January 7, Saturday

January 7, Saturday  

Have to be in the lobby by 7:25 this morning, but the breakfast does not open before 7:00 (Strict) so I will have to eat quickly and not necessarily have anything hot, except for coffee.  That’s OK though since they have a nice selection of cereals, fruits and PASTRIES !   I’ll have to watch out since I’m not doing that much walking lately.  

We are 10 today in our group:  A South African couple with their two teenage sons (farmer and cattle owner in the north eastern part), a man from Australia (also a cattle man) and his young 7 or 8 year old son, and an American couple around my age with her mother (They are from New Yauk and the daughter’s name is Bahbra).   I had actually met and spoken to the American husband on the transfer bus at the airport.  They were travelling in a group of 15: Grandmother (forget her name), her children and their spouses, and the grandchildren (between 17 and 27).  Barbara had organized the entire trip for all of these people; can you imagine the logistics ?  Everyone is very nice and we have a great day together.

It was a one hour drive within Zimbabwe, to reach the Botswana border, where we left our mini-bus and got in to a safari vehicle. No entry or exit fees in Botswana; they are very happy to get the tourists. The country used to be called Bechuanaland and its original inhabitants were the famous San bushmen !);

The only thing they wanted was for the vehicle to drive through a puddle of chemical water and we had to walk on a cloth soaked in the same chemical water to avoid any contamination for the wild like and cattle.  (foot & mouth disease?). Mind you, the cloth was so dirty I don't think it made much of a difference.   I took only a few pictures of the sights along the way, and without knowing until our drive back out, caught a baobab tree in this shot !

 Getting into the safari vehicles once we had crossed into Botswana

Botswana is landlocked, and has borders with 4 other countries: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

  Highway from the border to the town of Kasane and entrance to Chobe National Park.   And THERE is the BAOBAB tree !   What a fluke Pic !

This was to be a full day excursion, with a 3 hour boat ride on the Chobe River, then a 3 hour ride in the safari vehicle through the Chobe National Park, located in the north-east of Botswana. The Park covers 10,566 square kilometres;  I visited the Serondala area (closest to Zimbabwe) of the park.   We started with the boat ride, from the jetty of a very nice hotel overlooking the water.  I was disappointed at first that we were getting into a smaller boat rather than a large one, but soon realized that the smaller boat could go a lot faster and get us much further up the river than the bigger boats.   

The Chobe River has its origins in the highlands of Angola where it is called the Kwando. When it enters Botswana, it not only changes its name, but also undergoes a dramatic 90 degree change in course at the point where it meets a major fault line. The name of the river changes another 3 times before it reaches the Zambezi river.  It then flows on all the way to the Indian Ocean.

We saw mostly bird life during the first half hour.

 At the hotel where the boat launch was located, and where we would have lunch later.

 Black Open-billed stork;  The man from South Africa joked about how European storks were white but African ones were black !  

 A darter, or snake bird, not because he eats snakes, but because when he is in the water, all you see is its head and neck, which looks like a snake
  Blue cheek bee-eater
  Monitor lizard, can you see him near the chair back?

 Jacanas aka Lotus Birds, Lily Trotters or Jesus Birds

On one side of the Chobe river is Botswana and on the other side Namibia.   There is an island in the river which had been disputed for years between the two countries, mainly because of the wild life that swims across the river and uses it for grazing.   Many of the big game comes from the Botswana side, so Namibia was VERY interested in acquiring the island.   Our guide and boat driver explained that the two countries finally went to The Haig for a decision. Their ruling was that the rivers depth should be measured on both sides and whoever had the deepest channel would own the island.  (I thought that logically it should have been the shallower side, but who am I !)   So it turned out that the deepest and widest channel was on the Botswana side and they now officially own the island and they have placed a flag on it so everyone knows who won.

After our short partial cruise around the island, we regained the open Chobe river and continued our cruise (up river ?  down river ?  Not sure !)   Just as we were re-entering the main channel of the river, up pops a ....

  Hippo !

