Part 1 of 5: A Mobile Safari – journey log of Johan De Bondt
Over the next 5 days, we will be posting the details and picture filled journey recap of a Belgian named Johan De Bondt. In August 2009, Johan along with 3 other travelers hired guides and a vehicle and traveled via Maun to:
a) Nogatsaa & Tchinga (Chobe forest);
b) Savute;
c) Khwai riverside (Moremi);
d) Bodumatau (Moremi);
e) Xakanaka (Moremi)
This is not the safari for a ‘rookie’. Johan has been in the bush several times. All text and photos in the series are the copyright of Johan De Bondt and are being used here with his permission. We hope his exciting log will excite you about seeing northern Botswana and Chobe. – The Editors
Guides for the trip: Vincent and Koxi
To Begin, Johan would like to acknowledge his guides for the trip: Vincent and Kosi. These men did a wonderful job (providing those wonderful showers/cooking/setting up and breaking down camps) and they were always in good spirit.
First leg of the trip – Nogatsaa & Tchinga (Chobe forest)
As I stayed overnight in Maun before venturing out the next day, we had some distance to cover to reach our first camping site. Thinking about it now, it would have been a better idea to fly directly to Livingstone from Johannesburg and stay overnight at one of the lodges in Kasane as our first base was only +/- 70 kilometers from the Chobe riverfront.
Anyway, after a healthy breakfast in Motsensela tree lodge, we decided to hit the road as our aim was to be in Chobe as early as possible to give ourselves a little bit of time to stop for game under the way. On our way to Mababe gate we talked about Ewan’s last safaris and what he had been seeing. It’s always nice to hear what happened before you came in but of course it is by no means a guarantee you gonna experience similar (predator) sightings. One can only hope …
Around noon, we arrived at the Savute ranger post and enjoyed a lovely lunch prepared by Sallie, Ewan’s wife. As we were still miles away from our camping site, we decided it would be better to camp somewhere in between Savute and Tchinga. So we asked to do so and we were granted permission for that and the guys were informed we were camping at HATAB campsite 18 now. This gave us some time to have a drive around Harvey’s pan in the Savute area. It was the middle of day and a lot of animals came to drink at the different pans and we were lucky to see 6 roan antelopes, +/- 15 giraffes, a couple of bull elephants (these guys hang around there throughout the year), a black-backed jackal/a big herd of impala accompanied by a territorial blue wildebeest and 2 very relaxed secretary birds. As the light was quite harsh, I didn’t take many photos here but it was just nice to see some game as on our way from Maun we hadn’t seen much. The only thing worth to remember was a sighting of +/- 10 southern ground-hornbills near one of the roads shortly after we left.
Copyright: Johan De Bondt
Copyright Johan de Bondt
Kwikamba
Sunrise: Copyright Johan de Bondt
On our way to Kwikamba, we were discussing if we would be lucky or not and guessed our chances weren’t high. So what was the reason behind our thinking? Well, in June, Northern Botswana experienced some serious rains (highly unusual for that time of year) and because of that a lot of the clay-bottomed pans would still hold water and most elephants wouldn’t been forced to go to the deeper pans like Kwikamba. So before I started my trip, I already thought that it was very likely that this area couldn’t live up to the expectations for which at the first place I decided to stay over there. And although I was aware of all of this, I didn’t try to change my plans at all and this for the following reasons:
a) you’ll hardly see another vehicle over there (we didn’t see any for 4 days);
b) I wanted to explore the area in depth as during previous trips in Chobe I spent most of my time at the Chobe riverfront, which although visited by many tourists, I still consider it a top spot for bird photography (and ellies, hippos and crocodiles).
Before arriving at our first real base, we saw few mammals (2 herds of zebra/impala/one giraffe and a good number of steenbok). We made a coffee stop at Ngwezumba dam. Last time Ewan was there he saw a pride of lions but not this time.
We arrived slightly before eleven and as feared we didn’t see any single elephant. Kwikamba held much more water than last time (it’s difficult to believe if you have seen the same pan in previous times). There were 6 hippopotami in it and as they weren’t used to see a lot of human activity, they decided to stay as far away from us as possible. For the next days, we only saw 2 and we couldn’t figure out where the four others had gone to as we covered most of the pans in the area. At the other side of the pan, which couldn’t be reached, we saw 5 kudus.
