Onward to Chobe...

Well, despite my Permathin soaked clothes and painting myself with DEET, buttoning up to the top floor and swathing myself in my usual scarves, I awoke this morning with a large, red, angry area on my neck and throat.  At first I thought it might be a local reaction to all the DEET, I did read somewhere it could remove nail polish, but how could that happen in the perfect shape of New Zealand!  Alas, something penetrated my defenses and bit me.  Either that or something crawled under my mosquito netting.

Wake up call this morning is at 5:30 but we are already up.  The group is bound for the Chobe National Park and another game drive.

We were scheduled to leave at 7AM but as Stanley was pulling onto the grounds the bus's alternator belt broke.  He's a resourceful guy, however, and a replacement bus arrived in 20 minutes so were underway close to schedule.

We will be leaving Zimbabwe and entering Botswana for the day to view game at Chobe National park.  Situated in northern Botswana, it has the largest concentration of game in Africa.  By size it is the third largest park in the country and the most biologically diverse.  It is also Botsana's first national park.

This is the area of Africa's four corners where the borders of four nations touch: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia, transected by the Chobe River that rises from the Zambezi.

Seventy percent of Botswana is the Kalahari desert.  Diamonds were very instrumental in the development of Botswana.  In the late 1860's a farmer traveled north from Cape Town to the Hope Town area.  This is 100 miles south of the future diamond minds in Kimberly.

He saw some kids playing with stones by the river.  When he noticed how heavy the stones were he was intrigued and asked if he could have one which he mailed to a friend, a physician and gemologist in Cape Town.

The stone was cleaned up and when the doctor scratched his window with it, the stone cut the glass.  These were diamonds washing downstream from Kimberly.

Cecil Rhodes was also a farmer at the time on his brother's spread.  Recognizing an opportunity when he saw one, he soon became involved with buying both diamonds and stakes making himself a very wealthy man with many political connections. He expanded his empire by supplying all parts of the mining operation and managing migrant labor.

All in all, he mined 36 million carats of diamonds from the Kimberly Mine.  But he felt he might have a problem concerning a potential new mine at Beacon's Field.  A feisty Dutchman named DeBeers was fed up with the foreigners in South Africa and moved to a large farm near the Beacon Field stake, Rhodes future site. 

Rhodes was very worried that the Dutch would form an alliance with Germany and interfere with his operation so he formed a consortium and placed it on the British stock exchange to raise funds.  DeBeers then sold his farm for 30,000 pounds with the proviso that the diamond company would forever bear his name.  This farm constituted much of non-desert Botswana.

First stop this morning is a road block and we are instructed not to take pictures of the police.  When we reach the Zimbabwean border with Botswana, we get off the bus and present our passports for stamping.  Then we cross over into Botswana and step into a shallow basin of disinfectant to prevent the introduction of hoof and mouth disease. Cattle is a major export here.

Now we board jeeps for our short run to Kasane and the Marina Lodge.  After a bathroom stop, we load into four tiered open air jeeps with six passengers.  This way everyone has a window seat.

We are off with Mapa, our guide and driver, over the red sand roads often quite rutted from recent rains.  I feel my face and wonder, Are these crumbs?,...  no, it is fine grit sand kicked up by the jeep.  Imagine how you would be covered in the dry season.

Wending our way down to overlook the Chobe and its surrounding green veldts, we notice the vigorous green growth from the recent rains.  This may impede our spotting game, but we have a river where many come to drink during the day.

Chobe Park is the home of more than 100,000 elephants. In our descent to the waterline, we see numerous impala, generally a dominant male and his breeding herd.

The impala are again gathered near the water, but this time with a buddy, the red billed something or other who is firmly affixed to one's neck and nibbling away on ticks.

Hippos languish in the shallow water.  While they can run at great pace, they are poor swimmers and prefer a depth of 1 to 1.5 meters for their wading.  A large group swims by with one big guy having a yawn.

The trees abound with blooming vines.  These flame flowers remind me of buying this bulb and planting it in the front yard.  I patiently waited for the first sprout and was so glad when it appeared.  Unfortunately, I did not notify the King of Round Up, who promptly zapped my prize sprout.  It did not recover.

We also see some giraffes grazing from the tree tops and and two zebras and their baby grazing near the water's edge.

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We circle the park until we spy an African Fish Eagle, cousin to our American Eagle.  He is not a scavenger, just a hungry fisherman parked high in a tree.

Next is a stretch break and time for a little water.  The guys head into the trees...we ladies who know the exact number of minutes between proper toilets don't need a stop plus we won't begin drinking our water for thirty minutes!  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for the gentlemen in the bushes, their arrival in the trees did not stir up any big cats!

We are soon returned to the Marina Lodge where a buffet lunch awaits.  Beware.. a calamari loving colleague who will remain nameless warns seafood at this lunch stop should be avoided even if you packed Immodium. No more said. Some tourers found tee shirts and small gifts in the hotel shop.

We now board a large flat bottomed boat with a canopy for our tour on the Chobe River.  The side opposite our lodge is Namibia; relations with these two countries are often testy.  

The river bifurcates around Sedudu Island that remains green all year, a magnet for animals and consequently, tourism.  Both Botswana and Namibia claimed it, a situation that was referred to the Court in the Hague after it could not be resolved locally.

In a King Solomon decision, the Hague said that the country with the shallowest channel between island and shore would claim the island.  It was awarded to Botswana.

We proceed to what looks like an industrial trash can where our pilot enters to get his permit.  Now underway we inch along, spotting crocodiles and kudus at the water's edge.  In the distance we note a procession of elephants with babies moving at great pace and follow them.

They are headed to an elephant party further up the river.  There must be thirty elephants rolling in the mud, munching on the tall grass, and instructing the little ones, no more than a month old, in how to take a bath.  Some of these babes pause in their frolic to nurse.

We were so close to the herd, identifying a broken tusk here and there and the elephant procedure of slinging mud on their backs to act as sunscreen, fanning their ears, shaped like the African continent, all the while.

There are more than 100,000 elephants here in the park.  Other than a boundary with Kasane, there is no fence around the park so the animals migrate between countries and out of the park to the south looking for the best food.

We find two hippos standing in the tall grass.  One must have irritated the other because he takes off running and jumps into the river.  His companion follows and they continue to mix it up in the water, bellowing.

As we have come to expect, our guide has excellent eyesight and a wealth of knowledge.  The tour was wonderful and the temperature was moderate.  Returning to Zimbabwe was the reverse of our entry without the foot bath and before long we driving through the wonderful entrance to our hotel.  Again, no rain.  A family of warthogs greet us.

After a little down time, we celebrate our last night in Zimbabwe with a fancy dinner in the elegant Livingstone Dining Room.  All silver, crystal and starched white tablecloths, it was a delicious meal.  We are able to sleep in tomorrow as our flight to Johannesburg connecting to Windhoek, Namibia is not until 2PM.

While I still maintain that the rooms of the Victoria Falls Hotel are small, musty and poorly laid out and at times smelling of Raid, I have to say that it is a magical setting with good food and excellent, friendly service.

Upon editing this post I find that the above leaves a very negative impression.  All in all, we really enjoyed our stay and wouldn't hesitate to return

All of our drivers and guides have been exceptional.  I am told wifi in Namibia may be sketchy....my posts might be delayed...but they will come.