3 nights Chobe, 3 nights Savute
Christie Safari February 2011
The Chobe region has been very dry with very little rain over the February period, however the clouds started to form the morning of this safari, we managed most of the time to dodge the rain with great sightings along the way.
What a way to start off the Safari season with three nights in Chobe National Park. At this time of year everything is looking nice and green and it sometimes difficult to spot the animals, however I always find that Chobe never really disappoints as there is always something to see from the array of flora and fauna that this area has to offer.
The first day we were lucky enough to see hundreds of elephants congregating on the Chobe flood plains (which by the way are getting smaller due to the floods). Other sightings throughout our stay included Lions, Impalas, Buffaloes, Puku, Red Lechwe, Waterbucks, Kudu, Sable, Hyeana (during the day) and Warthogs not to mention the flocks of White faced ducks and Comb Ducks. My clients also did a boat cruise and this is a great way to see the park from the river, they were lucky enough to see a male lion walking along the shore.The animal that stole the show in Chobe was the secretive Leopard, well it seemed that this Leopard was not that secretive as it walked on the road then played around. It was very nice to see and my guests were so excited. The night times were full of good food, good company and laughter around the camp fire.
We left Chobe and then drove onto Savute, another very special place especially due to the flow of the Savute channel. The camp was set up very nice by the Shakka and Joseph when we arrived. Savute also was looking lovely and green and the animals looked very well. Savute is famous for its large bull elephants and my guests got to see them. We were also lucky enough to see different birds like the Black Korhaan, Red-crested Korhaan as well as many Ground Hornbill’s. It was very nice to see the Hornbills as they are considered globally threatened.
We had a wonderful sighting of a Lioness with two cubs who I would say would have been less than a month old, we drove all the way to the marsh area for this sighting. My guests really enjoyed Savute as did I showing them around the beautiful area.
Shakka our chef made wonders in the kitchen and made sure nobody went hungry and enjoyed all of the meals. One of the guest’s claimed that she did not know Shakka, but knew of his food despite being introduced to him. When I happily reintroduced Shakka she was over the moon and gave him a big hug and thanked him for the wonderful cooking that he done. We all laughed and had a great time that night, but to be fair we had a great time throughout the trip.
The safari ended very well in Savute with my clients in tears, my clients were flying onto Maun that day then onto Joburg. My clients did say that they would love to come back and I really hope that you do. I really enjoyed guiding you once again and hope to see you again soon.
All the very best
Frank