Africa’s wild wonders
Gets up and close with elephants, hippos and lions in one of Africa’s best wildlife locations.
Chris Howe
Matt squints at a brightly coloured bird in a distant tree. ‘‘Lilac-breasted roller,’’ he repeats three times, slowly rolling his r’s. ‘‘What is it, Chris?’’
‘‘Lilac-breasted roller,’’ I repeat back to him
‘‘You want to write it down,’’ he says. He knows birders like to tick off their sightings, so I get my notebook out. By the time we finish our game drive I’ve filled three pages. Matt Willson has been guiding in Botswana for more than 11 years, in the Kalahari Desert, Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, and now here in Chobe National Park. He’s publishing a book on the art of guiding later this year because he’s proud of his trade and wants to help keep standards up. And he knows his birds.
Matt explains that most tourists are interested in big game – elephants, lions, hippos, leopards, giraffes, cheetahs and buffalo – and he doesn’t often get a group that wants the names of all the birds. One of our group starts to tire of Matt’s insistence that we repeat their names back to him, but the rest of us are delighted and amazed at his ability to identify the wheatears and warblers halfhidden in the bush, as well as the spectacular eagles, vultures and hornbills in flight.
We’d set off before dawn from The Old House in Kasane, 14km west of the Zambezi River crossing where the four African countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana meet. A beautiful little guest house metres from the Chobe River, it has red-brick paths, an outside restaurant and bar, and a small number of tastefully appointed rooms.
Our instructions the night before had been to wear everything we had but none of us appreciated just how cold it would be. Our vehicle is an adapted Land Cruiser with a covered, open-sided platform behind the cab and, as soon as we start moving, the icy air cuts straight through us. Matt hands out blankets which provide a welcome extra layer.
The Linyanti River rises in Angola, but takes the name Chobe where it forms Botswana’s northern border with Namibia. Known as the Chobe riverfront, this is one of the best wildlife watching locations on earth. The Lonely Planet Guide to Southern Africa says, ‘‘… it rarely, if ever, disappoints.’’
On this cold June morning, it exceeds all expectations. We’re only minutes into the park when Matt sees a lion, then another, then six more. It is barely light as we watch the pride make their way down to the water. One male has started to develop his mane, and the rest are either female or younger males. We follow them for half a hour, and watch them harass a couple of hippos, who’d been lurking at the water’s edge, back into the river.
We drive slowly along a sandy track adjacent to the river, as the light improves. What looks like a large, muddy pool on an island turns out to be a group of at least 20 hippos, lying together to keep warm until the sun comes up. Herons, egrets and storks start to fly, crocodiles start to show themselves, and suddenly it is full daylight. It’s a relief to feel warm again as the temperature climbs rapidly, and we start to shed some layers.
Chobe riverfront is the most accessible part of Chobe National Park for day trips and self-drivers, and from time to time we find ourselves behind other vehicles, waiting our turn to see the wildlife they’ve spotted.
The Old House has its own vehicles and guides and I get the feeling I’ve made a good choice. There are no middle seats in our vehicle, so everyone gets a good view. And, when we stop at a designated ‘‘stretch point’’ for morning tea, Matt makes an aside about the group next to us.
‘‘Eating interrupted by occasional wildlife viewing,’’ he says as their guide unwraps packages of bacon rolls, flasks of tea and coffee, boiled eggs, omelettes and more. We quickly drink our mugs of instant coffee, grab a muffin and a biscuit, and climb back into our vehicle – we’re all keen to get on with the main event, and breakfast will be waiting for us at the Old House, later on.
By 9am we’ve seen elephants and buffalo to go with the lions and hippos we saw at dawn, many herds of impala, red lechwe, giraffes and even puku, an antelope found only in Chobe and one other site in Zambia. Matt delights in telling us about the lifestyle of the impala. Herds are either made up of many females with one dominant male, the ‘‘lucky guy’’, or lots of young males, ‘‘losers’’, he says. Soon we’re all calling out ‘‘losers’’ or ‘‘lucky guy’’ as we work out the nature of the next herd to appear.
Although we don’t see a leopard, we see fresh leopard prints and no one is too disappointed. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at birds and eventually Matt says we really need to be getting back, but suddenly there’s a flash of red and we stop again, this time to marvel at a flock of 30 southern carmine bee-eaters in the branches of a dead tree, their striking scarlet plumage set against the green and brown of the landscape.
Although we’re supposed to be back at 9.30am, we finally roll up at The Old House an hour later. One couple is worried that breakfast will be over but the kitchen staff are waiting for us. I choose the ‘‘Full English’’, with bacon, eggs, meaty African sausages, baked beans, fresh toast, and limitless coffee. Breakfast has rarely tasted better or been more welcome.
Later, I look at the picture on the wall in my room, and I remember something Matt talked about that morning. He said he came from Kasane, but his parents came from a village that used to be in Chobe National Park. They were relocated to Kasane in the 1950s, before Matt was born. The picture is of the village, and there is some text explaining what happened. It says that the buildings were dismantled, and the salvaged bricks brought to Kasane.
What happened to them? They were used as the foundations of The Old House.
Chris Howe is executive director for WWF-New Zealand and has a lifelong commitment to protecting the natural world.