seeking-wonder, Author at Seeking Wonder

The Charms of Chobe

Oct 15, 2022 | Birding, Botswana, Chobe National Park, Fly Fishing, Overlanding

Tourists! Flocks, herds and throngs of them. They always seem to congregate in places filled with luxury lodges, curios shops and high speed wi-fi. More often than not, these upmarket drawcards are in postcard-perfect locations marketed worldwide as the place to spend some dollars. Botswana’s Chobe National Park and its immediate surroundings is exactly such a place. Naturally, we try and avoid places where game-viewer vehicle rush hour traffic is a thing. However, there is likely a reason why this area is so popular, so we did our best to find out why, looking beyond the main tourist trail to explore the various facets the area has on offer. Here are some of the adventures we enjoyed.

Not your average booze cruise

Starting off strongly on the tourist trail, a cruise on the Chobe River is highly recommended. Forming the border between the park and Namibia, this unique river system joins the Zambezi at Kasane just outside the park and can flow both into or out of the Zambezi depending on flood and rain levels. It is an absolute haven for wildlife in an otherwise rather dry park, and birds flock to the floodplains, islands and waterways in their thousands to breed and feed. One has to put up with many other boats filled with straw-hatted Karens more interested in the cooler box, or swivel-chaired retirees wielding 800 mm lenses to presumably photograph bird eye balls (yes, we are jealous). However, it was still very much worth it.

We saw herds of drinking elephants closer than we ever dreamt possible – no 800 mm even needed. Water-loving red lechwes lazed about on the weeded margins and even a few puku, their scarcer cousins, put in a guest appearance. Masses of buffalo sloshed through the flooded islands with yellow-billed oxpeckers and egrets in attendance. We saw wonderful birds new to us, such as rare long-toed lapwings, oddly shaped collared pratincoles, agile African skimmers, and black egrets playing ‘night time day time’ in the shallows. Fish eagles, kingfishers and a plethora of storks posed patiently for us, as if to ask ‘did you get my good side?’.

Drive on the wild side

We opted out of the 3-hour organised game drives and instead made our own self-drive day through the river section of the park, not only to make the most of the day but also of the exorbitant park fees that escalate faster than the South African fuel price. While having our morning coffee next to the river, we waited for the dust clouds left by the convoys of Ferrari safari vehicles to settle. We then slowly made our way along the river, taking the little detours and sampling all the viewpoints. It became obvious that the Chobe River is equally spectacular from land for different reasons. Great white pelicans fishing in groups, an Ovambo sparrowhawk plucking its kill, and a swamp boubou calling from the thicket. Bradfield’s hornbills working the sandy ridges, African yellow white-eyes cheerfully flying between flowers, and a white-browed coucal hopping through the grassy shrubbery. And these are just a few of the highlights!

We chanced upon a lioness coming down to drink and followed her around before another vehicle eventually ended our alone-time with the beautiful cat. Game abounds along the Chobe – we drove next to the river for the entire day and saw herds of zebra, impala, red lechwe, buffalo, waterbuck, giraffe and elephant almost continuously. Lions clearly also enjoy the masses of game along the river, as we saw three separate groups during the day. We napped under an old Baobab before the afternoon drive back and ended the day with a gloriously red sunset, complete with fishing skimmers flying low over the still and glistening water.

Here be tigers

Whilst the Chobe’s banks are stalked by lions and leopards, its waters are patrolled by tigerfish. We just had to go hunting for the enigmatic striped water dog and rigged our fly rods for a morning on the river. We fished the area around Impalila Island, working the runs around rocky outcrops housing hundreds of roosting yellow-billed storks and various breeding egrets. In the end Deo connected to a beautiful fish with a typical Zambezi setup – a fast sinking fly line and purple clouser pattern fished along deep seams. The powerful fish made its presence known with many jumps before we netted it to admire its deep red tail colours, strong bony teeth and beautiful racing stripes. Richard, our entertaining boatsman, was almost converted to fly fishing in the process and enquired thoughtfully about this strange way of fishing that, in his words, ‘makes you compete directly with the fish without an advantage – whaaaau!’.

