Ch-Ch-Ch-Chobe

The best thing about living in Botswana is that we have more wildlife here than anywhere else in Africa.  One of the best places to see that wildlife is in Chobe National Park.  Back in September I mentioned I visited an elephant orphanage when I was in Kenya for a conference at the same time as the terrorist attack.  The reason the baby elephants were in the orphanage was because their mothers were killed, many by poachers, before the young were old enough to care for themselves.  Africa in general has a lot of problems with poachers, but we are fortunate in Botswana that we are largely exempt from this problem.  In fact, we have the opposite problem: we have too many animals, particularly elephants.

Botswana is home to approximately half of the 400,000 elephants in Africa.  And about 100,000 of Botswana’s elephants live in Chobe National Park.  My visitors, Ashleigh and Amanda, were particularly keen to see elephants during their trip.  In an effort to satisfy their request I took them to Chobe.  We stayed at Kwalape Lodge in Kasane, which is adjacent to the park.  Since we were on a budget, and I wanted the girls to get a different experience since we stayed in a chalet previously, we opted to stay in safari tents.  They were basic, but met our needs:

While in Chobe we went on a boat cruise which is always a fun way to see the animals as they like to congregate along the shore and in the water.  I think all three of us took about a thousand pictures each, but a select few follow.  Here is a picture of Ashleigh in the boat making friends with a couple of kudu a few feet away:

And here is Amanda (before her sunglasses broke) with the elephants eating grass:

We saw hundreds of hippos:

I’m sure I am forgetting a few animals, but we saw water buffalo, kudu, impala, crocodile, monkeys, hippos, water monitor lizards, warthogs, giraffes, and of course elephants.  And since you can never have too many pictures of elephants, here is a small group, from a much larger herd, drinking on the riverbank:

We took our cruise in the late afternoon and were treated to a beautiful sunset on the ride home:

This trip reminded me how much I will miss Botswana when I leave.

My Visit to Etosha National Park (continued)

Yesterday I mentioned that I visited Etosha National Park in northern Namibia during my camping trip and was fortunate enough to see lions, leopards and cheetahs.  Since I took several great pictures while I was in Etosha I wanted to follow up on my visit a little more.

Anyone who has done a safari has almost certainly seen a giraffe.  I have TONS of shots of giraffes.  BUT, I have never gotten a picture of a giraffe drinking.  And as you can see here, it is a bit of a process as the giraffe must bend its back legs while straddling on his front legs.  This is actually a very dangerous position for the giraffe to be in as he has no peripheral vision, so this stance leaves him vulnerable to predators:

We also saw two impala fighting:

And then there was an elephant taking a bath in some rainwater which was sitting in the middle of the road:

One of the best spots of the day was a black rhino.  We only saw two rhinoceros in the park because they are THAT rare.  There are only about 4,000 rhinos in Africa, but that is a figure from 2008.  Most countries won’t publish their actual rhino numbers because that encourages poachers.  Most people think that elephant poaching in Africa is the problem, but in reality, rhino poaching is much worse.  Poachers hunt the rhino because of their horns.  The typical rhino horn goes for about $50,000 for 1 kilo, with most horns averaging about 8 kilos in total.  Some countries have begun de-horning their rhinos in order to make them less attractive to poachers.  But the horns grow back at a rate of about 8 centimeters a year, and the de-horning process is quite expensive.  Namibia has no plans to de-horn its rhinos for now, but that may change in the future.  Here was the rhino I spotted:

 

Lions and Leopards and Cheetahs, oh my!

Since we don’t have tigers or bears here in Africa, I had to alter the title slightly.  But I since lions, leopards and cheetahs are some of the most difficult animals to spot in Africa I consider myself very fortunate that I got to see all three in one day during my camping trip.

As I mentioned previously, I took last week off from blogging out of necessity.  I was camping in Namibia and didn’t have daily access to Internet during my trip, hence my temporary silence.  However, now that I am back online and took a record 2148 pictures during my 10-day camping trip, I will spend the next few days catching you up on my adventure.

