Blog

August 2nd – 5th, 2022

Introduction

Our friends Gerry and Ronda joined us for our visit to Moremi and Chobe National Parks. This is part 2, If you didn’t read part 1 of this you can find it here. This time we’re continuing from Savuti through to Ihaha on the Chobe Riverfront.

As we’ve found before, having friends along makes the journey unique, interesting and special. It makes Jenny and I think about each day in a different way and it’s rewarding to share this thing that we find so singular with others. 

When we’re home we often get asked about our trips and even after many attempts we’re still not very good at explaining the essence of why we love traveling this way. Inevitably the conversation ends up fixed on some interesting but trivial detail, the safety of the roads, the heat, the border crossings or whatever; but we never really manage to convey the meat of the issue. 

When friends have made the leap of faith and joined us by the end of their trip they leave understanding what we failed to explain. They think they’re coming to see some elephants and go camping. The real drug is that making your own way in this part of the world is challenging and fun. The mandatory participation, where your actions are integral to the outcome of the experience, is what really makes traveling like this special.

From Savuti

We arrived at Savuti campsite in the early afternoon. I think we had finally tired out Gerry and Ronda and they decided to take the afternoon off to lounge around camp. We warned them that it’s safari, not vacation, but we still wore them out. Jenny and I headed off for a game drive on our own. We had no great results but it was still fun. In contrast to previous visits here we didn’t see any elephants, which I took to be common in Savuti. Perhaps they are off duty for the afternoon. 

Evening in camp was pleasant, the temperatures were perfect this time of year. It is warm during the day and cool enough in the evening that cooking over the fire was no hardship and nothing more than a sweatshirt required when it cooled off. This also makes for very comfortable sleeping. The mornings have been a little chilly, but it warms up quickly. We were here in November once and then the temperatures are absolutely sweltering 24 hours a day. 

The Savuti campsite is well known to have a particular flaw, that a generator is run into the evening. The hum of the engine does spoil the ambiance somewhat, but not so much that we worried about it. It eventually turned off sometime after 9 o’clock. Given the price of fuel and the difficulty of transporting it out here it is a little odd that they aren’t solar like the other camps.

In the morning we made a very early start to get some Savuti game driving in before we headed off to Thobolos Bush Lodge, a private camp outside the park. We would have stayed at Savuti another night but they were fully booked. 

After a lot of wandering through narrow bush tracks and some very deep sand we stopped to check out the San rock art that is well known at Savuti. It is a 100 meter scramble up some rocks and it feels good to stretch the legs a bit. There is also a nice view from this elevated spot. The rocks are pretty steep and you have to be careful, a fall here would be very dangerous, but we all managed and Ronda’s services (she is a nurse by profession) were not needed. After seeing the rock art we followed up with a coffee break at a wonderful huge baobab just around the corner. There were nice lion tracks in the sand here, but not lions.

After more game driving, including a minor confrontation with a lone bull elephant, we ended up at a place called Quarry Hill. I’ve read many reports of visits to Savuti and no one has ever mentioned this track, but on the map it looked like we could drive up to the top of one of the larger hills for a nice view in the otherwise mostly flat terrain. In contrast to the sandy tracks that makes up most of Savuti, this track was steep and very rocky.

Part way up I started to realize why I probably hadn’t heard of this before, because this track is really rough! It took low range and a few times Jenny got out and spotted for us to get the tire placement right. Our new tires were certainly getting broken in. Gerry was loving the technical driving and carefully we guided the vehicles to the top. The view was excellent and we had a nice break. 

On the way back down Jenny remarked at how calm I was considering that Etzold (the workshop we’d been to in Windhoek) had told us that our prop shaft should be fine as long as we don’t do any rock crawling or heavy 4×4 work. I had totally forgotten! Etzold had noted that the slip joint really needed to be rebuilt, but that as long as we weren’t too aggressive on the 4×4 it would be good for a while longer. Had we known the difficulty of this track I think we would have passed on it. 

