Days 28 thru 30

(Rhia’s comments are italicized)

When we met Ashok earlier in the week, he told us about Sue, the daughter of the second warden of Chobe National Park. Sue is currently the owner of Chobe Crocodile Farm. According to Ashok, she was scaring away baboons with a pepper shot shotgun and accidentally shot an employee. Even though Sue had compensated the employee, she sued. The community was throwing a fund raising dinner to collect funds to help with the court costs. There would be over a hundred locals in attendance, and we thought we could help and mingle with some of the locals. Zangaphee Properties, a local tourist attraction, provided the venue. Friends of Sue donated food (Butternut soup, chicken curry, beef stew, bread rolls and dessert) as well as their time, equipment, and services. Ashok donated rice and naan. We donated money.

I spoke to Sue at length. She’s extremely hurt by the situation, especially as she’s lived in Botswana all her life and in Kasane/Chobe for all but two years. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time for the lady who was shot to walk in front of Sue when she had her rifle. The lady is a member of a tribe who came to Kasane from Angola and who are stirring the racial pot, even though colonialism and it’s accompanying bigotry hasn’t been an issue in Botswana. Sue had to represent herself as all the lawyers are related to the lady (?) and the police, lady, and witnesses lied on the stand (again, ?). Sue said that even though she won the case, she still has to pay compensation to the lady. Something smells a bit fishy…but, of the people at the fundraiser, about half were black and half white. According to Sue, none were members of the Angolan tribe!

Unfortunately, just prior to the event, a military truck shuttling new trainees flipped over and stopped traffic on the only road leading to the venue from the other direction. Not only was the event delayed, but many RSVPs did not arrive. This included the live entertainment. The DJ was not prepared for an extended set, so we listened to what he did have several times 😂. When the entertainment did arrive, it was a woman singing karaoke (the same woman that hosted karaoke night at Pepe Nero, one of Ashok’s restaurants when it was opening last year!) She had a really great voice, and people were up and dancing. Sue came over from the dance floor and pulled us up there. We both had a good laugh for a couple songs and we ‘old-people-danced’ about. We purposely did not photograph that experience. In Botswana, people think those in their 60s are really old so the idea of a reminder of an ancient one shuffling around on the dancefloor (grass) was abhorrent to me 😂

I got to speaking with two Italian businessmen that move between Kasane and Maun. Danny is the owner of Pepe Nero (along with Ashok), and Christiano is the owner of a safari tour service that caters to Italians. It seems that everyone in Botswana is an entrepreneur! According to government documents, unemployment is around 25% here (according to the people it’s around 80%!!) so if you want to work, you create a company.

We’ve had a great time in Kasane, relaxing and meeting people. But the best day ever was yet to come; a 6 hour (actually more like 7½ hours) land tour and 3 hour boat tour of Chobe game park!

On our first day in Kasane, Rhia stopped a man named Tefo on the street and asked him if he did safaris. He just happened to be trying to start one up! So we went with him. He was going to be busy with being a guide for the company he works for, so he arranged for 27 year veteran guide, Petros, to drive his safari truck. I’ve spent enough time in Africa to know that everyone has a family member or friend who (fill in the blank with anything you want to do)! This typically makes things cheaper and helps support the locals directly.

Petros wanted to take us into the park from a different road for the chance to see cheetahs and jackals which are common at 6 am along that route. Sadly we only heard the unfamiliar cry of warning from a jackal, and we saw a solitary buffalo. Not a good start! At this stage, I was wondering if we were doing a wise thing; in truth, we didn’t know the person from Adam! I was beginning to rue the decision.

But as our friends Pete and Marie from Johannesburg say, “you never know what’s around that next corner.” Petros, at first, joined in with 13 other vehicles in search of a lion. I was ruing the decision even more at this point as this is NOT what we do! But then he left the pursuit as he’d heard a rumor of a leopard a short distance away. The journey was quick and bumpy, but Petros found the leopard!

Not only did we get there first, Petros followed it off-road, deep into the bush until we lost it. He told us “I can always find lion, but leopard is much harder.”  The animal was magnificent, though her ears were torn up.

True to his word, Petros then tracked lions and 10 minutes later, we were the ONLY vehicle (of the 13) to be watching a pride of lions playing! There were 2 lionesses and 3 older cubs. I’m not sure the cubs were playing; they were certainly complaining about being hungry!

It took around 10 minutes for the other vehicles to see us stopped deep in the bush and come crashing in, disturbing the pride, who opted to move away, deeper into bush. At this stage, I was not only confident that I’d made the right decision in stopping a man on the street to ask about a safari guide, but also I was feeling quite proud of myself (okay, so I know it wasn’t me who was tracking and finding the animals but, to be fair, I had tracked and found Petros!!!)

With Petros now warmed up, we started getting history lessons of the area. Chobe national park used to be the actual town of Kasane. But the animals became too emboldened and would steal cats, dogs, cattle, and goats at night, so the people had to move the town down the river. He reminisced about growing up in the area, and showed us the graves of those who refused to leave and, later, died there. It didn’t feel right to photograph the graves…though I really wanted to!

And then he would give us anatomy lessons using skulls and bones. !!

Petros pointed out over 30 different birds to us!! (Sadly, Rhia missed a beautiful male kudu drinking from the river because of my bird fascination. Hmm!

Petros was keenly aware of everything, near and far. At one point, he slammed on the brakes to show us our first dung beetle. Wait a minute, it wasn’t my first dung beetle!

Petros was also great at just stopping and quietly watching the animals. He’s so obviously passionate about guiding and tracking, and appreciating nature.

During the last scheduled hour of our safari, the elephants arrived.

Petros then went above and beyond as he wanted to take us to see elephants  from his favorite spot. He walked us down from a cliff  in a beautiful place (remember that we’re in a game park with wild animals everywhere!) to watch elephants in the river from just above them!

What a great ending… Wait, what’s that? Petros hears about a pride of lions that were taking down a buffalo by the river. Can’t miss that, so the safari was abruptly extended!!!

Crocodiles waded just out of reach, waiting for an opportunity to steal.

Petros drove us around the kill, and at one point, I could have stepped out onto the tail of one of the feeding lionesses. INSANE!

Just as we were leaving, another guide in a different truck vigorously pointed trying to get our attention. Out of the corner of my eye, a lion started charging toward a male Impala drinking from the river. Startled the impala bolted at first down the shore, and then into the Chobe River. Unfortunately, the swollen river is full of crocodiles, and the Impala was dragged under to become a meal for the swarming Crocs! That’s one of the cruel parts of nature that brings home the reality of the circle of life.

We got back into town with barely enough time to catch the 3 hour afternoon boat cruise. The river was so different this year. The boat could go wherever it wanted!

We got close to hippos.

So close that three males made a huge display of leaping high out of the water and charging us!

We watched an elephant fully submerging itself the river,

and other elephants just having a good time.

But from afar, there was something on shore taking all the attention…

The lions were still guarding their kill! Apparently, it would take the pride of 10 about 24 hours to eat the whole buffalo.

And there were others waiting… A tree load of vultures.

Sadly, dark was descending quickly so our fabulous safari was over.

It was an absolutely fabulous ending to a fabulous day. Thank you Petros and Tefo for such a wonderful experience. If anyone finds themselves going to Kasane and Chobe game park, please let us know and we’ll share Tefo and Petros’ contact information with you…just so that you don’t have to stop random strangers in the street to track down your own guide…

perhaps we should move to Botswana to start our own business called Tracker Tracking? I’m sure investors would be lining up!