We followed the Botswana side of the river for a while, seeing Impalas and crocodiles. 

 Impalas,  or as they are sometimes refered to the MacDonald boks !   Why ?  Check out the black markings on their rumps.  It looks like a big M,  or in this case the black arches.

 Crocodiles resting in the shade

 And just around the bend, an entire pod of hippos!

I wondered if I would ever get the chance of seeing one on land.

“Ask and you shall receive !”

We came back closer to the Botswana side to see a pair of Fish Eagles.  I was hoping to try to catch one on film flying, but they seemed to know !   I’d get tired, shut off the camcorder, and then of course they would take off and fly.  Had a few other opportunities, but never did get on in flight.

 African Fish Eagles

 

 Red Letchwe  with beautiful high antlers or horns

 A little too close for comfort for us in the boat.  This guy did not look too happy to see us.

Our guide got a call on his radio/phone and we sped off to a location further up/down the river.  Here we found a herd of about 30 elephants !   We stayed to take some pictures, then continued our river run towards an even bigger herd of elephants.   I filmed these, and there had to be close to 100 of them !

 Two babies with this Mama, and a juvenile following behind.  Coming down the hills to drink.

  Lots of elephants, of all ages.   Many babies being born, so definitely not endangered here.

 Hippo laying in the mud, just beside our boat.
 Cape Buffalo grazing with the elephants

 I'm loving this adventure !

 Mama with her young.  Big one in the background.

 See the safari vehicle in the background?  That will be us this afternoon.

 Just a small portion of the hundreds of elephants in this area alone.

 BIG DADDY, or is that a BIG MAMA.

We made our way back up to the lodge and saw more birds and antelope along the way.  

 Our driver and guide Stanley

 

Pukus, only found in Botswana, supposedly

  Cattle Egret that follow hippos, elephants and rhinos, eating flies around them, and seeds in their poop !

 Another black open-billed stork

 Monitor lizard

 Egyptian Geese

 Sacred African Ibis

  Pukus are only found in Botswana ringed horns, looks like a deer (VS Kudu, which I have not seen yet, have spiralled horns, mane on top of back and down throat)

 Another hippo !

  Jesus bird or pad hopper

 I want this picture done up in a jigsaw puzzle !

 Not sure if this is a female Puku, but it is a big antelope in a field of grass as high as its back.
 The lodge with the boat jetty. 
 Boat just like the one we were on. Notice that the guests all sit in the shade but the driver is out in the sun the entire time !   YIKES.

So that was our morning.   Could not believe how many animals we had seen, and we hadn't even started our safari yet !


This is also where we had lunch.

We had a very nice buffet lunch, where I tried out a few different foods; one by accident.   I thought I was choosing ribs, but it turned out they were ox tail !   Same type of bbq sauce, but different taste and texture.  The other dish was what looked like mashed potatoes but much whiter and much thicker; they call it “papa” made of maize-meal porridge and it is a staple here (like rice or potatoes for us). Glad I tried it, but not having it again.  Unless you flavour it with some type of sauce, it is tasteless.

After lunch, we boarded our safari vehicle and drove out to the Chobe National Park just a few kilometers away.  First animals we saw were impalas, and you can tell why they are nick-named “MacDonald boks”. There are thousands of them all over the park.

 Impalas

We saw some elephants again along the way but this time among the trees.  There must be over one thousand of them in this park just from the numbers I saw today;  and the park is not enclosed, so they are free to wander where they please.   We even saw some beside the road on our drive back to the border. 

 Huge elephant just beside the jeep

 Elephant beside a pond

 Mama and her young calf

 Mom with a juvenile.   Elephants are either right or left handed !   Well not "handed" exactly, but they have a side they prefer.   See the broken tusk on the juvenile?  It is =left handed, so to speak, since it prefers to use its left tusk to do things.  

 Is it a male ?  or a female ?

I did not notice until after I took the picture !

 Tiny baby running across the road, shreeking !

 Ah, it's OK now, with Mommy, safe and sound.

