Boats & Hippos

It feels like so long ago, but we drove through Botswana a few months ago on the way to and from our wedding in Victoria Falls. Botswana was the first time we wild camped and the first time we saw an elephant in the wild. While most of them just walked right out on the road, we were lucky enough to spot a waterhole from the road where everyone was hanging out. Needless to say, we were excited to be back.

Maun

Once we crossed into Botswana, we headed south towards Maun, a small town in northern Botswana surrounded on all sides by national parks and game reserves. There’s not much to do in town but it has everything you need: grocery stores, Beef Boys Butchers, liquor stores, petrol stations, and locals selling firewood on the side of the road. A perfect place to stop before heading out into the bush. We were two days ahead of Mike and Alison, the friends who helped us purchase PJ, who were coming from Johannesburg with their friend Tony. Not ones to simply sit around and wait, we headed up to Moremi Game Reserve for some wild camping and safari viewing.

Moremi Game Reserve

After a long, bumpy, dusty road (are there any other types in Africa?), we arrived at our wild camping site a few kilometers outside the reserve. It was a great spot to relax, listen to music and play cards — until we started to see flapping ears in the distance. We turned off the music so we didn’t disturb the elephants, but decided it was best if we started cooking dinner so we could get into the rooftop tent before dark. It felt good to be back in Botswana, where parks aren’t fenced and animals always have the right of way. During meal prep, a curious elephant came within 30 feet of us and tried to disguise itself behind a very small bare tree. Sorry, elle, that tree is doing nothing to hide you! Haha.

At night from the rooftop tent, we used our spot light to find one of those kangaroo rodents and some giraffes chomping on the trees near our heads.

After a great wildlife showing outside the park, we were eager to get in. Of course, after getting through the gates at 6:00am, we got stuck a mile into the park. Kourtney hadn’t even had her coffee yet. Thank goodness it was the morning because the sand was much cooler. We hopped out of the truck and Coons started deflating the tires while Kourtney used the shovel to move sand and look for wood to place under the tires. Pro tip: deflate the tires before you enter the deep sand. We carried on easily enough with the tire pressure lowered and drove straight for the first waterhole — only there was no water. Onto the next. After multiple dry waterholes we finally found one but noticed there were no animals around. Odd. So we decided to relax and wait to see if something turned up. We noticed a red car off to our right inching forward and stopping frequently, but we didn’t think anything of it until they beeped at us. Thinking that was unnecessary, Kourtney wondered if they might need help, and Coons grabbed the binoculars to see that they were trying to alert us of the lions nearby.

We immediately started the car and drove up behind them. We counted nine lions in total! Most were females with their teenage sons who were huge but lacking the full mane of a mature male. No wonder there were no other animals at the waterhole. We watched them for awhile until one by one they started to get up and move off into the tall grass.

They came so close to the car as they were passing through. The red car immediately went back in the direction of the last viewpoint to see if they could spot the lions.

Coons: “Should we follow them?”

Kourtney: “Sure. But please roll up your window.”

Alas, they were long gone and we went off in search of more waterholes. We found a large one with many different animals hanging around including baboons, red lechwe, and of course hippos. We noticed there were safari vehicles on the other side of the pond, so we tried to make our way around which led us through three different water crossings — the last of which got the top of PJ’s hood wet. This park was certainly a test for PJ. The deep sand makes it impossible to tell which bumps are hard or soft. Sometimes the car is teetering from side to side and other times it is bouncing up and down. Don’t get us started on the bridges which were just large sticks of wood held together with wire. Still Coons had to maintain a certain speed so we didn’t get stuck. Sometimes this meant our storage boxes were jumping and slamming around in the back. We wonder who got more air during this excursion us or our belongings. Another pro tip: always wear a supportive bra in sandy desert parks.

After a full day of driving, we went back to the wild camping spot, no elephants this time, and relaxed in our tent listening to the sounds of the bush.

Overlanders Unite!

On our way back to Maun, we got a message from Mike and Alison that they would be in Maun the next morning. We were in charge of finding accommodations for the five of us so we could restock in town before heading to Kasane. We settled on the Sedia Hotel because it provided a nice room for Tony, a 78 year old Brit, and plenty of camping space for the rest of us. We camped along the river which was dry, but that didn’t stop the elephants and cows from snacking near us. The hotel had a beautiful pool and restaurant with friendly staff which was worth every penny during the scorching afternoons. Marcos and Natch were right behind us, so we were all able to grab burgers together at one of the backpacker lodges near a small swampy pool with crocodiles and hippos. The next day began our epic adventure.

Mike and Alison were eager to show Tony some real African wildlife so we headed back to Moremi for the afternoon. We ran into Marcos and Natch inside the park and we all decided to head back to our wild campsite outside Moremi for the night. This campsite was a nice wide open area to accommodate our overland family: PJ, Mike and Alison’s Mitsubishi, and Marcos and Natch’s Land Rover. There’s not much better than a convoy of friends hanging around the fire at night with some whiskey and some conversation. Tony even recited some poetry for us after a few hits from the Brazilian’s personal stash.

