Advertisement
Published: September 30th 2007
Eric The Poler
Eric the Poler - man of many goats (and therefore a wealthy man)!October 2005
After our brief initial stay in Zambia, we crossed to Botswana at the Kazangulu Ferry border crossing. The Zambian side of the border crossing on the Zambezi was chaos - queues of trucks, queues of people and queues of pretty much anything else you could care to mention. It didn’t seem conceivable that all these large trucks were going to get across the river on a couple of minuscule ferries and indeed as this is written, a copper truck rolled off a ferry at this very crossing a few days ago. It also didn’t seem a good bet that we were going to get across in a big hurry either. However as with the border formalities on arrival in Lusaka, the experienced guide obviously knew the processes, procedures, people and how to make that queue disappear for us - in the end we were only delayed 20 minutes or so.
The crossing was short and uneventful - the hippos in the river stayed a respectful distance - and we were soon on the Botswana side. You won’t be surprised to hear there were more queues heading back in the direction of Livingstone - a fair proportion seemingly
pick up trucks laden down with barrels of fuel to take back into Zambia to keep them driving. The Botswanan border required no visa and was fairly straightforward - alas the ultimate souvenir of condoms with the Botswana flag handed out at customs had run out!
The initial observation was that Botswana seemed more prosperous than a few miles away in Zambia. The situation at independence in the mid 1960’s was apparently the reverse - Zambia being the second richest nation on the continent after South Africa. The houses seemed of better construction and the highway was by and large in a different league. We ploughed on towards Chobe, interrupted by various roadblocks set up in the interests of foot and mouth prevention!
We set up camp near one of the safari lodges in Chobe National Park and by now we were all obviously experts in assembling our temporary homes on the double. We headed out on a wildlife cruise on to the river - the main focus of which is the large concentration of elephants that congregate here in the dry season. The numbers are no exaggeration, although it’s difficult to keep track of how many are
St Louis Lager
Collect ring pulls for your chance to win a herd of cows! actually in your field of vision at any one time. Elephants can be pretty dangerous if they are annoyed and we’ve been the subject of a bit of ear flapping in Kruger when they were letting everyone know in the cars - you are too close. However the boat allows good close access, the elephants don’t seem as stressed by your presence and just generally carry on doing what elephants do in and near water. The vast number of elephants that remain around Chobe is by all accounts something in their diet that restricts tusk growth - just check out the small tusks on these photographs compared to those in our Kruger Park blogs. The ivory traders figured that it was an awful long way to go when there were bigger pickings closer to a main port.
The other main wildlife we saw were a sprinkling of crocs, some big concentrations of hippos (albeit not intending to walk down the street as in St Lucia, South Africa) and a variation of antelope. The river borders on to Namibia. The evening was spent around the lodge, which contained a combination of different folk ranging from the overlanders to the high
Okavango Delta
The visibility from our mokoro leves a bit to be desired. and mighty.
In the morning, we headed off for a game drive. The elephants were obviously having a sleep in, but we did spot a hyena scavenging on a kill. We got a distant view of a pride of lions - and by distant, I mean distant hence the lack of a photo which showed just how good the camoflage is! The buffalo weren’t as camera shy, but then they aren’t the shy and retiring types.
The journey south was towards Nata was pretty uneventful, after the surge of elephant spotting from the truck on the outskirts of the National Park. The land and the scenery soon dries out as you leave the flood plains of the river, but the elephants obviously find the bush an attractive dining area judging by the numbers. The scrub forest gives way to mopani bush and then on to salt flats and is quite monotonous. The sealed roads are extremely straight for the most part and we actually got pulled up by a speed trap at one point - once again a bit of gentle persuasion seemed to keep the boys in blue happy and we were off with a ticking off.