We made it back down towards the river, where we had seen the herds of elephants in the morning, and they were still there.

 And this was just a small portion of the herd.

 Marabou Pelican

 Another section of the same herd.

 Look at the size of the poop pile behind this guy, on the right side.  No pooper-scoopers around here, so watch where you step.

 Warthogs.  Mama & three babies.  Check out the little guy on the left:  he is kneeling on his front legs to graze.  Ah shucks !

 The three little piglets take off !

 Mom has big tusks, so you don't want to mess with her.

Males have 2 sets of horns, one high near forehead, one very sharp and turned up on the upper snout. Sorry to show you his backside, but he would not turn around to look at us. 

 Cape buffalo

 Mama hippo with her little baby, outside of the water !

Check out the other herd of elephants in the background. The population here is definitely NOT endangered.

  Waterbuck

 More hippos, this time in a pond !

 Lots of dead Acacia trees.  Either because of elephants, draught, or disease.

 Our route along the way

 Another Mom with her young

 This elephant had been standing beside the road, so we just drove by. 

 As we rode past him he decided to cross and almost hit the jeep.  Their eyesight is not very good, but this is ridiculous !

 We also saw some giraffes (darker the spots, the older it is) 

They walk differently than horses, zebras and almost every other 4-legged animal: Two right legs move at same time, then two left legs !

 Check out the impala on the road.  They graze with giraffes and other animals.  No discrimination here.

 Very elegant looking.

 Termite mound.  Holes are approximate 2 to 3 inches wide !

 More elephants, as we make our last stop before turning back.

 Our last look at one of the herds.

All day, the lady from New York had been asking when we would see the lions.   It was only about 4 oclock, we were almost out of the park and Stanley turned around to ask us if we really wanted to see lions.  By this time of day, and with all the impalas calmly walking around, I figured there wasn’t much chance of us seeing any at all.  “Don’t tease us Stanley !”.    We turned a corner to find two other vehicles blocking the road and the occupants taking pictures of something we could not see yet.

 FINALLY... we find a lion... well lioness actually

I snapped a total of 6 pictures, and also filmed her, but this was the best shot I could get.   She was panting very hard, either just cooling down or after having had a good run,  and pretty much ignored all the chattering while our 3 vehicles were there, and even when they first two vehicles left and two others arrived.

 Waterbuck standing in the shadows, but facing the camera.  Look at those horns.

  He was nice enough to turn sideways for the camera, so you could see thhis nice horns.

 And then he had enough and ran off

Great way to finish the day with those last two animals.   I have now seen 5 of the BIG FIVE African animals in the wild:   Rhinos, Elephants, Hippos, Lions and the Cape Buffalo.    Oops,  no,  I’m wrong.   I just checked the Internet and the Hippo, although LARGE, is not part of the FIVE.  The 5^th one is the leopard (and I have not seen a wild or free one yet).  The term was coined way back when the Game Hunters were making BIG MONEY from hunting down the “big five”.

The drive back out of the Chobe National Park and to the border was uneventful.   Paid another $75 visa to get back into Zimbabwe !  What did the Canadian government do to “piss them off”?  I searched the internet and can see that Canada is involved in many ways in assisting (CIDA, assisting with HIV/AIDS pandemic, but it appears that we are not supporting Mugabe (failure to respect rules of human rights) and is more in agreement with the opposition parties for the upcoming 2012 elections.  Canada has banned the importation of arms and related materials to Zimbabwe, as well as any technical or financial assistance or service relating to these.  Mogabe is obviously not very happy with Canada’s decision and Canadian tourists are therefore having to pour money into his pockets to make up for it.

Got back to the hotel just before 6pm, very tired from the long day.   My knees are throbbing and so are both of my elbows and wrists.   Time for more Ibuprofen a nice long shower and more oxytetracycline for my cuts and scrapes.

I just counted 80 pictures that I’ve copied to post in my Blog.   This may take a while!  I may have to eliminate some of these;  sorry !