Chobe NP, Botswana

Chobe: A River on the Border of Life with Death


Hypo-community
Hippos semi-submerged in the Chobe River.
River Safari I
Visitors to PN Chobe admire the scenery and fauna from the middle of the Chobe River.
Pachyderm Hierarchy
Elephants file up to one of the many islets left by the lower flow of the Chobe River.
Game Drive
Jeep safari on the Chobe river bank.
with an eye wide open
Warning crocodile on high bank of Chobe.
Bulls Girl
Young girl from a tribal village on the banks of the Chobe River.
island elephants
Elephants graze on an islet in the middle of the Chobe River.
Big Wings, Bigger Beak
Band of Marabus flies over the plain on the banks of the river.
River Safari II
Visitors to Chobe National Park aboard a boat that takes them on a river safari.
Dead nature
Abandoned nest at the top of a dry tree in the Caprivi range.
Hypo-Protection
Juvenile hippopotamus stays close to the parent during the closest passage of boats.
Face to face
Passengers on a river safari admire elephants on an islet in the middle of the Chobe.
leggy elegance
A Yellow-billed Stork in the Chobe River.
Hierarchy of Pachyderm II
Elephants vie for a kind of river throne on a grassy island in the middle of the Chobe River.
African tones
Birds perched on the branches of a dry tree leaning over the Chobe River.
Chobe marks the divide between Botswana and three of its neighboring countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. But its capricious bed has a far more crucial function than this political delimitation.

When asked about the reasons for remarrying Elisabeth Taylor, just 16 months after they divorced after 10 years of married life, Richard Burton replied, "You can't hit two sticks of dynamite against each other without hoping they don't burst."

The couple chose a place few wary Americans would remember, as the explosive civil war then raged in Rhodesia, a state enacted by minority white settlers to prevent the direct handover of power from Britain to indigenous leaders. A state not recognized by most of the international community.

Burton and Taylor boarded a private jet in the South Africa and flew to that same territory, the Zimbabwe of today).

They then crossed to Botswana. They celebrated their second wedding ceremony in Kasane, a city as unlikely as it is used to coexisting with unions.

Kasane is situated on the Four Corners of Africa, at the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi. The actors' honeymoon was spent at the Chobe Game Lodge, on the bank of the homonymous river.

Aware of the natural beauty of their land and the number of times Taylor has been divorced, the tswanas from those places reiterate that the diva “was much better at choosing places than husbands”.

village girl, chobe national park, botswana

Young girl from a tribal village on the banks of the Chobe River.

The Riverside Convenience of Chobe Lodge

We were on our way to that same hostel. Botswana's dignified roads proved to us the economic gap between the sparsely inhabited but heavily populated nation. diamond of the tswanas and the duo Zim-Zam to the north. They allowed us to advance at amazing speeds. It wouldn't be long before we heard the joke too.

The Chobe Lodge opened in 1974. It welcomed the couple in October 1975. A few years later, it was closed due to the spread of the already long Liberation War in Zimbabwe.

For seven years, it kept its doors sealed, its gardens given over to the bush and the elephants that trampled them on their way to the river.

With the end of the conflict, two young South Africans bought him, recovered the tradition of the famous wedding and propelled him to an inevitable world star.

The river that gave meaning to its construction and success flowed over the decades, indifferent to military skirmishes and the covers of society magazines, dependent only on the capricious weather of the region.

elephants lined up, chobe national park, botswana

Elephants file up to one of the many islets left by the lower flow of the Chobe River.

The Chobe River Meteorological Fluctuations

The Chobe is supplied by several perennial water sources. Even so, its flow volume fluctuates drastically from the dry season (usually from May to October) to the rainy season.

Animals try to adjust as best they can, but as we've seen and seen again in countless television documentaries, overall, the quality of their lives declines as the blazing sun intensifies the drought and the river shrinks.

Yellow-billed Stork, Chobe National Park, Botswana

A Yellow-billed Stork in the Chobe River.

No species has to reason out there to avoid the suffocating heat that sets in from mid-morning onwards. Most of the animals carefully approach the banks by the fresh air.

