Chobe National Park

After leaving Khwai, we almost immediately entered Chobe National Park.  The gate wasn’t for another 18 kms (11 miles) and while the scenery didn’t change, there was a sign indicating such.  We had been told it would take 5 hours to get to Savuti so we made our game drive that morning through the park.  We reached the Mabebe Gate and were the first ones in as it was still locked.  The woman filled us in on the details of the road and how to reach our campsite and we were off.

 

With our windows down, we could smell the trees that surrounded us.  As we continued on, the fields opened up.  This was the first time that we could see for such a distance, even more than in Nxai Pan.  There were zebras and impala drinking at the waterhole while ostriches and a warthog ate the grass behind them.  Even further behind were elephants and giraffes.  It was the closest that we’d seen to the amazing pictures of a waterhole filled with different species  of animals.

 

It was 64 kms (40 miles) from the Mabebe gate to Savuti with parts of it being sand, shallow pools of water, detours around the larger pools of water and lots of bumps and rivets.  Including a few stops to look at the animals, it took us 4 hours to make it to our campsite.  One of our stops was at the Kwando pan as we could see some zebra from the road through the tall grass.  We couldn’t believe what we found when we arrived.  There were more than 400 zebras around the pools of water.  They were scattered around the road and we drove little by little through the herd.  We could see even more in the distance with about 25 elephants speckled amongst them.

 

Savuti

Our assigned campsite was close to the office and staff quarters, which meant that we could hear the generator all night.  After spending most of our nights at campsites where we were basically the only ones, this was very different.  There was a little shop and we’d have to drive to the bathroom, for our safety as well as the distance.

After showering and prepping our fire for the night, we went out for our game drive.  They didn’t provide us with a map so we were relying solely on the routes shown on maps.me.  The woman at the camp office was not overly friendly and directed us to everywhere on her map without any specifics.

We went to a waterhole and arrived just in time to see 4 elephants going in for a dip.  The younger ones fought each other and we could hear the clashing of their ivory tusks.  They slowly made their way out of the water with the exception of one that stayed behind.  As he continued to play, 3 hippos made their appearance in the water.  They’d been hiding while they were outnumbered by the elephants, but they grunted to show their presence when it was just one.  The elephant trumpeted his disapproval before making a scene and leaving the water.

 

Tico had been encouraging me to drive since we got the truck, but I refused.  I didn’t like to watch us go through water so why would I want to drive through it.  But I decided it was time to give it a go.  We followed a safari truck for a bit as we weren’t sure which pools of water were safe.  The truck went one way and we went another and found a family of elephants with their young.  Not too long after, we switched drivers as we decided that we had our predefined roles and it would be easier (and more pleasant) to stick to them.

 

 

For sunset, we went to the Linyanti pan, which we later realized is where everyone else goes as well.  We found a spot to watch the sun and spotted movement not far away.  There were roughly 20 banded mongooses standing on their hind legs and digging in the ground.  They would communicate to one other through sounds and would take turns looking at us, but carried on in their search of food.

 

The next morning on the way to the waterhole we hit deep sand and decided to go back a little to let out air.  We could see the camp office across the river and felt safe to get out.  As we were working on the tires, we noticed cat tracks in the sand.  It reminded us that we were still in the bush and needed to be vigilant.  With less air, we returned to the waterhole to watch the hippos while giraffes ate off the trees nearby.

There is one spot in the park where you were allowed to get out besides the camps.  It was near a rock that could be climbed to look for bushman paintings.  The woman at the camp office told us that most had been washed away, but we could try to find them.  We looked at the overhang and saw nothing so decided to climb to the top since we were already there.  About halfway up, we looked out and saw an elephant and giraffe within a 800 meters (1/2 mile) of our parked car.  As we continued up, zebra, wildebeest and impala could be seen in the distance.

 

We couldn’t get up that far and not take a picture so Tico directed me where to stand.  As I stood on a rock that was on the edge, it started to tilt forward.  My reaction was to lean back, which kept me from falling down the face of the cliff.  With that, we decided it was time to get back in the car and explore a bit more.

 

We went back to where we’d found so many zebras the day before and found them fighting over the minerals they’d dug out of the dirt.  One would turn around give a swift kick to the other so it could have the spot to itself.  The wildebeest that was hanging out with the zebras started making noise and before long it’s calves were making their way over.  They left the group as did we since we needed to find internet to make the final arrangements for our truck rental drop-off.