I booked the camping trip with Wild Dog Safaris and they did ensure a wild ride.  Our tour guide and driver, George, along with our camp assistant, Manfred, took 7 of us (2 Germans, 1 Brit, 1 French girl, an American couple that is currently living in Bangladesh, and me) on a 3,000 kilometer trip around the northern half of the country.

I haven’t been camping in a few years but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it this time around.  We departed from Windhoek on Friday, December 20^th and headed north to Etosha National Park.  Etosha is the largest national park in Namibia; it is three times the size of Holland.  It was given its name because the Etosha Pan is located almost entirely within the park.  The pan makes the park unique compared to many of the other national parks I’ve visited in Africa.  Most of the national parks I’ve seen have the brush and mopane and baobab trees, but because of the salt pans Etosha looked quite different.  Believe it or not the pelicans and flamingos are particularly attracted to the salt pans, but we saw plenty of other animals wondering around as well.  Here you can see one of the salt pans which seems to extend forever:

While on our way north we saw plenty of the typical animals which I’ve already mentioned before: baboons, monkeys, impala, kudu, eland, oryx, giraffe, elephants.  But there were a couple of animals I was VERY excited to see.  I’ve seen lions before, but we saw three females hunting a wildebeest.  I’ve never seen lions hunt before in real life and it was awesome.  In the end the wildebeest got away, but we spent about 20 minutes watching with baited breath:

Later that same evening we found two male lions roaring, calling the females over:

We also saw a leopard that had just made a kill.  It was interesting that he took the meat, jumped up into a tree nearby and then began to eat it.  Given the fact he is licking his lips here, I’m guessing it tasted pretty good:

The good thing about seeing a leopard and cheetahs in the same day is that I now can visually tell them apart.  Prior to seeing both of them almost back to back I couldn’t distinguish the difference.  But as you can see here, cheetahs have solid black spots (as opposed to the leopard’s multicolored spots) and black stripes down the front of their faces.  I’m sure there are many other differences that I don’t know yet, but at least now I will be able to tell what I am looking at, a leopard or a cheetah:

I have plenty of other fun pictures from Etosha, but I will save them for another day.

A Trip to the Gaborone Game Reserve

Here in Gaborone we have our own Game Reserve.  I always find it funny when there is a Game Reserve within city limits, but that happens a lot here in Africa.  It makes me appreciate animals so much more.  In the U.S. you have to make an effort to plan a trip to the zoo.  Here, you just get in your car and head to the Game Reserve.  The animals aren’t in cages, they are in their natural habitats.  I think that is one thing I will really miss about living in Africa.  I’m not sure I will ever be able to go to a zoo again and enjoy it.

Since we do live in a city and it is close to people we don’t have any predators in our Game Reserve.  But there are still plenty of animals you can enjoy.

We have eland and impala:

Lots of birds; in fact Botswana has TONS of birds.  I could do an entire blog post about birds:

And baboons:

Somehow I can’t manage to get a decent picture of an ostrich, but we have lots of those too, as well as zebra and mongoose. 

 

My First Press Tour to Chobe National Park

I am not a member of the press, and I have no real intention of becoming one.  But I was recently invited on a press tour by the Director of the Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO).  BTO is basically the main marketing body for all of tourism here in Botswana.  BTO does not make policy; the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT) does that.  But BTO takes the policies which MEWT makes and finds ways to implement them and increase tourism throughout the country.

Since the UNWTO conference was held right next door by our neighbors to the north (Zimbabwe and Zambia) BTO decided to take advantage of the fact there were so many media correspondents in the region and arranged several press tours in hopes of some free PR.  Fortunately for me, the Director of the BTO invited me to tag along so I could see some of the sights.  I was so happy to participate because I teach about some of these areas in my class, I haven’t done any real tourism since I arrived in Botswana, and it was a free trip!  So, I really appreciated the opportunity.

