Second night on the banks of the Chobe
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
13
20
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Chobe National Park,
Botswana
Monday, July 21, 2008
This is also the place to see large amounts of Cape Buffalo as they enjoy grazing on the mopane grasslands of this area. The basic herds consist of related females, and their offspring with smaller batchelor herds close by. On my way to the ablution block I nearly walked straight into a mother and calf mistaking it for a tent! For a few moments it eyed me up then went back to chewing the grass, meanwhile I quickly went inside the block and waited for it to go
Elephant up close
. The buffalo is known as "Black Death" in Africa, as it isis widely regarded as a very dangerous animal, as it gores and kills several people every year, I certainly did not want to end up a statistic. In the afternoon we noticed a huge herd of 60 plus elephants accumulating to the East of the camp and took a drive to investigate and view these magnificent animals close-up. I don't think I have ever seen such large numbers but these huge herds are common in Chobe as the park is probably best known for its spectacular elephant population: 60,000 elephants today and actually has the highest elephant concentration of Africa.
The night was quieter than the previous one but we had made the fatal mistake of leaving the iron cooking pot outside soaking. Washing up at the ablution block is not a good idea after dark so we tended to do it first thing in the morning. We had assumed that because the pot was up high and heavy nothing could get to it but were very much mistaken. A loud crash was the first thing that alerted us to something happening. We looked out to see that the pot had been knocked over and was being licked out by two large Honey Badgers. I remembered reading about this tenacious animal and how aggressive they can be, often known to kill snakes for food and wondered if it was wise climb down from the safety of the tent to move the pot into the car. I decided that we should and bravely clambered down. The badgers quickly moved away but I could still see them scurrying in the shadows joined by a third and was extremely relieved to quickly return to the safety of the tent.
Later the large herd of elephants that had been accumulating to the east of us started to travel down the river in front of us. The bright moon meant that we could see them very clearly, a wonderful sight in the moonlight silhouetted against the Chobe River. For over an hour 30 or 40 elephants remained close to us and we just sat and watched transfixed from our tent.
Comments
Buffalo encounter
Your running into a buffalo at Ihaha reflects my own experience where a lone bull wandered into our camp site and was standing about 10 feet away from me while I'd been peeling spuds for our stew. Armed with a potato peeler and nothing else, I felt very close to becoming one of those statistics. Ihaha certainly keeps you on your toes! Great stuff.