The rest of our Savuti game drive did not produce spectacular sightings, but we did see quite a lot of kori bustards, zebras, giraffe, impala, lion tracks, wildebeest and a few of the other regulars.  Camp had three kinds of hornbill and a number of other nice birds.

Heading north the road from Savuti to the Chobe Riverfront is a bit of a grind, long stretches of deep sand on an undulating track that tosses the vehicle back and forth. Unless you are driving the perfect speed this results in dynamic rolls, each cycle of getting tossed about more extremethan the last. You have to slow to a crawl to stop the motion, then build up a modicum of speed once again. The difference between our vehicle with its modified suspension and the Bushlore vehicle with its stock suspension was very noticeable. We were having a much easier time of it.

At the Ghoha Gate we stopped to check out of the park. While Jenny and Ronda were inside Gerry was having one of his ad-hoc fitness moments, where he spontaneously busts out a dozen reps of whatever exercise comes to mind. Like a lot of the park gates this gate had the horns and bones of a few animals on display, no doubt that the rangers had found on patrol.

I encouraged Gerry to do a few squats with the elephant femur that was propped up against the building, which he did. He also did some curls with a “smaller” elephant bone and we were both having a good laugh with this, hoping we weren’t going to get into trouble with the ranger. Jenny said that the ranger saw what was happening and giggled, shook her head and just thought that we were idiots. 

The track north is through the Chobe Forest Reserve, more sand, corrugations and undulations lined primarily with mopane trees. Eventually we made it to the Thobolos Bush Lodge, a new destination for Jenny and I. 

Thobolos has a few big chalets that you can rent, a pool, a campsite and a central bar and dining area. The bar has a big shaded deck with a spectacular view over a pan and big watering hole. There is also a smaller viewing deck in the campsite.

After getting checked in we signed up for dinner and settled in on the viewing deck. It is a great spot, the kind of place you bring a book, binoculars and slowly sip a cold beer from the honor bar (as everyone knows, beers from an honor bar taste better) as you wait for animals to come to the watering hole. 

This was a really wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Warthogs were cavorting, jackals furtively coming to drink and leave, impala came and went. A huge herd of eland came as well, more than we’ve ever seen in Southern Africa. The birding was also very good and I could definitely see spending another day here.

Which we almost had to do, because Wheeze Honk Safaris made a major blunder in planning this safari for our friends. I guess you get what you pay for. Jenny and I joke about our non-existent safari company as Wheeze Honk Safaris, were we ever to start one. A ‘wheeze-honk’ being the sound a hippo makes. We shared this name with our friend who runs a very successful actual safari company and he told us “That is a terrible name.” Thanks Kent. 

Somehow we skipped a day in our bookings. We booked Thobolos and we booked the final day at Chobe Safari Lodge in Kasane, but we had skipped a day in the middle. Do we stay at Thobolos another day? Try our luck at getting a spot at Ihaha (we had been told it was fully booked), or go to Kasane early? 

We pondered all this over the nice set menu dinner at Thobolos. After reviewing all the options with the team we decided to try our luck at Ihaha. Ihaha is a wonderful campsite with an excellent view of the river, and it would, in our opinion, make the trip “flow” the best. Allowing for a leisurely exploration of the full length of the Chobe Riverfront track as opposed to the marathon of doing the whole thing in one day. This came with risk, if Ihaha was in fact full we’d have to continue onto Kasane a day early, which we judged to be the worst outcome. 

One factor I confess I did not mention to Gerry and Ronda (sorry!), or remind Jenny of, is the occasional nighttime pilfering that has happened at Ihaha Campsite. The river level was fairly high and I suspect that this already rare phenomenon is curtailed when the river is up, as it is too hard for the thieves to make their way to camp from across the river.

Morning came and after some dawn waterhole watching of a large herd of buffalo we hit the road. The drive out of the reserve and back into Chobe National Park is not unpleasant and we made good time. About 40kms of this is tarred and on one empty stretch Gerry put his driving skills to work, testing the 0-100 kph time of their heavily laden famously lazy Land Cruiser 4.2. The results were not pretty, 39 seconds to get to 95 kph and then there was a hill and 100 was not achieved.