As we decided to have a late lunch, we went out again and made a loop around various pans (Nogatsaa/Gokori/Tambiko & Makororo). We were surprised by the amount of water a lot of these pans contained and my guess is that some of them won’t dry out before the summer rains arrive again. In the far distance, we saw a fire outside the reserve and we told the wildlife department, stationed around Nogatsaa about it. Last year, the bush fires were terrible in September and because I expected to have big fires again around the same time of year (after a good rainy season), I decided to go a bit earlier in the dry season. And lucky for me, I only did see two fires during this trip and they were both far away. And I didn’t experience sunsets around 4 – 4.30 in the afternoon like on some days last year. Again we saw few animals, if I remember correctly we saw 4 warthogs and couple of giraffes.
After our little siesta (I seldom try to sleep in the afternoon), we headed out again and visited some other pans (Tchinga/Pendura/Poha). As experienced in other places like Selinda/Linyanti/Kwando, elephants were more easily seen in the afternoons than during the mornings. At Poha, we found evidence that a good number of ellies had been there a couple of days before. We came across several breeding herds and some of them weren’t really pleased with our presence and gave us some display. Nothing serious but enough to frighten people who have never experienced a mock charge before. From previous encounters, I am always a bit wary when I come across a tuskless elephant or one with strange tusks. And also at Tchinga, my feeling was right when we bumped into a tuskless cow. She clearly showed us to keep our distance and lucky for us we had an escape route in case things became serious.
At that same pan, we found several white-backed vultures drying their wings (after taking a bath) and one marabou stork. There was also a black-backed jackal a hundred meters away. But no sign of any kill close by.
copyright Johan de Bondt
On our way to camp, we found 2 giraffes (a mother and her baby) at Sarigho pan and we slowly approached them and I was able to take a few pictures. Around camp, there was a breeding herd of +/- sixty animals.
As this had been a long day again, I went to bed quite early and slept like baby.
The next morning, we drove the other way around and visited the following pans: Tutlhwa/Tjelani/Namuchird/Poha. We refilled our water tanks at the last pan (Wildlife department is also based here). Until then, we hadn’t seen any mammal. In fact, we must have been contenders for the Guinness book of records in the following category: how long can you drive in the Chobe national park before you see your first mammal? Well, for us, it happened after 43 kilometers. During this particular drive, we were betting which was the first mammal we were going to come across? A steenbok and my guess was right. And this happened after being out for more than 2 hours. From then on, we saw some impala and one vervet monkey (mostly you see them in troops). Driving along the cutline, brought us to the Seloko plains, which were covered in very high grasses (+/- 2 metres). It looked that these plains weren’t affected by last year’s massive fires in the Chobe area. If you look at Chobe, you see how different this section of the park is compared to the riverfront and the Savute marsh. If you would be looking at some of the landscapes here , I guess few people would think we were in Chobe. On this road we saw 2 black-bellied korhaan which allowed us to have a closer look at them.
copyright: Johan de Bondt
We arrived at Makororo pan and found it time to have a “coffee break”. There was a lot of bird activity and we saw at least 10 black-shouldered kites perching in the trees. Ewan spotted a pearl-spotted owlet (you more hear than see them) and I sneaked upon him as close as 2 meters and took some photographs. After I was satisfied with what I got, I left him sitting in his tree. As we were slowly making our way back to camp, we stumbled upon a herd of 12 roan antelope at Gokori pan. As roan antelopes are quite skittish, they looked at us briefly and took off at high speed. As I was already mentally prepared for brunch, we saw our first elephant of the day around 11.30.
In the early afternoon, we took a short drive to Sarigho pan and just arrived there after a breeding herd of elephant came drinking and bathing there. Discussing what would be our best plan for the rest of the day, we decided it was best to hang around camp and hope someone would eventually pop up. We parked our vehicle near the water and after some fifteen minutes, we saw 2 very old buffalo bulls, shortly followed afterwards by a bachelor herd of 8 blue wildebeest. And then, it was quite again for some time. Approximately an hour before sunset, our patience was rewarded as several breeding herds came to drink. This was the very reason, why I had chosen to come here at first and I had my first serious photo session of this trip. At sunset, I also took some photos of the pan.
Sunset at the Pan by Johan de Bondt
In the evening we sat around the campfire and gazed at the stars and thought how lucky we were to have this place for our own.