I haven’t spent much time around journalists, so the trip was as much about seeing the animals in their natural habitats as it was about observing how the media operates.  In a way I felt a little bit of peer pressure.  Granted, they all knew I wasn’t “one of them” and they were very welcoming, but as I watched them work I felt like I was being a bit of a slacker and needed to keep up.  To put this statement in perspective, I would watch them taking hundreds of photos in a matter of seconds of one bird.  I would take one picture of the same bird and then call it quits.  But then I would watch them continue to snap more photos, this time with different cameras!  I would think about it for a second and consider that maybe I missed something.  Then I would take another picture of the bird.  This behavior: action-observation-reaction-repeat; continued to gain momentum until I was taking hundreds of pictures within seconds of the same animal.  By noon I had taken 942 photos.  And then what do you think happened? My camera battery died.

It turned out the expiration of my battery was a blessing in disguise.  In the morning we took a boat trip along the Chobe River and were able to see (and photograph) all kinds of animals.  But, by the time the game drive began three hours later I was forced to watch and enjoy since my camera was out of juice.  Below are some of the highlights from the trip.

Journalists taking a million pictures of an animal:

An elephant swimming from the main land to an island in the middle of the river:

Crocodile in the forefront, impala in the middle, water buffalo waaaaaay in the distance:

Hungry, hungry hippos having some lunch:

Overall it was an excellent trip.  I have no doubt I will visit the area again, especially when I have visitors. I did get tons of pictures and after looking at them I understand why the journalists take so many photos.  Often it wasn’t the first shot which was the best one, but the seventh or eighth which I preferred.  Thank goodness for digital.

Elephant Hills Hotel

As should be expected with travel in Africa, my trip from Gaborone to Victoria Falls was a little more exciting than I would have preferred. First the computer system at the Gaborone Airport was down, so our tickets had to be written by hand.  This wouldn’t have been such a problem except for the fact I did not have a direct flight to Zimbabwe.  I had to connect in Johannesburg, South Africa which meant when I got there I had to go through customs, exit the airport, pick up my checked bag, reenter the airport and check in separately for my connecting flight, and then go through customs and security again.

Fortunately when I arrived in Zim passport control was expecting us, so those of us here for the UNWTO conference were expedited through customs.  I think it was barely five minutes from the time I exited the plane until I was on the shuttle to my hotel. Now that is service!

I’m staying at the host hotel on the Zimbabwe side which is convenient.  Not that it makes a huge difference because about half the events are on the Zambia side, plus most of the social events are at other venues.  But being at the host hotel is nice because I don’t have to travel off-site for the first three days and I was able to register here.

Unfortunately when I tried to register for the conference there was some confusion over who I am and why I am here.  Apparently they forgot they gave me a special permit to attend, and the person who granted me that permission was not here to verify it.  Lucky for me, my charming personality went a long way and they quickly gave me credentials.  So I am in business.

Meetings start tomorrow which I’m looking forward to, but since I had some free time late this afternoon I wandered around my hotel for a bit.  My room overlooks the golf course and I saw there was a walking path, so I figured I would head in that direction.  One of the caddies approached me and asked if I wanted him to show me the animals on the course.  I figured, why not? 

On the course I saw impala and monkeys:

 Kudu:

Warthogs:

Guinea fowl:

Crocodiles:

And Waterpaks?  At least this is what my friend Vincent called them. I’m still not sure this is the correct name of this animal, but it appears to be a cross between a moose and a deer:

 

It certainly wasn’t the prettiest golf course I’ve ever seen, but it was reasonable given the environment.  Of course, there were additional obstacles here you probably wouldn’t see elsewhere.  For instance, the warthogs really like to dig up the grass, so you see these large areas of mud provide golfers with the same challenges as a sand trap, only messier.

And then of course there are the monkeys.  I watched this poor guy hit a ball, it landed, and then a monkey ran off with it.  Then the guy throws his club on the ground and shouts, “Not again!”

I suppose it could have been worse.  There could have been elephants on the course here at the Elephant Hills Hotel.