At the Ngoma gate to Chobe National Park we checked in again and explained our predicament, that we intended to camp at Ihaha but had no booking. They understood the situation perfectly and advised us who to talk to at Ihaha, allowing that we pay only one day of park fees and if Ihaha did have space for us we could pay for the following day’s fee at the Ihaha park office. 

Off we went and the Chobe Riverfront was as lovely as ever. Large herds of zebra, impala and kudu were present. The numbers of kudu seemed particularly high. Birdlife in the river was great and Gerry and Ronda were getting the hang of some of the bird names. Giraffe also crossed the road in front of us and troops of baboons lurked in the shade. This western portion of the riverfront was devoid of any other cars, such a contrast to the busy eastern section that is full of day trippers from Kasane. A few handsome baobabs look down on the rocky track from up on the hills. The scenery here is very pleasant.

We didn’t dally too long, not wanting to lose our chance at a spot at Ihaha, and so we wound through the tracks but didn’t stop too often until we arrived at the campsite.

Arriving at Ihaha there was a feeling of suspense. Would we get a campsite at this lovely spot and enjoy an unfenced camp in the wilderness with the sunsetting over the river? Or would we get skunked and have to power on to Kasane? 

Jenny excels at this sort of thing and we all agreed, without consulting her, that it was best she go it alone and unhindered by any ballast that we might add to the situation. She went into the office while we dithered around in the shade, wondering what was happening. And lo, a campsite was available! Jenny reported that there had been some initial hesitation, but when she spoke the name advised at the gate this unlocked any hesitation and we were granted a spot. 

In fact we were assigned site No. 3, the same site I’d been given when I drove the opposite direction through here in May. It lacks shade, but makes up for it with the view. Happily we were also spared the two annoyances that are common at Ihaha, fearsome baboons and a plague of ants, who must have been off terrorizing some other campers.

It was hot and we put out our awnings and took a break in camp. Anticipating baboon trouble I cut up an old bicycle tire tube to repair my slingshot (aka a ‘catapult’ in Africa). With new rubber bands I was back in business, should any baboons approach I could now defend us. 

For months now the catapult had broken rubber bands and when baboons approached I would just brandish the broken catapult, shaking it at them and even that worked, for it seems any baboon brave enough to approach humans has previously been attacked by a catapult. This is much easier than actually firing at them, and my aim is not very good anyway.

Through the hot afternoon more and more elephants came down from the bush to slake their thirst at the river. They were all downriver quite a way, but there were a lot of elephants. We took a short evening drive to see them and they were really impressive. I counted them at more than 200, the biggest herd of elephants we’d ever seen. 

Returning to camp we were pretty pumped about our elephant experience, and even more so because they seemed to be working their way upriver, in our direction. Perhaps we could watch this mega herd from camp? 

The sunset was stunning and we lit a fire for our last evening in camp, chatting about the trip so far. Gerry and Ronda were starting to absorb what they had done, having driven and camped amongst wildlife, through the bush of Africa and they were getting pretty into it. 

As we went to bed that night the elephants were getting fairly close, within one or two hundred meters, but the herd was dispersing. It turned out it was dispersing right into camp. Outside the tent we could hear the rustling of branches and the chewing of leaves and we new the elephants were very close. Then there was a tremendous ruckus and an earsplitting trumpet, an elephant venting his anger right next to Gerry and Ronda’s vehicle. Apparently the two elephants nearest our campsite had had a disagreement. We were wide awake and no doubt Gerry and Ronda were too. After the elephants moved on we whispered across to them to check they were okay and they responded all was well. They were getting the full experience!

The morning brought us our last game drive. Jenny and I had been a little worried that we weren’t delivering the lions as we’d hoped, so we were working hard on seeing if we could track some down. The staff gave us a tip of where some lions had been the day before. We checked the area and found lion tracks headed east.

