Days 10 and 11

(Rhia’s comments are italicized)

We found the animals! Chobe National Park sits on the southern bank of the Chobe river in the northern most corner of Botswana. Unfortunately, the biggest drought in 40 years has currently greatly shrunk the river.

Mind you, there is still enough water to support a huge number of animals. But the challenge for us was to get into Chobe to see them all.

We had hoped to spend our first day driving ourselves through the park and watching animals come to a watering hole. However, the roads in the park are too sandy to allow safe passage for our 2×4 vehicle 😥 so we needed to find/hire/hijack a 4×4 vehicle! Luck was, once more, on our side as two young ladies agreed for us to join them on their 6 hour tour. Kara (a resident pediatrician) and Rani (an environmental engineer), are from Belgium and they proved to be absolutely fantastic, fun-loving people. They were so delightful that we chose to do a river cruise with them later in the day!

Our driver/ tour guide was named Killer… which, he assured us, was his name and not his profession! Killer was extremely knowledgeable, and was on a mission to find as many animals for us as he possibly could. This sounds like a bland statement…unless you were seated in the back of the open safari truck when he received a radio message that an animal had been spotted somewhere. For, at that moment, Killer turned into a lazer-focussed maniac speeding over the rough terrain toward the focus of his attention. The four of us in the back couldn’t help but laugh as we tried to keep our butts and seats connected as we dodged overhanging branches. We learned very quickly to hold on tightly as soon as that radio crackled!

I used to love visiting the San Diego Zoo Safari Park but now that I’m here, I realize how different things are when predators and prey all play in the same yard. For example, impala and kudu (antelopes) tend to spend their time near baboons because baboons yell out warnings to each other when they spot a predator, and this gives the impalas and kudus a chance to flee. Surprisingly, even though Chobe is 4500 sq. miles, there are animals around every corner! Killer would stop the truck to point out baboons in trees, cape buffaloes resting under trees, or elephants feeding. I was astounded at how well these African animals blend in with the environment! I remember my first time in a game park; I was new to Africa and a Zambian friend and I drove to Victoria Falls. My friend pointed out an elephant but I argued that it was a tree, not an elephant! Her disgusted response was, “Well, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a tree wiggle its ears!” Needless to say, it WAS an elephant. But you have to learn to look at things with an African frame of mind, otherwise crocodiles either look like logs or the ground they’re lying on, and hippos and cape buffaloes look like boulders! But not many animals could escape Killer’s gaze as he constantly scanned the horizon and trees. It’s thanks to his skill that we have so many photos from this fantastic experience! I was stunned by how close to the animals Killer took us! A herd of elephants were mere inches away as they walked past us! We were no more than 10 feet from lions, cape buffaloes, and baboons…all animals that easily could kill us.

Our river safari was also shared with our new friends, Kara and Rani. This, too, was fantastic! The boat was just a little outboard motor that sat 15 people and, once again, I was shocked at how close they took us to the animals. This time, we sat in a very small, low boat mere feet away from elephants and hippos and cape buffaloes, and crocodiles…and the boat didn’t seem to have a very reliable starting motor! I had to laugh when I saw that some people in other boats were wearing life jackets as, if you fell into the water, drowning was probably the LEAST of your problems!

And as the sun set, our guide/driver found a participating elephant so we could take our quintessential African sunset silhouette photos.

For our last evening with our new friends, Kara and Rami joined us at the restaurant we’d gone to as soon as we’d arrived (called Pizza Plus Coffee, and Curry). Though the name’s a bit suspect, the food is delicious AND it has vegetarian options! We expected to have a quiet dinner but, as is typical in Africa, it turned into something quite different. Firstly, a visiting Namibian government Minister arrived for dinner (with bodyguards and a police escort). The owner, Ashok, who had taken quite a shining to us when we were last there, was dressed to impress (in a button-down shirt, a jacket, and ripped jeans) and managed to make us feel as important as the visiting dignitaries! After dinner, Ashok persuaded us to go to his Italian/Mexican restaurant (a couple of hundred yards away) as it was karaoke ladies night. It was an experience and, because Ashok has connections everywhere, Kara and Rami left with a fun memory and an invitation to visit the hospital in Maun! 

Our Chobi experience turned out to be much more than just a discovery of wildlife; it was a discovery of friendship and true connections! And so, Africa begins to weave its magic into the fabric of Dan’s life…just as it did into mine 37 years ago…!