So at what time does a typical day on safari starts during August??? Well, normally you wake up around 5.30, wash yourself, have breakfast around the fire, brush your teeth and jump into the vehicle shortly afterwards. But this day was going to be different. Around 2.30 I heard a lion roaring in the far distance on the eastern side of the camp. Shortly afterwards it was followed by roars on the western side of camp. I didn’t pay much attention to it and felt asleep again. Suddenly, I was awake again and heard elephants breaking branches near my tent. As they kept feeding nearby, I stood awake because of them being noisy. In the meantime, an elephant trumpeted in the distance as it was being disturbed by something. And just a few seconds later, two male lions did their very best to make their presence known to everyone around. It sounded a lot closer then the first time I had the pleasure to pick up their vocalisations. Anyway, the elephants decided to leave and as I was still tired, I felt asleep again after a couple of minutes. But again I was brutally awaked by these mighty beasts and now they were less than 1 kilometre away. Could it be they were heading to our camp??? Well, they were and +/- 20 minutes later, they were roaring into camp. As I experienced it before, it’s still a thing I can’t get enough of. As my front tent flap was open, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of these rulers of the Chobe forest and wished they would hang around the pan later on so I could take snap shots of them. Around 5.15 Ewan woke up and I saw him shining his torch to see if he could locate them. The boys were still on the move and headed towards the other side of the lagoon. After a cup of hot chocolate, we jumped into our landrover eager to track them .. We followed their footprints for a while but very soon they went off the road into the thick mopane woodlands. There was no chance, we could pursue them given the regulations in the national parks and the impenetrability of the terrain we were on. So instead, we decided to make our way towards Nogatsaa pan. After +/- 3 kilometers, we found other lion tracks on the road. According to Ewan, there were at least 5 different lions that walked here a couple of hours ago. We just kept going towards the pan and secretly I wished we would find them at Nogatsaa. But once again, these lions played hide and seek with us and their tracks went off road half a kilometre before the pan. Arriving at our destination, we couldn’t find any proof of them having being present here. We drove all along the different roads nearby but couldn’t find any sign of them. Back to camp, we found proof they went off road near the BOGA campsite. Unluckily, there were no roads on the other side, so we had to give up our quest. All in all, it had been an exciting morning although the cherry was absent to top it off.
As tomorrow was going to be a long day again and I hadn’t slept much during the night, I decided to have my first afternoon nap. While sitting at the table, the coolest place during the middle of the day, I saw that some southern ground-hornbills landed nearby. Some were sitting in a dead tree. I quickly took my camera and managed to get some photos. After tea time, we decided to hang around the pan again, hoping we would be lucky on 2 consecutive days. We waited and waited but no sign of any elephant this time … we saw a black-backed jackal and that was it. We thought that given the amount of water available elephants were just feeding and drinking wherever water was available. And there was plenty … remember we didn’t find the pan where the four other hippos went to … so they weren’t forced to come to Kwikamba on a regular basis. It could be that they would be doing so later on in the year … but we are not sure it’s going to happen in 2009. On our last evening here, I thoroughly enjoyed my sundowners at our little garden of Eden.
Photo by Johan de Bondt
Next morning, we packed our luggage and after breakfast we drove to Savuti … As we left, there was a Verreaux’s eagle-owl sitting nearby. The drive to the marsh was uneventful and we saw some impala, a duiker and a few zebra. Actually the building up had been done, from now on it was time for serious business.
My opinion:
Being on a game drive, was like having a summer experience (to work hard to see something) in wintertime. Some of the roads are quite difficult to drive on … especially the one from Kwikamba to Tchinga. Sitting in the back of the vehicle here, must be real torture.
It was definitely not something for first timers as they would expect a little bit more. So I was very glad no one was accompanying me this time. Jochen, Mira and Frans maybe didn’t realize how lucky they were last year to see Kwikamba at its very best. Although game was scarce, I enjoyed it as we had a massive piece of land for our own use and some of the landscapes were quite stunning. As this part of the park is commercially undeveloped, it’s like day and night if you look at the Chobe riverfront.
Rainfall had definitely a massive impact on the elephant viewing. This place must be/is fantastic in drier years. At some of the pans they have hides so you could enjoy the game without having to drive around all the time. So timing is very essential here. In fact, it’s definitely insane to book far in advance … as you don’t know if the area received some rainfall or not.
Nogatsaa
HIde - Photo by Johan de Bondt
Photo by Johan de Bondt
From all the campsites I visited during previous years, this must be my number one. - Johan de Bondt
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This was an incredibly detailed and interesting report. Craig