In the Land of the Tswana (Botswana)
I love this photo too! 🤩
In the Land of the Tswana (Botswana)
10/07/2019: Chobe Riverfront (1/2)
Once again, we wake up very early because today we're heading to the Chobe Riverfront, the part of Chobe National Park near Kasane. On the GPS, we see that a track leads almost directly from Senyati Safari Camp without passing through Kasane: you just keep going straight when you leave the camp and reach the paved road. Of course, it's a track where a 4x4 is necessary. We spot a group of sable antelopes there. Again, our friends didn't have as much courage as we did, so we enter the park alone via the Sedudu Gate, a national park renowned for its large concentrations of wildlife of all species. We'd read that there might be restrictions on entry times for self-drivers, but we had no problem. However, we're unpleasantly surprised by all the "tourist shuttles" driving around—many more than in Moremi, for example. They ferry travelers staying in the park's lodges and in Kasane who don't have their own vehicle.
Early in the morning, we sometimes find ourselves in a long line, especially on the track along the river. We don’t like it, so we leave the area to take tracks further inside the park. These are very sandy, and we see very few animals.
As a result, we eventually turn toward the Chobe River, where the "tourist shuttles" are fortunately less concentrated than near the entrance. But even there, we're disappointed by the relative scarcity of animals.
For several kilometers, the banks of the Chobe River are almost deserted. For lunch, we decide to stop at the Serondela picnic area. As is often the case in parks, it's not fenced off from wildlife, and more unusually, it's located in a very wooded area where you can't see animals approaching. The car trunk was barely open when we were surrounded by vervet monkeys. They quickly became threatening and even aggressive when we tried to shoo them away: they bared their sharp canines while growling. Without hesitation, we quickly closed the trunk and decided to leave. One of the vervets then tried to open a rear door of the 4x4 (I don’t even want to imagine the panic if it had managed to get inside), then it climbed onto the roof and finally gave up as we started moving. This little adventure reminded us that we're in the heart of nature—magnificent but very wild.
Even though we feel like we haven’t seen as many animals as we’d hoped, when we take stock of our "safari" around midday, we’ve still spotted elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, zebras, kudus, mongooses, warthogs, impalas, sable antelopes, roan antelopes, monkeys, and lots of birds. I think our frustration comes from the fact that we haven’t come across any predators or scavengers. Still full of hope, we continue to the Ihaha camp, then turn back. Since this is our only day in the Chobe Riverfront, we won’t see anything of the western part of the park. What a shame!
Once again, we wake up very early because today we're heading to the Chobe Riverfront, the part of Chobe National Park near Kasane. On the GPS, we see that a track leads almost directly from Senyati Safari Camp without passing through Kasane: you just keep going straight when you leave the camp and reach the paved road. Of course, it's a track where a 4x4 is necessary. We spot a group of sable antelopes there. Again, our friends didn't have as much courage as we did, so we enter the park alone via the Sedudu Gate, a national park renowned for its large concentrations of wildlife of all species. We'd read that there might be restrictions on entry times for self-drivers, but we had no problem. However, we're unpleasantly surprised by all the "tourist shuttles" driving around—many more than in Moremi, for example. They ferry travelers staying in the park's lodges and in Kasane who don't have their own vehicle.
Early in the morning, we sometimes find ourselves in a long line, especially on the track along the river. We don’t like it, so we leave the area to take tracks further inside the park. These are very sandy, and we see very few animals.
As a result, we eventually turn toward the Chobe River, where the "tourist shuttles" are fortunately less concentrated than near the entrance. But even there, we're disappointed by the relative scarcity of animals.
For several kilometers, the banks of the Chobe River are almost deserted. For lunch, we decide to stop at the Serondela picnic area. As is often the case in parks, it's not fenced off from wildlife, and more unusually, it's located in a very wooded area where you can't see animals approaching. The car trunk was barely open when we were surrounded by vervet monkeys. They quickly became threatening and even aggressive when we tried to shoo them away: they bared their sharp canines while growling. Without hesitation, we quickly closed the trunk and decided to leave. One of the vervets then tried to open a rear door of the 4x4 (I don’t even want to imagine the panic if it had managed to get inside), then it climbed onto the roof and finally gave up as we started moving. This little adventure reminded us that we're in the heart of nature—magnificent but very wild.
Even though we feel like we haven’t seen as many animals as we’d hoped, when we take stock of our "safari" around midday, we’ve still spotted elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, zebras, kudus, mongooses, warthogs, impalas, sable antelopes, roan antelopes, monkeys, and lots of birds. I think our frustration comes from the fact that we haven’t come across any predators or scavengers. Still full of hope, we continue to the Ihaha camp, then turn back. Since this is our only day in the Chobe Riverfront, we won’t see anything of the western part of the park. What a shame!
