September 3, 2019: Kasane, Botswana: Warthogs on the Sidewalk, Monkeys in the Hotel, Hippos in the River and a Touch of Gatlinburg in Between

Friendly neighborhood warthog having a sprawl in the freshly watered hotel garden.

"A roaring lion catches no game."

                                                 Ugandan proverb

Botswana is a sparsely populated country in Sub-Saharan Africa that's major economy is based on diamond mines, gold, uranium and to a significant extent, tourism. For Africa, it is a very stable and economically stable place. It managed to accidentally escape incorporation by the Pommies into South Africa and was merely a protectorate, avoiding the scar of apartheid. Education is a priority to the country and consumes about 20% of the tax dollars.  Unfortunately, there is a high concentration of HIV affecting perhaps up to 25% of the population. The geography of the country is that it is mostly a flat plain at an average of 3300 feet of elevation. The Kalahari Desert and Okavango Delta are famous regions most North Americans have at least a vague familiarity with. 

Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our unplugged existence in the Okavango Delta and fly North to the city of Kasane, which is the jumping off point for the Chobe National Park.  We have been flying on bush plains and getting a good look at the drought conditions below.  

To give you a bit more background information, the Okavango Delta is an inland swamp that forms where the Okavango River meets a tectonic trough in the Kalahari desert. Interestingly, the water is all eventually evaporated and never flows into any sea or ocean. The Delta is produced during the rainy season from waters that originate in Angola. Peak water levels are usually reached between June and August and attract wildlife.  Yet this balance can be upset by drought, and animals and people alike are heading into difficult times. Summer rainfall was well below average and temperatures soared, resulting in pans and normally perennial rivers drying out. 2019 floods also failed as there was very low rainfall in the Oka­vango catchment in Angola. These dry conditions are affecting the vegetation of the Delta and posing a risk to the wildlife. We saw plenty of animals, but the drought has definitely affected their food and water sources and caused them stress.

One other point of interest is that the area we've been in  is flat as a pancake.

The dry, flat Okavango Plain, a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE.

By contrast, when we arrived in Kasane, a tourist city of about 15,000 people on the Chobe River, conditions were quite different.

The Cuando-Lityani-Chobe-Zambesi river courses over 400 miles through the countries of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambi providing a water source for abundant wildlife (and humans.)

We were driven from the airport to The Chobe Safari Lodge, a very nice modern hotel more like a really nice Hilton resort and nothing like our tent in the bush. Warthogs and mongoose and the occasional monkey scurried over the roads and sidewalks as we made our way. The ground here is definitely hilly and it has all the earmarks of a tourist town with billboards and signs advertising lodging, restaurants and tour operators.

Every street of Kasane is a warthog crossing :)

I never thought staying in a fancy hotel would be a let-down, but after a few nights in the bush (albeit catered to in better than local conditions), you don't miss the fancy hotel room all that much.

Even though it is a fancy hotel, they need this sign!

Fortunately, once we got out to see the animals and particularly on the Chobe River in the float boats, I got over my dismay. The river is such an important and life-sustaining geographic feature, the wildlife flock to it. And you can't dislike that! I would recommend to other travellers to keep your time at the Chobe National Park to a minimum, but DEFINITELY go there. The animal life on the river is amazing. The float trips tend to circumnavigate an island in the channel of the Chobe National Park called Sedudu Island. There was almost a war over it when both Namibia and Botswana claimed this wildlife rich plot of land in the middle of the river. The dispute was settled by the Hague instead who awarded the island to Botswana, as the location of main channel of a river determines island ownership per international law. Who knew? Probably for the best as Botswana claim that Namibia would have used it to farm and it is part of their conservation efforts.

The object of dispute

I will let the photos do most of the talking here and tell the story through the captions. Enjoy!

I'll leave you with a quote about the area from a much better writer:

“The small town of Kasane stands on the high veld plains of the northern horn of Botswana, a tourist haven shouldering the economy of the small but rich country.

The town is located some one thousand kilometers north-east of the Capital City, Gaborone, with its hard blue skies and river-clear air, Kasane is a piece of paradise in this desert region; a shit-hole for the natives apparently as I was to learn, but still the place is a slice of heaven for tourists coming from outside.

At the center of the small town resides an underrated true wonder of nature. A place called Plateau from which one can observe a pack of lions stalking a herd of Zebras; wildebeests crowded together like bees; a fish eagle splashing against the slow moving river and come out bearing a fighting catfish; herds of elephants and Buffaloes grazing and browsing the green mass of flora that escorts what seems like a coiling dark green phantom.