Following these tracks heightened our anticipation, but they just went on and on for kilometers. Eventually we arrived at the Serondela picnic site and the lion tracks were still going strong, the pride clearly having marched right through. This was a good reminder that just because you’re in a picnic site doesn’t mean you should drop your guard. Doubly so because we did drop our guard here and were raided by vervet monkeys. The vervets at Serondela must be among the most adept thieves in all of Africa, but at least we were not hit too hard after the initial attack. They had made for our trash and we lost an apple core. They continued to probe our defenses but we stayed on alert.

Here we got another tip that there were lions just a little further along the road and off we went. Finally we found them, where a few cars were pulled off the road and we could just see a couple lion ears and a pair of feet up in the air, lions lounging in the shade. 

It wasn’t much of a sighting and we chatted with the car next to us about how many they thought there were, settling on 3-5. We were about one vehicle length off the road, on a flat spot with no vegetation and lots of other vehicle tracks. So even though you’re not supposed to drive off road we felt that we were appropriate; not blocking the track for any vehicle wanting to pass and not driving on any vegetation or right into the bushes to annoy the lions. 

A park vehicle drove up and immediately three staff jumped out of their Cruiser and started admonishing the three vehicles there. We received a stern lecture on how it was against the rules to drive off the track, how we were guests in the country and subject to their laws and so on and so forth. 

Never mind that they could have easily done this lecturing from their vehicle, but they decided to get out on foot, next to lions, demonstrating that the ‘don’t get out of the car’ rule isn’t important for them to follow. Never mind that about one minute earlier two professionally guided vehicles were parked in the exact same spot. Alas, we were off track and that is technically against the rules, they were right. While being threatened with fines we meekly made our apologies and were allowed on our way. 

I have no doubt that they must be judicious in the stretch of park between Serondela and Kasane, this is a particularly busy area and rule flaunters are common. Still, in all of the parks that we’ve visited across Africa we make an effort to follow the rules and we’ve never once even seen a rule being enforced, so it smarted a bit to be lectured like a child. 

The particular irony in all of this is that when the rangers got out of their vehicle to reprimand us, it freaked out the lions. Lions understand that people stay in their vehicles and that is the way the world is supposed to work. People outside vehicles gets their attention immediately, and while this finger wagging was happening the lions all got up and headed inland. 

It turned out that there were at least a dozen lions and we got to watch them at a respectful distance as they made their way about 500 meters inland. So without the help of the rangers Gerry and Ronda would have never got this nice sighting of a full pride. 

This all was good timing, seeing the lions was the perfect end to our game drive for the day. After we settled down from that experience we made our way slowly out to Sedudu Gate where we checked out of the park. 

It’s only a few kilometers to Kasane town from the gate and in no time we were at the Chobe Safari Lodge. The Chobe Safari Lodge is an enormous property on the river that has a large number of hotel rooms as well as a campsite. This was very practical for us, as Gerry and Ronda could have their vehicle collected by Bushlore right here at the hotel. 

After check in we cleaned ourselves up and had a beer by the pool while using the wifi to check in with family back home. For dinner we walked into town and ate at our favorite restaurant in Kasane, Pizza Plus Coffee and Curry. As indicated in the name, this inexpensive eatery has everything you could want, along with decent outdoor seating. It’s fairly popular, despite its modest outward appearance. Reservations are recommended if you want one of the few outdoor tables. 

Well, Wheeze Honk Safaris kept another pair of customers alive, we’re calling it a win. Tomorrow we were headed to Zimbabwe. We contrived a plan where we’d take Gerry and Ronda to Vic Falls for the day, then put them on a shuttle back to Kasane and we would continue onwards in Zimbabwe. Gerry and Ronda would fly to Cape Town for a few days in the big city to wrap up their African travels.

The Nitty Gritty

How to Plan a Safari with Friends

It is a tricky thing to plan a trip with or for others. It is only by our friends placing unusual trust in us that this has worked. Our system is, to paraphrase Jenny’s father, “You can pick the place or the dates but you can’t pick both.” 