Accordingly, the river trips carried out by the lodge are either early risers or – like the first one we took part in – at the end of the afternoon.

passengers and wildlife, chobe national park, botswana

Visitors to PN Chobe admire the scenery and fauna from the middle of the Chobe River.

Embarkation for a Glorious River Safari

The vessel sets sail from the small dock. He immerses himself in the river under the scrutinizing gaze of an osprey atop a dead log. We follow close to the water.

Moments later, we are confronted by herds of buffalo and elephant grazing fresh grass. Unexpectedly, the river bank rises.

In a flash, we started to admire them from the bottom up. Some specimens take measurements from the grassed pedestal.

elephants on an island, chobe national park, botswana

Elephants vie for a kind of river throne on a grassy island in the middle of the Chobe River.

As do, from the opposite side, curious elephants, kings and lords of small green islands from which intimidated crocodiles hurl themselves.

The ferry continues its long trail between Botswana and Namíbia, meanwhile under a magenta sky that reflects off the water and stains large colonies of almost submerged hippopotamuses.

hippopotami, chobe national park, botswana

Hippos semi-submerged in the Chobe River.

We can only see their ears and eyes outside, strangely pink with the coming twilight and the time to return to the harbor.

And Chobe's Complementary Game Drive

With the next dawn, we board a jeep instead of the ferry. Overland, we explore a vast riverside area covered by gazelles and some predators, part of a game drives – that's what the English-speakers call it – that didn't bring big news.

jeep safari, chobe national park, botswana

Jeep safari on the Chobe river bank.

In the meantime, we return to Kasane with the primary objective of crossing the Chobe and the border to Namibia, through the unusual Caprivi strip, a kind of cartographic spear that the Germans speared in Africa, during the colonial era.

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the territory we approached as we crossed the Chobe was integrated into Bechuanaland, the modern-day Botswana.

In 1890, Germany set out to join the island of Zanzibar – then British – to her colony Tanzania.

After several diplomatic trials, the British agreed to cede Caprivi and to give the Germans direct access to the Zambezi River. In return, they preserved Zanzibar and seized Heligoland, another remote island in the North Sea.

We settled at Chobe Savanna Lodge. There, the river sceneries are similar to those at Chobe Lodge.

river safari visitors, chobe national park, botswana

Visitors to Chobe National Park aboard a boat that takes them on a river safari.

The great novelty and emotion to match takes place when, during a new river safari, the raft invades the territory of some hippos and one of them storms furiously against the vessel.

The attack makes us lose our balance. It forces the skipper to move away using the maximum power of the engines. Luckily, it doesn't last long. Once the danger is past, it feeds countless opportunistic jokes.

A Chobe's Unexpected But Deserved Scare

Already in full disembarkation, at sunset and in an exaggerated photographic mode, we follow the line of passengers, when we observe the beauty of a dead tree against the sunset.

dry tree birds, chobe national park, botswana

Birds perched on the branches of a dry tree leaning over the Chobe River.

For a moment, we lose awareness of where we are. We left the line and walked a few dozen meters in the direction of that tree, always by the river.

Faced with the subject, we couldn't resist approaching the water and crouching down, in order to make the branches stand out against the sky. We are involved in this framing process when we notice several pairs of rounded sparkles in the water.

crocodile, chobe national park, botswana

Warning crocodile on high bank of Chobe.

At a glance, we are caught up in the dramatic return of reason. We were a mere meter and a half, two meters at all, from crocodiles that could be both juvenile and the largest to inhabit the Chobe.

We take a measured step backwards. Recovered the safety of greater distance and vertical posture. We retreated shivering into the fortified interior of Chobe Lodge. We had survived that moment of unexpected madness.

The next one might not go so well.