The entire place below Plateau to the north is a wide array of interconnected channels, caressed on the sides by tall evergreen grass. The true wonder that is the exemplar of the Chobe District.

The gravel to the height of ‘Plateau’ snakes through tall, fat baobab trees rising and falling, offering breathtaking views of the dense ridges, then dipping into creeks filled with clusters of dilapidated shacks and mobile homes with junk cars and abandoned road construction machinery scattered about. It clings to more defined creeks with shallow rapids and water clear enough to drink.” 

― Thabo Katlholo

Wandering and Pondering Paul Parris

PAUL'S PONDERINGS:   As noted above, it was a sort of weird letdown when we moved here, after such a spectacular time south of Kasane in the bush.    But, we warmed up to it, particularly on the boat cruise where we saw an amazing amount of wildlife.     We started the day at 545 am with a game drive.   Probably the main new-ish thing there was a large herd of baboons on the move with babies among them being carried.  

Kasane is a small town sprawled out along a road that when going in one direction leads to the Zimbabwean border in about 10 miles or so.    It's about a 10 minute drive from the local airport, which would put many US airports to shame....very nice facility and very modern.   Obviously a gateway to the area which has a large tourism component.   

One of the more interesting parts of these African trips (or any trip for that matter) is the option to try some foods you would never see at home under any circumstance.    On this part of the trip, the item in question was wildebeest in the form of kebabs.    Lots of game meats have a, well, gamey taste that can sometimes be a little off putting.    Not so in this case!    This is like a really good red meat steak with some nice flavor....very enjoyable and cooked just right at our lodge.  

The weather here at night was much warmer than south....we needed A/C at night (which we had) versus nearly freezing in the natural vented air in our previous location.     It was very hot during the day as well, but cooler on the river (no surprise).

Botswana as a whole is a really great place to experience Africa and I'd highly recommend it.   Tomorrow we head to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, which we visited 3-4 years ago and enjoyed, so this is a return event to see the massive site of these falls off the Zambezi river, which we floated on upstream today (under another name).   

A mature male lion encountered on the morning game drive.

We got a big kick out of watching and following a large troupe of baboons.

Mama and her baby carriage

A tree climbing little one. Like a human mother, this one's told it to come down from there.

Birds do it, bees do it. Yep. Baboons do it in front of safari goers!

African vultures waiting their turn

The ever present acacia tree is a favorite of the elephants.

Monkeys monkeying around in a culvert at the hotel.

The biggest treat of the visit to Chobe National Park was the river boat float. We saw so many animals and they didn't seem to interpret the boats as threatening in the same way they did the motorized vehicles on land.

There are an estimated 90,000 elephants in Chobe national park and there is a military unit set up specifically to keep poachers away from them. 

The African openbill feeds almost exclusively on aquatic snails and freshwater mussel, but isn't too proud to also eat terrestrial snail, frogs, crabs, fish, worms, and large insects. It uses its bill to detects its prey, and can use it in such a way that it easily pries open molluscs. It likes to eat alone.

The African darter is often seen sitting along the waterside spreading its wings and drying its feathers in the wind and the sun. Because it often is submerged up to the neck, it is often called the snakebird.

 A gregarious animal, the waterbuck may form herds consisting of six to 30 individuals. I culled this lovely male's photo from his harem of ladies and babies. The waterbuck cannot tolerate dehydration in hot weather, and thus inhabits areas close to sources of water in which they can feed on grasses, such a Sedudu Island in the Chobe River. 

Elephants are great swimmers and we caught this one crossing from Sedudu Island to the  opposite shore. After replacing his mud layer to keep off the insects, we discovered elephants are NOT great climbers. Yep, he is NOT doing a yoga pose. It was funny to watch him struggle up the bank and the story had a happy ending.

Wallowing hippos with egret hitchhikers

When we saw this giraffe from the boat, I thought it was assuming the water-drinking position, which is actually quite dangerous for them and makes them vulnerable to predator cats, but it ends up it was licking the soil. The guide says that particular area serves as a salt lick.

Giraffe version of downward dog?

The yellow billed storks feed patiently by walking through the water with partially open bills and probe the water for prey. Contact of the bill with a prey item is followed by a rapid snap-bill reflex, whereby the bird snaps shut its mandibles, raises its head and swallows the prey whole. They like to follow hippos and crocodiles to take advantage of what is churned up by the larger animals.

The obligatory sunset photo off Sedudu Island