We’ve found that most people don’t know what they want to see in Africa and we just come to an agreement of when they have time to visit and we take care of the rest. Jenny and I rough out an itinerary idea and then build a Google Sheets spreadsheet of the dates, costs, URL links of destinations and a brief description of the plan for each day, “Long drive,” “Game Drive,” “Boat trip,” etc. Ideally we do some of this planning over dinner in person to build up the Africa stoke and ironing out any issues. During these planning sessions Jenny tells them how amazing everything is all the time and I tell them that it’ll probably be miserably hot, we’ll get a lot of flat tires and not see any lions. By this method we set expectations.

To simplify everything, typically we front the costs and then we use the spreadsheet to divvy up the expenses, sharing food costs equally. We also have a no questions asked “No Suffering” policy. If we start to do something that a member of the party thinks isn’t going to be fun or makes them uncomfortable, anyone can speak up and say they don’t want to do it and we just come up with another plan, no problem. 

In this particular case we did not subject our “clients” to our typical laissez-faire approach to bookings and we had an agent, Ultimate Routes, navigate the frustrating process of Botswana bookings on our behalf. They were extremely responsive and good to work with. Were we to use an agent in the future I think we would go with Ultimate Routes again. My impression is the fees for agents are similar between other companies. The gap in our bookings was entirely our fault, not theirs. 

Campsite Notes

Savuti Campsite is run by SKL. Rates are $50 pppn for international plus the 270 Pula park fee. Rates for Botswana citizens, residents, and SADC are here. The wildlife viewing around Savuti is usually exceptionally good, so even though it is an expensive campsite and they run a generator in the evening we will not hesitate to stay here again. The ablutions here are very good and at the right time of day you might score a hot shower. Water here is from a borehole and is potable, or at least we found it to be. 

Thobolos Bush Lodge was a good stop. It is not wild, so if unfenced camping and wilderness is your thing then probably give it a pass. But if a break for the bush, a pool and an excellent viewing deck are desirable then I highly recommend it. I think we will be back. It is not cheap at $40 USD pppn, but at least no park fees are required here. The set menu dinner can accommodate any dietary requirements but I think vegetarianism was maybe too big a curveball for the kitchen. It wasn’t terrible, but might not have been worth the cost either.

Ihaha Camp is run by Kwalate Safaris and costs 275 Pula pppn for international visitors + park fees. Rates for citizens, residents, and SADC can be found here. Oddly the rates are not on their own website. I would also note that Ihaha was less than half occupied, even though it was reportedly fully booked. The source of this discrepancy is unknown, but we talked to the campsite manager and he said this often happens, which is why he has the discretion to allow for last minute bookings like the one we got. Nonetheless all was above board, we were given an official receipt, entered in the camp register and all the rest.

I almost didn’t mention the robberies at Ihaha because I think they are rare and the incidents can be overblown. But it has happened and it is a real, if minor, risk. I suppose we are all accepting similar risks at other places too that we just don’t know about. In any case none of these have been violent, but some have been brazen. The thieves are known to slit ground tents and to reach around inside to grasp whatever they can lay their hands on, wallets, passports or just dirty laundry. 

Some travelers gone to extreme measures to address this, such as not staying at Ihaha, which is a tragedy for such a nice spot. Others have rigged motion activated lights, a bridge too far for me personally. For our visit we proceed with our usual precautions, packing everything away at night, locking the vehicle and not leaving valuables out. I grant you these are hardly impervious security measures, but we judge them to be effective enough for most cases.I suppose we accept that theft is possible and we’re not going to ruin our trip stressing about it.  

If you were to find yourself in Kasane without bookings for Chobe or Moremi note that there is a small office run by Kwalate outside the Sedudu gate. Here they can call the various camps and make last minute bookings. Also Sedudu and Ngoma are the only gates that can accept a credit card. If southbound and paying here you may as well save yourself any heartache and pay all your park fees for your whole journey, then you won’t need to pay cash at the gate for Moremi. 

Kasane 

We love Kasane, this sleepy town on the edge of the bush and the border to Zimbabwe and Zambia. In addition to Chobe Safari Lodge campsite there are others, but it is hard to pick the best. Thebe River Safaris Campsite is also good. Senyati is the best experience, with their busy watering hole, but has the significant caveat that there is no restaurant and it is a good 10km out of town, so there are no quick jaunts to the store if staying here.