 

The woman at the gate told us that one of the tented lodges had wifi so we headed down the sandy road to see what we could find.  The first lodge directed us to the next one.  As we pulled into the Elephant Lodge, Lindsey, one of the managers came out to greet us. She gave us a tour of the property, including one of the tents.  It gave us a glimpse of what luxury could be like.  The lodge is all-inclusive and has a waterhole in front of the restaurant.  All tents have indoor and outdoor showers and look nothing like a tent.  After the tour, Lindsey was kind to give us internet access so we could send one final email.

Linyanti

From the lodge, we drove the 40 kms (25 miles) to Linyanti.  The road had a couple sections of deep sand and several pools of mud so it took us 2 hours to get there.  At the camp office, the woman informed us that there was no game, but there were birds and migrating butterflies.  We were a little surprised by this information, but decided we’d drive around regardless.  But first, we went to see our campsite.  It was just above the Linyanti River with a view across to Namibia.

We tried our luck with a game drive, but only saw an elephant.  There were 2 routes that went to the riverfront, labeled Route 2 and Route 3.  We entered at Route 3 only to see the path disappear within a few meters so we backed out and continued on the main road.  When we reached Route 2, we decided to give it another try.  The path looked a little more traveled and it took us next to the river.  It went amongst the trees and disturbed the hundreds of mosquitos in the grass that then swarmed the car.  We carried along as far as we could stopping to look out across the river, but found nothing.  Once the path was no longer recognizable, we turned around and went back to camp to watch the sunset over the lagoon.

 

 

We had hoped that this would be our chance to see hippos out of the water as we normally had to leave the hippo pool after sunset.  While we fought off the mosquitos and set up camp, we watched the hippos through the binoculars.  One swam across the lagoon as a crocodile swam in the opposite direction, but none of them left the water that we could see.  After it was dark, the hippos around us grunted and splashed in the water.  We used our headlamps to try to find them using their noises and found 2 green eyes looking back at us from a pool below.  Although Tico was able to see its silhouette as it walked out of the water for its nightly feeding, it was different than we had imagined.

Savuti

We had a slow morning before making the trek back to Savuti, where we’d spend our last night with the truck and in the Botswana bush.  Once back, we cleaned up the truck as it was completely covered in mud, especially the passenger side.  After the heat of the day subsided, we headed back to the Kwando pan to see what was happening there.  We found the zebras and some giraffes and were going towards the waterhole when someone stopped us.  They said they’d spotted a leopard about a kilometer away and to look for the other cars.  We found everyone and waited for a bit, but didn’t end up seeing the leopard.  So we went to Linyanti pan one last time to look for wild dogs.

 

 

We watched as the wildebeest and impala made their way home for the night and could feel the tension in the air.  In small groups, they would sprint across the pan to safety.  It was as if they knew the predators typically attack at a certain spot.  Once they’d all gathered near the trees, we went to get a closer look at a few giraffes before making one last dinner by the campfire.  Our campsite for the night was a big improvement from our first in Savuti.  We felt secluded and had a view of the dry Savuti canal directly in front.

 

The next morning we left as the sun was rising to make sure we had enough time to get to Kasane.  Our experiences with the roads had taught us that we couldn’t underestimate the kilometers.  We followed the signs and checked our route with our GPS.  We saw elephants and a jackal as we worked our way to the gate.  The road progressively got worse.  It was pool of water after pool of water.  At one point, we even managed to get a branch stuck under the truck.  Tico tried to see it from his side and actually fell out of the truck to the ground.  I managed to reach it from my side and pulled it loose.

 

As we reached the end, we saw a sign blocking our route.  The difficulty of the road made complete sense suddenly.  It appeared that the road we had just taken was closed, but someone had removed the sign on the end closest to Savuti.  We verified this with the man at the gate, but he didn’t seem overly concerned about it.  Our point was that if it really was closed then no one would be coming to save us had we gotten stuck.

 

Regardless, it was a great way to wrap up our time with the 4×4 rental. We’d been through countless pools of water, in deep sand and even got stuck to the point of being pulled out.  The truck let us see areas that we wouldn’t have seen on a regular safari and had been our home for over 3 weeks.

Helpful tips:

• Savuti
  • Paradise is the best campsite while CV-4 is a close 2nd.
• Linyanti
  • CV-1 has the best view of the lagoon
  • Don’t expect to see many animals in the thick bush if visiting in rainy season.