Monday, June 23rd
Flight out of Gaborone was at 9:00, left UB at 8:00, ate cake at the airport cafe before boarding. Tasty cake. We land in Kasane, which is this small town in the northeastern corner of Botswana, it is surrounded by the Chobe National Park, which is where we will be going for our safaris. Before landing, I saw this huge herd of most likely water buffalo following a small river in the park. When we landed at the tiny airport its HOT, upwards of 30C (80F) in temperatures. We find our hosts, the Toro Safari Lodge who had come to pick us up in these pick-up trucks with stadium seating and flat canvas tops. We toss our rucksacks in and hop in ourselves. I grab a middle row seat. After seeing some billboards about the park and the huge Chobe River (one of the tributaries of the Zambezi which is the river forming Victoria Falls) I ended up losing my beloved fedora to the wind of the 80 kph highway. I wailed in utter despair, "NOOOOO!!!!" while my fellow classmates who rode with me started laughing at my expressions as soon as their realized what happened and couldn't react fast enough to take action to save my hat. Fortunately for me and my hat, we were the second car in a caravan of three and I saw that the last truck, a 100 or so meters behind us take the time to retrieve my hat. I breath a sigh of relief. Our lodgings happened to be right on the banks of the Chobe River on the outskirts of the small border town of Kazungula. I really enjoyed the set up. The reception and main building was this open air building that was at most 20 meters away from the river bank, with tables and a fire pit on the lawn leading to the banks. Upon our arrival they served us complimentary guava and mango juice. Delish is the beating sun. We partnered up for rooms, and I figured that I might room with Aaron Lin, because in the very slight chance that he'll get eaten by a lion, I'll have a room to myself. Our rooms were actually these one room, thatched huts, equipped with tiled floor, attached bathroom and AC, about 6x6 meters in area. Really put the feeling of being in Africa in you. So after moving to another hut-room with working AC after our first room's AC unit didn't turn on, we hopped in the trucks at 1530 hours and drove off for our first activity on this trip: a boat safari.
After a 15 minute drive later, we find ourselves at a meager looking dock with a large, double pontoon, two story river boat. Being the first truck to arrive, Jon Hilty, Steven Armstrong and I quickly hop onto the boat from the pier, ascend the stairs in record time and find our seats at the front of the second story balcony. The couple South African couples who rode in our truck, and staying at the lodge with us, took residence behind us. Once everyone was on board and jealous of our trio's seating, we set off upriver. Along the way, we see other river boats, many smaller 80 HP or so, and a couple our size or larger. We stop before entering the N.P.'s waters to register our safari, but that only took a minute or two before we were off and on our way. These guys have this safari business down to a science. Boat safaris take place in the afternoon, when the sun is high and all the animals are making their way to the river for water to drink and mud to wallow in. From the river you could see many game drive (another term for land safaris) trails and similar vehicles to our trucks, trying to glimpse the animals making way for the river. We start off eager and at the slightest sight of wildlife, we all rushed to the railing to take photos because our guide said that they never promise anything, and that they rely on nature, good timing and luck to see animals. That made it seem like animals were going to be hard to come by. Boy, were we ever so wrong to think that. As we moved deeper and deeper into the park's waters, the size and quantity of the wildlife we saw grew. (If you would like to see what I saw, or have no clue as to what kind of animal I'm talking about, I recommend visiting wikipedia.) Initially we only saw meter long lizard, a pair of kudo, male and female, a fish eagle, kingfishers, vivd blue and green song birds, a small Nile croc, a pair of imo and then a whole family group of vervet monkeys scampering along the shoreline and up a tree, parents, adolescents and babies all. One of the last vervets that came running by was actually running upright on its hind legs. The last two thirds of its tail was gone and that probably contributed to him finding a better balance on his hind legs.
