Chobe Safari May 09
Chobe, Savuti, Moremi and Back to Kasane.
Chef Shakka and Camp Manger Joe Mosheti
2nd May to 9th May 2009
Game Vehicle 10 Seater, nil back up except for resupply at Ngoma gate on the 4th of May.
Meeting strangers whose expectations can be difficult to fulfill is to me always exciting.
Chobe Safari lodge was the pick up point and we drove straight into the park.
We saw lots of Elephants and Giraffes at first, then a big herd of Buffaloes. From this point it was like we were watching Discovery channel as there was a large variety of game. People always tend to ignore the smaller game like Impala and Warthogs, unless they were mating. The Lions were deep in the thicket bushes but we could see a belly and one leg up in the air, obviously enjoying and afternoon siesta.
Dinner was interesting as one of the Guests only enjoyed eating rice and butter, a very strange diet but we catered to her every need, you could easily count the Grains of rice on her plate, I think there were no more than ten grains.
Post dinner the wind picked up, followed by sheet lightning and loud cracks of thunder, with the onslaught of the rain. A spectacle to watch and was enjoyed by all in the dryness of their tent except for myself.
Moving from Chobe to Savuti after our two days in Chobe was slow due to the wet kit but we managed. After collecting a few supplies at Ngoma gate we headed for Savuti which claimed our whole morning. We missed Lions in Savuti due to the time factor but we managed to see a Leopard enjoying its kill of an Impala under an Acacia Tree. Tsessebe, Impala, Warthogs, Wilderbeasts and lonely Elephant Bulls were also sighted.
African nights always amuse tourists, especially the first time visitors to this vast continent. Night sounds are our African wildlife songs but you always have to identify the singer.
The drive to Moremi was tiresome everyone had been warned but they enjoyed it nonetheless. We had our lunch at Khwai with the cheeky Vervet Monkeys ready to steal from anyone. We arrived at camp around 4pm; we did a short game drive which yielded hippos and crocs. After dinner everyone went to bed early as we had agreed on a 5:30am wake up call, after a long day this was much appreciated.
The morning game drive saw us tracking Lion for more than one hour, we eventual found one lying down on the side of the dirt road. One kilometre away there was a large herd of buffalo, estimation of over 200 of them. After scanning around the area we saw 9 lions hunting these Buffaloes. We stayed with the herd and the pride for almost four hours with several failed hunts. The guests understandably, did not want to go back to camp especially the one that didn’t care about food, but I told them we had to go otherwise the guys in camp would be worried. We went back to camp, 30 minutes was enough time in camp, so straight out we went again to see if the lions had succeded in making the kill. Again no kill and the guests wanted to stay there until something happened if possible, but it was not possible as the light started to fade.
The next day was at Santawani, a nice small lodge. The guest were taken care by the staff there for that night.
Although we had seen so much, the dream of our guests was to see wild dogs, unfortunately it was not possible. The Wild dog research centre which collar the dogs, said that they were too far away in a remote area without roads. A shame for our guests, but the information they received from the wild dog research people was really enjoyed by our guests.
We left Santawani on our drive back to Kasane, we were lucky to see a Cheetah which we watched for a while and 200 metres away a Leopard, what a sight. We enjoyed our long drive back and was to drop our guests back off to Chobe Safari Lodge.
There was so much excitement, and it was a pity for it to come to end.
Written by Guide Frank Chikosi.