The other ninety percent

The main hub of Chobe is along the river and in Kasane. This, however, only forms a very small portion of the park itself. The vast majority lies further South and includes the Savuti and Linyanti sections. We ventured further afield, staying a while at the lovely Muchenje campsite before driving through the Savuti section to the Mababe gate. The drive itself included some of the deepest sand we had ever encountered, but the wild beauty of the area more than makes up for it. Some highlights include Arnot’s chats, the largest buffalo herd ever (think whole-horizon-filled large), a big clan of hyenas feasting on an elephant ‘cadaver’ (as a foreign tourist put it), and a lovely lunch under a huge apple leaf tree in a glade of leadwoods. We would love to explore this area more next time.

Over the week we spent here, the Chobe area showed us some of her charms. It is likely one of the few places in the world with so much game that you are indeed, as the marketing brochures promise, guaranteed of spectacular sightings. You will do equally well avoiding the socks-and-slops brigades and looking up the less trodden wonders. So then, after all is said and done, will we return to the Chobe National Park? We say, it will be impossible not to.

Mr Selous, I presume?

Oct 9, 2022 | Botswana, Hunters Road, Overlanding, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

For some reason, when the infamous H.M. Stanley uttered the words ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ upon finding the famed explorer and missionary in Ujiji after an epic 8-month search through central Africa, he immortalised the now-famous line. Except that Mr Stanley most likely never said it at all. History has shown that hunters, explorers and adventurers of old sometimes added more than a little flair to their tales and journals. In fact, they might have been on the border of being rather shady characters, like the ivory hunter Bvekenya Barnard who helped give Crook’s Corner its name in the Pafuri area of South Africa. Or Burton and Speke with their public post-expedition fallout about who really found the source of the Nile. Despite this, there is no denying that all these rugged men lived extraordinary lives in Africa and saw incredible things during times that will never be again.

One of the more well-known big game hunters, explorers and authors was F.C. Selous. His fame did not necessarily relate to his hunting prowess, but rather to the fact that he published his remarkable writings widely at a time when few hunters in Southern Africa did so. In fact, he learnt the trade from much more legendary hunters such as Jan Viljoen who sadly did not commit much of their adventures to paper. Selous hunted during the late 1800s in Southern Africa and the Congo basin and in one of his books he vividly describes his adventures and route up from South Africa to Victoria Falls and the Chobe River.

When we ventured North towards the Falls about 150 years later, it was not to find riches in ivory, but definitely to seek adventure – much like Selous. It thus made sense to look for the trail he and others like him most likely followed, as Botswana’s Northeast corner is an area of true wilderness. Enter the hunters road – whispered about in hushed tones around overlanding campfires and even marked Enter at Own Risk on the Tracks4Africa maps. This off-the-radar public road runs all along the Zimbabwean border from Nata to Kazungula for about 300 km. It follows the old trading route that ivory hunters would have used, and runs through wild country on both sides. Hwange National Park borders most of the one side, and various forest reserves and unfenced wilderness the other.

We drove this infamous road from South to North and quickly found adventure in the lowermost sections. The term is used loosely here, and can be translated as losing our way, taking a very disused patrol track we probably shouldn’t have, clearing the road of multiple overturned elephant trees, scratching Baloo properly with overgrown Mopanis, removing grasses and seeds from the radiator, and encountering a bachelor herd of elephant bulls that very likely don’t see humans often. And that was just the first hour or two.

The serious bundu bashing sections thankfully passed, and from there the route mostly followed the border through a variety of stunning landscapes. Mopani forest gave way to Baobab-studded bushveld, countless Rhodesian teaks and grassy marshlands with dry black cotton soil. These areas were tough enough on the suspension when dry, and surely renders this road impassable in the wet season. Wildlife wonders abounded – we saw plains game, herds of waterhole elephants and even sable. Birding highlights included ground hornbills, a shikra, Meyer’s parrots and various shrikes and rollers.

For the record, since some folks seem to make up their own rules, no – you may not wild camp on this road. Apart from the patrolling parks board vehicle that made sure we understood this, we did not encounter another human all day long. If you get stuck out here without proper preparation, you will be in a real pickle. It is one of those rare places that give you a very profound sense of lonely wilderness, and it was easy to pretend we were making our way instead in our ox wagon with Mr Selous two centuries ago – the road condition surely needed no imagination. Iron cooking pots dangling beneath the wagon (or an Engel fridge). Crates of salt, rice, and ammunition loaded on the back (or some Jerry cans of Diesel). Cloth and beads for trading packed away inside (or a credit card).