Then all of a sudden, Steven shouted out "Elephants!!" and he pointed upriver where a ton of other boats had stopped. He handed around his binoculars to the gathering crowd of other students so that they could see the elephants a half mile away. I confirmed it with my camera and its wonderful zoom capabilities. We were all bursting with excitement! We could only hope that the elephants stayed were they were until we could get there. Finally, after waiting for an eternal five minutes, we came around the bend and saw the great giants of this land. A whole herd of them at the waters edge, drinking, wallowing, and graving on the small bushes nearby. They were magnificent beasts. Huge bulls with squarer heads, smaller rounded head females and several young elephants no more that three feet tall were posing for our cameras. I remember one of the little ones clumsily falling into the the mud hole another elephant had dug. So cute. Nearby, I thought that this one tree had the look of an elephant's face to it. Other people agreed. After snapping probably a hundred photos of elephants thinking that we'd never see one again, we continued on our way. We would later see many more elephants along the river and up on the river banks hills, but were definitely received a less warmer welcome by our cameras. Funny how complacent we get, it happened a lot on the safaris. Upriver we saw tons of guinea fowl, which the South Africans told me that they were protected in their country, not because they are endangered, but because they are really good pollinators. Neat fact. I think we saw three massive water buffalo as well. Really big bovines, much more ferocious looking than the Geauga County dairy cattle I'm use to seeing, with their two large curved horns capping their skulls. Our guide told us that buffalo are no to be angered when on land for they are some of the most dangerous of the park's animals. After seeing a couple more Nile crocs lying on the banks, sun bathing, and many more kudo and impala, what we really craved to see were hippos. Hippopotamuses are definitely one of the more elusive animals we were fortunate to come across. Soon after the elephants, a hippo popped the top of his head out of the water between the river boats to see what was going on. After a shrill reaction by other on our boat pointing upriver 50 meters I saw the beast. But then just like that he was underwater again, not wanting to deal with us paparazzi. We were disappointed, thinking that we'll never get another chance to see these lovable animals. That hippo would later resurface behind our boat, but was gone as quickly as he came. Hippos were also spotted near the middle of the river, were grass grew on top of the floating silt beds, a couple here and couple there, but they were no more than three little dots per head: two for each eye and ear, and a lump of skin where their snouts sat, breaking the surface of the water. Very frustrating. Until we saw a bunch of those little heads and more poking out of the water. There they were, a family group of at least a dozen hippopotamuses. I couldn't get an exact count because they would all take turns going underwater and resurfacing a minute or two later. The bull male did what we were all hoping to see; it opened is mouth 'til it reached its widest extent and snapped it closed. It was quite impressive. We kept circling them, taking tons of photos, then moved on for other boats to enjoy their company (by this point we were the lead boat on the river). Not too far away, we came across another family bu this time my camera died after some 500 pictures. Oh, well. I was watching the hippopotamuses, and casually said to one of them, "C'mon open up and say something." The second I finished that line, I'm not making this up, the hippopotamus facing me opened up and I started down his enormous maw. It was unprecedented! Yet again, I had great timing. Since, my camera died, I was most upset that I missed the family of baboons that our boat came across. They really do play with poop, they dig into these massive droppings left by elephants and the like and find undigested vegetation as our guide told us. They are also some of the more rude animals we came across, always showing their bare bottoms to us. After the baboons and 2nd family of hippos, it was time for us to turn around and we took the path that was the other side of the silt grasslands, on the Namibia side of the river. On that side we saw some curious little birds who seemingly walked on water and some massive crocodiles. First one we saw was like 3 meters, pretty big. Not 20 meters away downriver, and in the direction we were traveling now was a HUGE 4 meter croc facing away from us, just lying there like a slug. Guess it was getting quite cool. The sun was so picturesque. On the Namibia side, there weren't as many tress; it was more like a savannah. The sunset was gorgeous. It dipped behind clouds that were so far off they sat on the horizon. One of the most beautiful sunsets ever seen by my eyes. Those once the sun went down, the temps started to plummet from their lofty 30 centigrade and the little gnats and mosquitoes began their reign.
After docking and terrible cold open top truck ride back to the lodge, we dined. They served some ox tail; these relatively small pieces of tail vertebrate with meat surrounding it. It tasted like a weird seasoning of my mothers beef stew. It was alright. Once we had gotten through most of our meal, the show began. Out of nowhere, traditionally clad (lots of skin, minimal clothing) troupe came out from around the corner, singing and marching into a semi circle facing us at our tables. They would continue to chant in Setswana (I presumed), clapping while either all, or some of their members would be dancing. It intrigued me. There were these two young men with cylindrical bags of padded straw that they would either hit with their hands or hit them together to make a distinctive thud of a noise. They were perfectly in sync. Eventually we were told by a member of the lodge staff that the performers welcomed anyone who wanted to join them, could. The sheer thought of dancing tickled at my mind during their entire performance. I quietly tapped my foot, trying to mimic the rhythms they were making. Their moves were enhanced by the rattles strapped to their ankles. I ended up going with some motivation by Dr. Lacks who figured that if I danced with the chief at the cultural village, I would dance with this "zebra" troupe (as they called themselves) but I knew deep down that I was gonna get up and join them because of my love of dancing. I stood up and went to the end of the semi circle clapping with them, watching as the two male dancers danced. I watched them, thinking, repeating their footwork in my head. Right tap, right kick, up and back to center, stomp and emphasize on the way down. Again with left. Repeat. It was such a great time. The two gents dancing on either side of me cheered in their language, perhaps they were astonished that I had picked up their dance so fast. They bowed back into line and sent one of their girls into the semi circle to dance with me. We danced a bit, me trying to copy her footwork, all the while moving about and crossing with her, trying to be her mirror and mimic. It was so much fun. Soon after I sat down, beads of sweat on my brow, they did one final number. Many of them would smile at me as they exited out stage left, since I was in the front row. When I turned in for the night, I smiled to myself. I had found another universal language: the language that came from the joy of dancing together.
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