Wednesday, 6th March. While our guides were not licensed for Botswanan wildlife trips, there was nothing to stop them explaining things if we took established boat rides from Chobe Safari Lodge within the Chobe National Park. So at 9 a.m. we set off for the first of two boats rides today – in which we saw lots of elephants! On the whole, to begin with, we kept to the south bank of the Chobe River.
Facing north. Darter and reed cormorants.This little fellow, a wire-tailed swallow, hitched a ride for a short while.Red bishop. So striking.Brown-throated weaverJacanasGiant kingfisherNile crocodile, not very big, only about 5 feet (1.5 metres) long…
When we saw elephants, I took enormous numbers of photographs and videos. Just a very few are here.
Play fightingThis big bull isolated himself to his own mud bank, very near to us.The eyes have it.Not threatening nor hassling, just cooling I think.I had this taken just to prove that I was really there. I’m still on the boat!
We continued on our way, to a ‘lovely’ muddy area.
Glossy ibisTwo glossy ibisesWe had pulled in, nudging the bank. The local guide had to draw this to my attention – right under my nose. Squacco heron.The Flanders and Swann song is, I believe, about hippopotamuses. Clearly elephants like mud too.As do Buffalos (or Buffaloes – take your pick)
We started wending our way back, mainly along the northern bank of the river now.
These impala were on the far southern bank.
White-crowned lapwingThere’s a water monitor in there
The we became aware of lots, and lots, and lots of elephant lining the southern bank.
On the northern bank was already this leader, presumably the matriarch of at least some of them. She summoned them over.
And they came. The elephants here are well-known for swimming across the river.Just as mum holds her trunk out of the water, so does her tiny baby, keeping very close to her right ‘hip’.Still therePresumably those that crossed were all of the same family.And after a good wallow for some, they continued on their way.
Sunday, 3rd March. Botswana at last, but only for a day trip for now. But first, breakfast. We always ate outdoors at Mahangu Lodge, for the three days. We did wonder where we would eat were it to rain, as we couldn’t see anything like a dining room, but the situation didn’t arise.
We set off to drive the short distance to the Botswana border to the south of the Caprivi Strip.
Lesser striped swallow
It was not long before we reached the border and went through emigration and immigration controls.
Never miss a chance to observe wildlife.
Scarlet-breasted sunbird
Everyone stood around taking photos while this hardworking dung beetle made its way over to a kerb, an impossible obstacle. With reassurance from leader Neil that it could do me no harm, I picked the beetle up and placed it where it appeared to be heading, then carefully placed its dung ball by its ‘nose’.
We moved on, into Botswana. We had just one purpose in making a day trip into a different country, which was to see a particular bird, very rare.
In due course we arrived at Drotsky’s Lodge, where we would in due course have lunch, but first we were to take a trip from there on the swamps of the neck of the Okavango Delta. The 17 of us were on two open boats, seated one person each side of a narrow gangway, with no shelter from the sun. We had been well-warned to protect ourselves as much as possible, and for me the breeze from the movement made the experience quite pleasant.
Some, by now, familiar and some less familiar birds.
White-fronted bee-eaterLittle bee-eatersAfrican jacanaCattle egretLong-toed lapwingsFan-tailed widowbird aka red-shouldered widowbirdGlossy ibisPapyrus and a convolvulusGymnogene aka African harrier hawk
After a while we saw the very bird we had hoped for, a Pel’s Fishing Owl, way up in a tree by the bank of a river we were travelling on. It’s a large bird, and the colour of a ginger cat! To quote from my bird book, ‘… cinnamon underparts and rufous-brown upperparts …… Strictly nocturnal; spends the day perched in the dense foliage of a large tree ….. When flushed, flies a short distance and resettles in another tree, from where it watches the intruder.’ Which is exactly what it did while we watched it.
Having admired the magnificent bird, we meandered back along the channel, in and out of another one, and went back to the lodge for lunch.
After lunch, retracing our route, we went back though emigration (Botswana) and immigration (Namibia) controls.
And I was pleased to see elephant on the opposite bank from Mahangu Lodge, where we were to spend our third and last night there.
By the way, if it seems that there are awful lot of birds in these posts, these are just a sample! We were given a list at the outset of 538 birds we might see, potentially, as they had been spotted on previous Naturetrek trips here in previous years. By the end of the two weeks, collectively we had seen or heard about 375 of them, and added two more to the list, one a lifetime first for leader Neil, a Red-throated twinspot. (I didn’t see it, so no chance of a photo. Indeed, I doubt if I saw half of the total myself, and I took photos of many, many fewer, concentrating mainly on the larger ones.)
Thursday, 28th February. Before sunrise, all the others went off, after a coffee, for a bird-watching walk around the grounds of the Lodge. Being rather birded out, I allowed myself a few more minutes in bed, though still had had my breakfast pretty early, well before the others got back to have theirs. I filled in time by wandering round the grounds on my own in non-birdwatching mode, and then visiting the ‘Reptile Walk’ of the lodge, which had sadly seen better days.
The bar, where we had had our lunch on the two days we were there.Trees often grow through termite mounds, apparently because of the greater fertility of the soil, and possibly their greater water contentI didn’t go looking for birds, but sometimes you just can’t avoid them. Red-billed hornbill, in still poor, early morning light.Anchieta’s dwarf python. Quite big. actuallyBlack mamba. Not very big, but I’m glad there’s glass between me and it.Later, as I went to join the vehicles to leave, this family of striped mongooses, very much at home in the grounds of the lodge, were taking advantage of the hose water.
We covered a lot of ground this day, 430 km/267 miles. It was pretty hot (35 degrees C max) , and thunderstorms threatened, never amounting to much though.
Weaver birds’ nests. Even a refuelling stop is the opportunity for birdwatching.Ooh, and here we are at a sewage works.Fortunately, the problem with Jakes’s vehicle (a tyre I think) arose in a town, Tsumeb. Jakes explains it, Neil listens, and the mechanic mops his brow.Namibia is rich in minerals.
Our lunch was taken at a Roy’s Rest Camp, whose proprietors have a wacky sense of humour!
Looks fairly normal to begin with, just a little run-down. (It gets good reviews though).Just two examples among many of eccentricity.The dining area seems normal, until you start noticing little curios. No pictures because I was eating…… and then keen to get back to chat with this man. A Scot, who had lived in Australia for the last 40 years (though you’d think he’d never left Renfrewshire from his accent) who is travelling the world with just a 150 cc bike, (there in front of our right-hand vehicle), a mobile phone, and virtually no plans. Is nearly at the end of his years-long odyssey. Amazing fellow. I got this photo, with his permission, but didn’t like to ask his name.
Once we got going again, there was little time to stop for wildlife photographs, and I snatched such pictures of Namibian rural life as I could through the windows of the vehicle.
When we were nearly at our next destination, near Rundu, a dust storm arose as we went through the town. “Windows closed please!”
Shortly afterwards, we arrived at Kaisosi River Lodge on the Okavango River, with Angola on the other side.
Four rooms in this building. Mine was downstairs, in the nearer half, the river beyond.From the riverside, No 3.Just so peaceful after a long day’s journeying. View from the ‘French’ window.View from the verandah by the dining room.
But the dining room was not – yet – for us. After settling in, we went out to visit ….. a sewage works.
Homeward bound in the shower with firewood.Black-crowned Night-heronsRed bishop. The first we had seen, but we were to see more.Embroidery on my pillowcase. Pied kingfisher.
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