January 1-3
Hello everyone!
Happy New Year! Here are some elephants.
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| Possible mating attempt in the Chobe River |
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| An elephant on the side of the A33 road |
Here are some more elephants.
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| Elephant wandering through Elephant Sands Camp |
More? OK then.
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| Baby elephants playing in the Chobe River |
Botswana is said to have the largest elephant population in the world. They can be found in every corner of the country, evidenced by us regularly passing them on main roads.
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Botswana has the most African elephants,
followed by Tanzania and Zimbabwe |
Tactically positioning yourself near a waterhole also means you are likely to see elephants here. A popular stopover point between Maun and Kasane, called Elephant Sands, is one such location. Elephants walk between the tents and chalets to get a much-needed drink. You can watch them drink whilst having your own much-needed drink mere metres away.
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| An electric fence stops the elephant going to the bar |
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| We were told whole herds come in the dry season |
Botswana is estimated to have 130,000 of these massive mammals within its borders.
This could be slightly misleading, however. You see, elephants don’t do ‘borders’ like we do. They don’t need to cross at certain places and show evidence of a PCR test. They just go. Anywhere they like.
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| Elephants on the Botswana side of the Chobe River |
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| Crossing from Botswana to Namibia - no stamp needed |
This is particularly relevant in the northern town of Kasane. This is an interesting place for quite a few reasons. One reason is a baobab tree outside the police station. Not a normal baobab, however. This one used to be used as a prison. Fugitives would be detained inside the tree. It seemed quite spacious, actually.
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It was also used as a post office - the transport
carrying prisoners would also carry mail |
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Baobabs are sometimes called the 'Tree of
Life' - does that mean a life sentence here? |
Another point of interest is that Kasane is just about the place where four countries meet, the only such place in the world. As the sign below shows, any way you turn leads you to a new country.
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| The Namibian border post at Ngoma is a bit further away |
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The only similar place I can think of is the
Four Corners Monument in the USA |
Though Namibia’s main border post is a bit further away than those of Zambia and Zimbabwe, it is actually the closest country to Kasane. You see, this town sits along the Chobe River, a waterway which starts in Angola and feeds the mighty Zambezi. Kasane is on the southern shore. The other side? Namibia.
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| In Angola it is called the Cuando River |
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| It flows for 731 km before joining the Zambezi |
Kasane is the easiest entry point into Chobe National Park, which is probably Botswana’s most popular safari spot. I took a morning game drive which was vastly different to those I had done in Moremi and Savuti.
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Our driver said we were looking for cats. He
then stopped for five minutes to show us impala... |
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| Plenty of baboons in the park |
Firstly, lots of strangers. That meant keeping my mask on the whole time. Secondly, a driver who was terrible at spotting. We had to point out the warthog rolling in the mud, the kudu, the giraffe. A giraffe! They’re huge! He seemed more interested in trying to get the phone number of the passenger next to him…and she spotted the giraffe! Whilst underwhelming, this drive made me appreciate how amazing my time was in the other reserves I visited in Botswana.
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| Giraffe |
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| A warthog, freshly covered in mud |
It also seemed a lot busier. More tourist traffic means more cars, but the paths within that part of the path seemed narrow and restrictive. Everyone was going the same way, stopping in the same places. Made me wonder what it was like here before Covid…
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Guinea fowl - also known as 'chicken police'
due to their blue head or 'helmet' |
We were tracking lions, finding paw prints but no savannah kings or queens. I knew they were there - I had seen some from the river the previous day.
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| A paw print showed that they were around |
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| The lion I saw from the river the day before |
The boat ride along the river was one of my highlights from my whole time in Botswana. There were other animals and birds to see…
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| A Nile crocodile has 64 to 68 sharp teeth |
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| This hippo was pregnant |
…but there were so…many…elephants…
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| A herd coming to drink from the river |
Some had come down for a drink…
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| An elephant can drink up to 200 litres of water a day |
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Up to 9 litres can be stored in their trunks - their
nostrils dilate to make this happen |
Others were having a swim…
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Elephants are natural swimmers,
using their trunk as a snorkel |
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| Swimming is one way elephants stay cool |
Others…well, I’ll let you make your own assumption about what was going on here…
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| I'm not actually sure whether they were mating |
Getting caught in a short, sharp shower as we were coming back didn’t dampen any enthusiasm for the elephants. Being good swimmers, it’s a lot easier for them to get from the Namibian side of the river to Botswana! Can’t imagine it would be easy to get a PCR test done up that trunk, mind…
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| Friends forever! |
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| Up close with an elephant |
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| Sunset over the Chobe River |
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