From Kasane to the Chobe River Front
After returning from Savuti we first drove to Kasane to fill up with fuel and do some shopping. On the way from town to the ‘Chobe River Front’ something odd happened: Not far from a T-stop heading to the park entrance, we were stopped by a police patrol.
It was claimed that we had not stopped 100%, but had ‘minimally rolled’. There was no evidence, yet discussion was futile. They gave us the minimum fine: 1000 Pula, which is just under 100 Swiss Francs. Discipline was necessary not to become abusive.
Kasane is similar to Arusha in Tanzania
Kasane reminded us of Arusha in Tanzania. There are countless safari companies, and it is teeming with game vehicles. A similar picture shows up in Kasane. A multitude of game vehicles drives through the city and offers tourists game drives of several hours through the park. We don’t know where all the tourists come from to fill these cars, but it seems to work somehow.
The park runs beautifully along the riverbank and offers many trails and driving opportunities to explore the wildlife. In a few places, a one-way road system has been developed to avoid getting stuck in deep sand while swerving to avoid oncoming vehicles.
Abundance all over
We are now traveling in the off-season, which is a real advantage for us. There are fewer people on the road and no crowds. Another advantage of the rainy season showed up obviously now. There is an excessive abundance in nature!
Everything is green and everywhere the grasses are sprouting and carpets of flowers cover the plains. Many animals have offspring and there is an exuberant hustle and bustle. We accept that sightings are more difficult than in the dry season because there is water everywhere and water holes lose their importance. The dense foliage makes sightings difficu
Beautiful sightings
We observed elephants taking a mud bath, and watched a giraffe eating grass. A hippo on land was mowing the lawn. We had the chance to sit among baboons for an hour and were allowed to observe their social behavior. At the end of the day while heading to our campsite at Ihaha Camp, we found 8 lions relaxing in the immediate vicinity of the camp.
Unfortunately, they did not get up for hunting, and so we left them and drove to our campsite. The camp is located in the park and while we were still busy preparing dinner, the first elephant passed the camp about 20 – 30 meters away from us.
There were more and more, and spontaneously we moved our dinner, took our plates and a beer, sat down on a huge tree trunk and watched the herd during our meal. What a great, deeply satisfying experience.
