The morning game drive saw us pass two dead elephants that we had seen the day before. One of these elephants was now just charred remains. I suspect the other would have been too other than the fact a Lion was guarding it. The park wardens will burn the bodies of any animals suspected of anthrax poisoning. Anthrax poison occurs in the dirt and can sometimes be eaten by the elephants.

Our returning 4x4 had two flat tyres in the space of ten minutes and with the only other spare already being punctured we were stuck in the middle of the park waiting for assistance. To their credit many passersby tried to help however none were able. Given how many times we have already broken down on this trip we were quite accustomed to waiting by the sides of roads until somebody told us there were Lions not 400m from where we were all sat.

Having been saved by another car we witnessed a dung beetle rolling a pile of dung, so spherical it looked man made, down the road. A shame that after so much effort he was likely to very soon be the subject of a road traffic accident.

Another incredible experience although the closest we got to seeing a leopard was a leopard turtle as it tried to cross the road.

Joe Dunleavy