Chobe and Moremi of Botswana

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From Kasane in the far north of Botswana we explored the Chobe National Park a bit - not a lot: a day drive and a river cruise. The riverfront cruise was brilliant and we would recommend this as essential for everyone - someone had recommended booking through Water Lily Lodge as they had small boats and this was a good choice. It was beautiful out on the water and animals seemed to appear on demand: hippo, crocs, elephants, buffalo, various antelope, water monitors, baboons, giraffes - and just masses of birds. There was one very exciting (not quite the right word - rather scary and horrific when you think of the consequences...) when a hippo chased our boat - it was nearly gaining on us at one point.......phew. Our boatman did tend to take us in rather close. We didn’t really see much on our own drive in the park and saw more next morning when we left at 7am going through the tar transit road.
At this stage we were still trying to work out our next move - we how to get through the Chobe National Park down to Maun somehow but as we had no camp bookings and couldn’t get any. This seems a common problem for independent travellers as everyone we spoke to had the same stories of all full up months and months ahead - then when you drive by the camps they are rather empty. The choice was to miss chunks of the park and return on the tar road through 130 kms of the most ENORMOUS potholes around through Nata or a 9 hour 4x4 trip on sandy tracks driving right through the parks and out the other side in one hit. Mmmmmmm..........bit tricky.
Well we braved the sand and Hugh had had his fill of 4x4 sand driving+++++++ not to mention the old slippery log bridge trick across the River Kwai! The great-white Toyota hunter has become the great white sand-cruiser. Hugh did admit later that a few kms into the first stretch of deep, deep red sand he had thought to himself “my gosh, if its like this all the way...don’t know about this!!” It wasn’t all deep sand but there were huge stretches of it. One of the trickiest things was meeting a car on a narrow bit where there were only two ruts and bushes and stumps all along the edge. We learned later the trick of staring the on-coming car down but during that day we were very polite and each time found a place to edge right up the 50cm high sandbanks, avoiding sharp mopane stumps to let others through. We would have met about 15 other vehicles.
One group were well and truly stuck - and were blocking the road. The 2 older American men were out digging sand away and laying logs - turned out they had normal pressure in their tyres so with that lowered once by Hugh then again further by a park man they resumed their journey. Near the end there was the slippery log bridge - well Barbara and I said we’re walking over - H said we had to keep him lined up on the 3rd log as either side of this we’d be slipping in the water. All was executed magnificently!!! This was some drive and very good fun in hindsight! We did hear later that some poor german couple had gone off the edge and that the water was at least a metre deep - took 3 other S Africans 2 ½ hrs to help get them out. (You’re always exchanging stories with other travellers!!)
We had a few days before our booked Moremi safari so we drove off east to Gweta - out into the salt pan area armed with firewood and three big T-bone steaks - as you do. Well, just as with many others I’m sure, the veterinary stop midway put paid to that (guess this is exactly the same place as for you K and A - you stock up in the decent supermarkets in Maun and...). You pass from a foot and mouth infected area to one that is free and they search your chilly bin and confiscate fresh meat of cloven-hoofed animals. He said you can take cooked meat and left the pastrami alone. We decided there and then that we would have a big steak sandwich for lunch so drove in behind them under a tree and cooked it on the gas on the back tailgate of the truck - midst a bit of watching by various children who appeared from somewhere....
Out at Gweta we stayed in another very good camp/lodge place: Gweta Lodge in the town (Planet Baobab gets very good press in the Lonely Planet but this place was just great). We left a bit late in the day to set out for the giant baobabs and salt pans and didn’t get right onto the pans but with the aid of Hugh’s trusty GPS we navigated some rather obscure tracks out there and back. Right on dusk out there was quite a sight of cattle and goats being herded into the original ok corral made of vertical stakes only with dust filling the air.
Back in Maun we met Shylock, our driver/guide and young Simon, our cook for the next 3 days. We got shopping instructions for the food (Shylock has gout and Simon wants to cook the African way - we did decide that we didn’t want mealie pap though!!) that we supplied and loaded up next morning for a 3-4 hour drive into the Moremi Park. Hugh had to drop the sand-cruiser off first for its second service and replacement of the left back spring which has broken - while we are away being driven for 3 days. We had booked this safari with Afro Trek because back in February we couldn’t get camp bookings in Moremi either - this 3 day self-catering being the cheapest we could find amidst quotes of upwards of $300US a day. This one is pretty expensive anyway by our standards at $525US for 3 days!!!! Each that is, so we had high expectations.
I’ll say right now that we loved the whole 3 days and are very glad we did this however there were some very strange things that seem to be beyond anyone’s control. The camp booking system is crazy - and we found that Afro Trek didn’t even have bookings despite our booking and paying for the trip 4 months in advance!! They relied upon Shylock sweet-talking his way into a camp when we arrived at the gate - well!!!!!! Turns out that this time he couldn’t get into the 3rd Bridge camp that he wanted so we were at North gate - not as good an area for game. He went out of his way to drive all the middle day in and out of every nook and cranny (for 12 hours) where he had ever seen a lion - as that is again what we were after. Ironically on the last morning drive, another guide (you stop and talk to everyone) told us of a lion just by a rather main road - brilliant! He just sat ther about 3m away licking and cleaning just like your cat at home - then flopped down in the shade. Another male was also just lying there playing dead so Shylock thought he would tease him a bit. He just glanced at us disdainfully and strolled over to another spot further away.
The driving in Moremi was watery as many tracks just skirt around these far reaches of the water of the Okavengo delta and apparently they had late heavy rain in June/July which has blocked off some tracks. Twice we went through water crossings where it came over the bonnet of our big safari vehicle. Many times though Shylock found another way around as he was an old and wily driver who did not want to get stuck. We loved seeing the birds in Moremi especially. We were very lucky to catch a honey badger digging and scuttling along furiously - after insects, scorpion, rats and mice apparently!!
We were treated with great style in the camp: Simon set up all the tents for us while we sat with our G&Ts. Dinner was served complete with tablecloth, napkins and wine glasses. Our early morning call came with hot water for washing in canvas basins on stands beside each tent. Very nice!! We were served with African stew (and rice) on the first night - dosed with curry powder under our instruction and on the second night our lovely sirloin steaks were rather charred but the foil baked potatoes and sweet potatoes were great. All good though.
We arrived back to find a list of other troubles with the sand-cruiser: they had fixed the spring but bizzarely hadn’t done the service Hugh had asked for. They said you asked us to go through the checklist we had supplied from DriveAfrica which they said they did check but didn’t carry out such things as change the oil - lord knows what they did so the truck is back there today. Many $$$ later I guess we’ll be on the road again. Tomorrow we head for the NW side of the Okavengo delta for a 3 day mokoro trip.

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Photos

stork and spoonbill
they had amazingly differetn feeding styles