We arrived at Victoria Falls almost disappointed that the road and our game of make-believe was over. However, nothing can describe seeing Africa’s share of the seven natural world wonders for the first time. A spectacle in every sense of the word – from its immense scale and depth, to the rainy mist and the tropical smells of the forest surrounding this lush wonderland. Having breakfast at the Lookout Café must surely qualify as the grandest view for a coffee in the world, and a cold beer on the Vic Falls Hotel veranda speculating about the cost of the high tea is priceless. Our day spent here seriously whetted our appetite to return to Zimbabwe for much longer.

We drove into our campsite on the banks of the Chobe with the sun setting over the glistening water and I wondered whether perhaps you really needed to live centuries ago to experience extraordinary things in Africa. As I parked the Cruiser, I noticed there was a newcomer in the camp tonight. Faced away from us, an old man sat alone by his fire, smoking his worn-out pipe while gazing into the embers with the memory of a thousand adventures in his eyes and the peace of Africa in his heart. I quietly walked over to him and asked, ‘Mr Selous, I presume?’

Pan Planning

Sep 10, 2022 | Botswana, Makgadikgadi National Park, Nxai Pan National Park, Overlanding

Fail to plan and plan to fail. A favourite exam-time saying. In general, we like to think we plan our adventures well. For the most part, we tend to err on the safe, left-brained, checklisted, homework-done side of trip planning. However, an exciting and sometimes sweaty palm-inducing part of African travel is that you simply cannot plan for everything on your spreadsheets and 4×4 community reads.

The Makgadikgadi National Park (NP) is situated in central Botswana, just Northeast of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Separated by a national road, the Nxai Pan NP is very close and these parks are often visited together. When we went there early August, we learnt a few things in situ that might help make an equally memorable trip for anyone thinking of heading this way.

1. Shot left

Coming from the South, one of the entrances to the Makgadikgadi NP is at Khumaga and to reach it, you have to cross the seasonal Boteti river. Most guidebooks will tell you there is a neat pont that ferries you and your trokkie across when there is water in the Boteti. In dry seasons you just drive through. Simple. What they don’t tell you is that should you arrive after a long wet season and happen to time your crossing the day after they stopped the pont operations, you are on your own. What we can confirm is that a) there are some obese crocodiles in this river and b) there are two tracks through the crossing: one left that looks deep, and one right that looks shallow. We chose to go right, and found a bull hippo-size depression in the middle of that crossing. What followed, more or less in order, were inappropriate language, scenes from Titanic, clenched ‘knuckles’, and baitfish in the intercooler (literally). In the simple words of the gate guard shortly thereafter: ‘Ah, you should have gone left’.

2. Sundowners with a zebra

Khumaga campsite is situated on the Boteti river and this area is distinctly different from what we expected from a park with the word pan in it. This Western edge of the park is riverine bushveld and an interesting fact is that it plays host to a massive Zebra migration in favourable years. Along with various other water-dependent animals like elephants, these guys come down en masse in the afternoons for a drink in the river. There is a sand road that takes you down the bank to drive right in the riverbed, and it was a rare privilege to share this drive with hundreds of thirsty zebras kicking up golden-lined dust in the late afternoon.

3. The hills are alive

Heading East toward the Ntetwe pan, the bushveld gives way to open grasslands that eventually becomes pans that once formed part of an ancient mega-lake. The grasslands stretch for as far as you can see and are studded with beautifully tall Mokolwane palms – a truly spectacular wilderness. There are two wild campsites and we stayed at Njuca Hills, raised on top of a little hill. Most visitors tend to overlook this area due to lower game densities, but really shouldn’t. We shared our home with a caracal whose tracks were all over the campsite. We baked late morning flapjacks overlooking millions of swaying grasses with a lone Gemsbok for company. We recommend these hills to anyone.

4. Early morning rock n roll

After entering the Nxai Pan NP gate, there is a very straight gravel road that takes you up toward the main pans and camps. In true Botswana fashion the gate guards don’t make much of it but, quoting a retired Capetonian we met here, ‘jaaa boet, the road is quite k@k hey’. Relentless soft sand sinkplaat par excellence. Having driven it a few times, we can confirm it is indeed a lot better early in the morning before the sand has heated up and softened.