With little preparation and unsure if we had enough fuel to make Kasane, we decided to cut through the heart of Chobe National Park towards Kasane rather than traveling the long way around. It was about 350 miles from Maun to Kasane; PJ usually needs more fuel around 384 miles, and that’s if we’re driving on tarmac. With one jerry can between us and a rough sense of where we had to go, we said goodbye to Marcos and Natch and our #mitsubishigang took off.

Chobe National Park

Our drive to Kasane brought the Mits gang through Chobe, one of Africa’s most iconic parks. It was hot (over 120 degrees), slow moving, and the sand varied from bumpy hardpack to deep and loose. We got a little stuck once and the burning of the clutch had us looking forward to camp to give PJ a break. We were cutting it close on fuel which left some of us with butterflies in our stomachs. We settled in for the evening around 4:00pm outside the park for a nice shower and some relaxation.

The next morning we found an open gas station well before Kasane that our iOverlander app said was currently closed. Jackpot! It was smooth sailing to Kasane. Soon after that we found a rest camp on the Chobe river. We set out into town to book a river boat cruise for sunset.

The river boat cruise was spectacular! Kourtney was able to be 20 feet away from a bloat of hippos which had her wiping away tears of joy. Again.

There was an elephant pulling up muddy pieces of grass and washing it off in the water, swinging its large trunk back and forth before curling the grass up to its mouth. Elephants are one of those animals we see frequently but it never seems to get old. There were several species of bird that kept the strange “tweekers” behind Coons and Kourtney quite excited. Knowing Mike was also a bird man we snapped a few photos for him on our mirrorless Lumix. We spotted several crocs including a small baby our guide guessed was six weeks old.

This little guy was on its own and we found it interesting that their moms leave them after just three weeks of age. Chobe National Park ended up being the park where we’ve seen the smallest babies (crocodiles, baboons, hippos, and elephants) we’ve spotted thus far. Coons was excited about the several hundred buffalo we saw chomping on the grass; it was clear that the river was the place to be.

We decided early on that a self-drive the next day along the river would be another lucrative spot for viewing animals. The Mits gang woke at 5:00am to boil water for coffee, eat some granola and yogurt, and pack up to be at the Chobe entrance at 6:15am. We took a chance here as Lonely Planet states that the park is not open for self-drives until 9:00am which ended up being the truth, although both the river boat guide and receptionists at our rest camp said the park opened at 6:30am. Thank goodness it was low season because the park officer let us in with the rest of the safari vehicles even though she was quite hesitant (every rule is meant to be broken in Africa).

We’re eternally grateful to her because we were able to watch two male lions for over an hour in between states of sleepiness and hunger. One of the males, probably the less dominant of the two, was clearly watching over the baby elephant they had just killed while the other lion was in a complete food coma under the shade of a large tree. The more active lion would spring up at the sight of a vulture overhead swooping near its meat and then close his eyes.

Then he got up, deciding he was hungry again. Holy shit. He started licking and tugging at the thick skin around the elephant’s stomach. Turning his head to the side he would use his sharp teeth to chew off large chunks of meat. It was both mesmerizing and upsetting. This was the real and raw circle of life.

The smell was absolutely horrendous in the hot sun — similar to hundreds of stinky cape fur seals — but we couldn’t turn away. Then the lion got himself into trouble. In his aggressive feasting, he let the elephant roll down into a dried up, sandy trench. Knowing his sleepy companion would be no help, he clamped down on the trunk in hopes he could pull the elephant out. He tried and struggled for several minutes — his chest heaving for air but not wanting to let go of the elephant for fear of losing any progress.

Finally, he sat down, exhausted, with one massive paw on the elephant’s ear and began feeding again. We listened to the chilling sounds of bones breaking and cartilage tearing. The lion picked up his head to breathe and yawn, revealing a bright red rose and mouth.

Full and defeated, the lion left the elephant in the trench and sought shade underneath a tree still watching out for scavengers. We have never seen something so truly wild in our life.

At this point two Chobe park officials approached us and asked us why we were off the “road.” They informed us this was punishable by law. First of all there are no roads; there are just tracks in the sand, and second we pulled off where several other vehicles were to appease the safari guides yelling at us to make room for them. They just wanted us to move along to make room for the mass of trucks. We had seen the best Animal Planet has to offer IRL (in real life), so we all felt ready to turn back. It was probably for the best otherwise we would’ve sat there all day.

At the entrance, we said our goodbyes to Mike and Alison after overlanding with them for a week through Botswana. We were ready to cross into Zambia. We were excited to spend time with them outside of Ocean Basket in the East Gate Mall. Until next time, you two, thanks again for everything!