Okavango Delta
Part of the group stood on an anthill We arrived in Maun in late afternoon in time for a scenic flight over the Okovango Delta. The largest inland Delta in the world is very large, but obviously the true perspective is only available from the air. The air or by mokoro - the local dug out canoe - are the only ways to travel in the Delta. The vast areas of grassland are crossed by water channels, which act as highways for both mokoro and animal. The animals are obviously much easier to spot from the air.
We camped just outside Maun, before heading into the Delta the following morning. It was time for a repack of the old rucksack, as all we were allowed to take for the next couple of days were the contents of a daysack - it makes deciding on your wardrobe much easier i.e. you have no choice. It was John’s birthday whilst we in the Delta, but obviously the logistics of the cake transportation weren’t going to work in a mokoro. The “birthday party” was therefore a cake and St Louis session back at the campsite on dry land the day before the actual date. The preferred beer in these
parts is St Louis - not to everybody’s taste as it is bit weak, but with some seriously good marketing. What other beer in the world gives you the chance to win a herd of cows for collecting your ring pulls? Who needs those World Cup tickets from Bud?
We left our rucksacks behind on the truck and were transported with our bare minimum of worldly goods - no toiletries or soap allowed so as not to pollute the water - and were transported to our new vessels for the next three days. At the mokoro station, you were selected by a ready and able poler. There was probably some order to the proceedings, but it’s anybody’s guess what that order was and “Bob” became our man for the next few days. After a suitable application of factor 30 and wedging the day sack’s into position in the mokoro, we were off on highways of the Delta. The pots, pans, camping equipment and kitchen sink were all loaded on to accompanying mokoros to be transported along behind. The poler gets a good view of proceedings and alerts you to nearby wildlife. However, it’s a bit tricky trying to get
Okavango Delta
Eric "driving" his mokoro any elevation to your view in the mokoro without taking a nosedive into the water or sinking the thing! There were some polers who actually had fibreglass mokoros that seemed a bit more stable, but that wasn’t really in the spirit of the occasion. It was very noticeable that every time we arrived at a deep pool the polers would take us on a major detour into the reeds - apparently hippos lurk at these spots and could obviously overturn the mokoro and it’s occupants and probably do serious damage thereafter.
It was difficult to actually tell how far we travelled before reaching our camp. There was a slight delay unloading, whilst the elephant who was far to close to the proposed site was monitored. We set up camp in a clearing next to the main channel and set up the tents. The camp was fairly basic - a proper bush camp with no facilities except the gear brought with us. The main focus of the days was the early morning and sunset bush walks in pursuit of game. Bob and Eric were the main men - as you see from the picture, Eric came armed and extremely dangerous
Kazangulu Ferry
Arriving in Botswana - the Ferry across the Zambezi River whilst Bob settled for his trusty box of matches as a defence against inquisitive and dangerous wildlife. Bob’s other concession to the walks was abandoning his trusty bare feet in favour of his silver predator style football boots - they allegedly might not protect your metetarsal, but they’re good bush boots. The closest we came to lion was a very fresh print, but there was a very unexpected meeting with a very large male elephant who appeared out of the bush from absolutely nowhere. Bob stayed calm and unfussed by it all - the box of matches were clearly a great reassurance to us as this stage - though it clearly took him by surprise too! The other main game that we saw in the Delta were buffalo, more elephants and hippos. The viewings weren't really that close, as it's not like you can just drive up to the game out here. However, a bush walking safari certainly has an up close and personal feel to it.
The rest of the days out in the Delta were a restful time - let's face it, there isn't exactly a lot to do. It's one of those "you have to be
Chobe River
Sunset on the Chobe River there moments". It was generally a quiet birthday - mokoros are not really designed to transport vast quantites of ale! A camp fire, a few marshmallows and some top star gazing.
After the delta, we retraced our steps via Nata back to the Zambian border. We camped on the edge of the Magadikgadi Pans under a baobab tree for our last night on Botswanan soil. The campsite was a bit of a dustbowl, but it had one of the finer lampshades of any bar for miles.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0332s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