5. Baobab bliss

We visited the legendary Baines Baobabs around the Khudiakam pan on a very windy day and listened to the baobabs speaking as the wind blew through their peculiar rootlike branches. An evening encamped under one of these ancient trees is something that everyone should do at least once in their lives. Sitting around a campfire beneath it, you cannot but wonder about the wonder of wild places. If you listen quietly enough, perhaps it will whisper stories of times gone by, in the fire glow it has seen so many times before.

6. Waterholed up

South camp at Nxai is full of surprises. Although remote like the best of them, they not only had Wi-Fi at reception but also a little shop fully stocked with everything from cold beer to Doritos. Creature comforts aside, with only one waterhole having water throughout the year in the area, we decided to hole up next to it and catch up on work. Here we were treated to what is probably the most rewarding dry-season game viewing in this area. Some of the waterhole visitors included a beautiful male lion, a rare white-hooded vulture, an African hawk eagle, a bachelor herd of 22 bull elephants, and massive herds of springbok and blue wildebeest.

7. Strangers in the night

The campgrounds at South camp were rewarding in itself. Not only did we camp underneath what must be some of the largest purple-pod cluster-leaves alive, we were also treated by night time visitors. Black-backed jackals made a curious nuisance of themselves, smelling around the campfire for leftovers. But it was the silent dark giants that stole the show. A few bull elephants regularly came through the camp at night. Gentle as they are, their curiosities were satisfied by quietly feeding just where the fire glow ends.

The Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Parks are ancient, special places that merit more than a casual visit. If you deem it worthwhile, and it is, perhaps you too can take heed of some of the advice we found out along the way. Or you can find your own adventure. Whatever you do, enjoy the ride and never plan too much.

Centre Stage Kalahari

Aug 26, 2022 | Birding, Botswana, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Overlanding

‘Finish up your dinner, the lions will be here soon,’ I said with more confidence than I had. There comes a time when all the big talk of wild camping in the Kalahari is reduced to reality as it gets really dark and ominously quiet around the last glowing embers of the fire. We had chanced upon two beautiful lionesses late one afternoon at the Letiahau waterhole in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and followed them as they came out to the sandy jeep track and walked straight towards our campsite. We had left them in the road at sunset to go set up camp after both displayed very cheeky and inquisitive (read scary) attitudes towards Baloo the Cruiser. Anyone who has seen hungry young lions after sunset will understand. After the new world record time for a beef potjie was set, we hastily crept into the rooftop tent which now seemed very low. We had seen how easily those two mischievous girls climbed a termite mound. If tracks are anything to go by in these parts, the lions stick to the roads and their road led straight to our campsite. The stage was set.

We had arrived in the CKGR five days prior. We had camped at Sunday pan, Passarge valley, and Deception valley, driving a full circle route of the popular Northern section of the park to where we were now at Letihau. The sheer scale of the CKGR is something that cannot be described in words. You can fit almost 3 Kruger Parks into it – it’s that big. In fact, it is the largest reserve in Africa, which is something to brag about if you ask us. Originally proclaimed in the 1960s to preserve not only the game but also the indigenous Basarwa bushmen’s traditional way of life and hunting grounds, this park is an absolute haven for free roaming and migratory animals.

Much like its smaller cousin Mabuasehube, most of the action happens in and around the various large pans. There are also so-called valleys, which are essentially grass-filled pans stretching for miles in ancient dry riverbeds, almost like in the Kgalagadi. It is in one of these where Mark and Delia Owens wrote Cry of the Kalahari in the 1970s after spending seven years here doing research. And we thought our remote work setup was impressive!

Up before dawn, we spent our mornings chasing the sunrise, smelling the wet grass and searching for the wonderful creatures that call this place home. Much to our delight and surprise, we encountered African wild cat four times. These sly little felines look like domestic cats with raised suspensions and when spotted they stage an escape that will impress Houdini. A group of mobbing pipits and starlings showed us a pair of irritable honey badgers running in the tall grass one morning. These toughies do not like standing still for photos! Another highlight was when Simoné expertly spotted a stump-impersonating leopard from a country mile away, basking in the early morning sun while evaluating the lunch potential of every springbokkie in the pan.

The smaller creatures and birdlife were equally wonderful. A double-collared courser with a chick, Burchell’s sandgrouse, countless hunting raptors, buffy and African pipits, fawn-coloured larks, blue and violet-eared wax bills, secretary birds and enough kori bustards and Northern black korhaans to last a lifetime. Bat-eared foxes were out and about in the mornings, working the pans with their bouncy furry gaits. Every evening the barking geckos reminded us why they are also called klipkappertjies. Our personal highlight came in the form of an elusive little aardwolf resting in the pan late one afternoon. A shout out of thanks to the kind black-backed jackal that pointed us in the aardwolf’s direction, otherwise we would never have spotted it.

