Animal Encounters and Botswana

Since the last blog we have travelled from the Atlantic Coast in Namibia to Livingstone in Zambia, via Etosha NP, and the Okavango Delta and Chobe NP in Botswana.

Etosha was an easy place for animal spotting. We just parked up by the waterholes and waited for the animals to come to us. We saw huge herds of various animals here. When the elephants arrived all other animals either stood back or would skittishly sip at the water, except for one particular rhino that we sat and watched late one night by a waterhole that was lit up near our campsite. This black rhino was obviously very territorial and made a big scene when anything would come to drink. There was a confrontation with another rhino as they passed each other, then a huge herd of elephants and a pack of about 10 hyena's came to drink and got the rhino more agitated, after a while more elephants came so there were about 30 all up and the one grumpy rhino. It tried to show the ele's who's waterhole it was, but the ele's just ignored it and splashed it with their trunks. Which made the rhino very very grumpy by this stage and he shook his head, grunted, turned to the ele's to mark his territory and then farted in their direction before running off. It was a very amusing night and I had to try very hard not to laugh out loud.

The Okavango Delta was one of the highlights for me on this trip. We got to experience this place by boat, 4x4, mokoro (dug out canoe), plane, house boat and on foot. We first camped in a village called Seronga where we met a local called Pauline, a 29 year old women who had been raped one night (by her child's father) and was now pregnant with her second child. Unfortunately she has since found out the he has AIDS and so she is now waiting for her second test result, the first was negative and I hope the second one is too. It is so sad and it broke my heart, but her optimism and attitude regarding her situation was inspiring. I don't think I will ever forget her.
AIDS is a massive problem in Botswana, it has the highest infection rate in the world. 36% of young adults have it here. In Seronga, pre-AIDS epidemic the life expectancy was 77 years old, now it's 31 years! At least Botswana's Government are actively tacking this problem with awareness campaigns, increasing the health budget and providing antiretroviral medication.
We took a flight over a small section of the delta and really got a feeling for how expansive the delta is. We spent another night on a very small island in the delta at a basic bush camp where we got round with the mokoro's. Our poler's for the mokoro's navigated there way through the water Lillie's, hippo grasses and hippo's. They also took us on a bushwalk who only had their experience to protect us from the animals, but they have been living there all there lives and really knew there stuff. At one point we came across some elephants, but we quickly had to retreat as they were a breeding herd with some babies. Most animals will do a mock charge first to give you a warning, but a breeding herd of elephants may not.

We got some really great encounters with lions in Chobe NP. We witnessed some stalking some sable (large antelope), we also got up close to a lioness that had killed a sable the day before and was still busy munching away. I got to see some elephants swimming too on a sunset Chobe River cruise.

We are now relaxing in Livingstone and enjoying Victoria Falls. We did a chopper flight over the falls and through Botoka Gorge just above the raging rapids of the Zambezi. I can see why it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.