The park’s facilities, or rather the intentional complete lack thereof, keeps it wild and wonderful. The sense of remoteness starts hitting home when the gate guard simply says ‘see you in a week’ and off you go into the bush past a tattered old sign stating Xade Gate: 280 km. The roads were not too bad, although it will be a completely different story in the wet season, judging from the lunar landscape tracks left by summertime Cruisers ploughing like John Deeres.

So did the large tawny cats turn up, sniff around curiously or bump the tent and steal the show like many sensation-driven stories and memories? Maybe, maybe not. But when we consider the real centre stage of collective magical experiences we had in the Central Kalahari this past week, perhaps it simply does not matter.

The Wallflower

Aug 10, 2022 | Marakele National Park, Overlanding, South Africa

Most people have at some stage in their lives been or known a wallflower. The quiet guy at the braai who doesn’t have an opinion about last weekend’s game. The shy girl at the high school sokkie who sits on the side-line when everyone else dances. As backward as society usually is, wallflowers mostly get overlooked. But they shouldn’t. Braai guy might well be a most interesting photographer and shy girl might be an accomplished jazz musician who merely despises sokkie music. More often than not those same flowers bloom most beautifully when they are only given the chance.

Marakele National Park seems to be a SANParks wallflower. We have visited it twice, once just after lockdown and again more recently as the start of our extensive Botswana-Namibia trip. Going back to a place usually says something about it in itself. Rightfully so, because there is something about Marakele that we just cannot get enough of.

Some people base their opinion of a national park solely on the number of animals they see, and those people should avoid Marakele and rather visit a zoo where you are guaranteed sightings. However, if the idea of spectacular mountains, extensive valley views, elephants by the dozen, unexpected big five encounters, unfenced campsites, remarkable birdlife, diverse trees and grasses, and the most beautiful Waterberg view from your water-side canvas tent appeals to you, then you should pay attention.

Marakele is just outside Thabazimbi in the Limpopo province. This means it is a 3-odd hour drive from the Gauteng weekender hub. The wonderful Waterberg is its main cover page feature. A very steep but well-maintained road takes you right to the top where a mountain top viewpoint overlooks the valley and the outstretched surrounding bushveld for you to see everything the light touches (cue Mufasa). Here you can also get up close to a breeding colony of threatened Cape vultures, one of the few left in the country. It is a rare privilege to behold their mighty 2.5m wingspan at eye level.

The park is divided into two sections, the bigger area containing the big five and the other being where the wonderfully unfenced Bontle campsite is located. We camped here for a few nights and enjoyed the inquisitive local birdlife including cheeky hornbills, chattering white-browed sparrow weavers and beautiful crimson-breasted shrikes. Wildlife roams lazily through the camp so we had a group of blue wildebeest over as dinner guests and listened to the kudus browsing next to the tent at night. The ablutions are neat and clean, and the honorary rangers added a nice touch by labelling most trees around camp for those attempting to learn new tree names.

If possible we also recommend a stay at the Tlopi tented camp in the larger section of the park. We spent a few nights in one of the simple and very tidy safari tents, all of which overlook a dam with the majestic Waterberg mountain cliff faces rising in the background. This is the type of place where you can easily spend the entire day relaxing, reading or getting acquainted with the birds and animals slaking their thirst. Enjoying a late afternoon sundowner on the patio with a herd of elephants while the sun sets against the mountain seemed to us like we just walked into an Amarula commercial.

Drives around the park are always a highlight. The dramatic landscapes are enough to keep you awe-struck and whilst the animal densities are not very high, we have had very memorable sightings. A beautiful lioness once emerged from the golden-lined late afternoon grasslands next to us. In fact, we have encountered most of the big five here. Various other highlights abound such as surprisingly patient klipspringers on the mountains, banded mongoose colonies browsing the campsite undergrowth, and the uncommon Shelley’s francolins calling in the early morning sun.

For some reason, the park doesn’t get as many visitors as some of its more famous brethren. People overlook it and rather point to Kruger for a long weekend. We say, make time to talk to braai guy and ask shy girl to dance. Go to Marakele, and give the wallflower a chance.