Cape Cross, Namíbia

The Most Turbulent of the African Colonies

Diogo Cão landed in this cape of Africa in 1486, installed a pattern and turned around. The immediate coastline to the north and south was German, South African, and finally Namibian. Indifferent to successive transfers of nationality, one of the largest seal colonies in the world has maintained its hold there and animates it with deafening marine barks and endless tantrums.
NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Heart of Mozambique's Wildlife Shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
PN Hwange, Zimbabwe

The Legacy of the Late Cecil Lion

On July 1, 2015, Walter Palmer, a dentist and trophy hunter from Minnesota killed Cecil, Zimbabwe's most famous lion. The slaughter generated a viral wave of outrage. As we saw in PN Hwange, nearly two years later, Cecil's descendants thrive.
Miranda, Brazil

Maria dos Jacarés: the Pantanal shelters such Creatures

Eurides Fátima de Barros was born in the interior of the Miranda region. 38 years ago, he settled in a small business on the side of BR262 that crosses the Pantanal and gained an affinity with the alligators that lived on his doorstep. Disgusted that once upon a time the creatures were being slaughtered there, she began to take care of them. Now known as Maria dos Jacarés, she named each of the animals after a soccer player or coach. It also makes sure they recognize your calls.
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Amboseli National Park, Kenya

A Gift from the Kilimanjaro

The first European to venture into these Masai haunts was stunned by what he found. And even today, large herds of elephants and other herbivores roam the pastures irrigated by the snow of Africa's biggest mountain.
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
Aswan, Egypt

Where the Nile Welcomes the Black Africa

1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
safari
Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The Prodigious Resuscitation of Liwonde NP

For a long time, widespread neglect and widespread poaching had plagued this wildlife reserve. In 2015, African Parks stepped in. Soon, also benefiting from the abundant water of Lake Malombe and the Shire River, Liwonde National Park became one of the most vibrant and lush parks in Malawi.
Braga or Braka or Brakra in Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 6th – Braga, Nepal

The Ancient Nepal of Braga

Four days of walking later, we slept at 3.519 meters from Braga (Braka). Upon arrival, only the name is familiar to us. Faced with the mystical charm of the town, arranged around one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist monasteries on the Annapurna circuit, we continued our journey there. acclimatization with ascent to Ice Lake (4620m).
Architecture & Design
Castles and Fortresses

A Defending World: Castles and Fortresses that Resist

Under threat from enemies from the end of time, the leaders of villages and nations built castles and fortresses. All over the place, military monuments like these continue to resist.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Aventura
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Dragon Dance, Moon Festival, Chinatown-San Francisco-United States of America
Ceremonies and Festivities
San Francisco, USA

with the head on the moon

September comes and Chinese people around the world celebrate harvests, abundance and unity. San Francisco's enormous Sino-Community gives itself body and soul to California's biggest Moon Festival.
Camel Racing, Desert Festival, Sam Sam Dunes, Rajasthan, India
Cities
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
young saleswoman, nation, bread, uzbekistan
Lunch time
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Culture
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Traveling
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Karanga ethnic musicians join the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
Ethnic
Great ZimbabweZimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe, Little Bira Dance

Karanga natives of the KwaNemamwa village display traditional Bira dances to privileged visitors to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. the most iconic place in Zimbabwe, the one who, after the decree of colonial Rhodesia's independence, inspired the name of the new and problematic nation.  
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 1)

And Light was made on Earth. Know how to use it.

The theme of light in photography is inexhaustible. In this article, we give you some basic notions about your behavior, to start with, just and only in terms of geolocation, the time of day and the time of year.
Christiansted, Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, Steeple Building
History
Christiansted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

In the Deep of the Afro-Danish-American Antilles

In 1733, Denmark bought the island of Saint Croix from France, annexed it to its West Indies where, based at Christiansted, it profited from the labor of slaves brought from the Gold Coast. The abolition of slavery made colonies unviable. And a historic-tropical bargain that the United States preserves.
Ponta de Sao Lourenco, Madeira, Portugal
Islands
Ponta de Sao Lourenco, Madeira, Portugal

The Eastern, Somehow Extraterrestrial, Madeira Tip

Unusual, with ocher tones and raw earth, Ponta de São Lourenço is often the first sight of Madeira. When we walk through it, we are fascinated, above all, with what the most tropical of the Portuguese islands is not.
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Guardians of Boreal Europe

Long discriminated against by Scandinavian, Finnish and Russian settlers, the Sami people regain their autonomy and pride themselves on their nationality.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Sampo Icebreaker, Kemi, Finland
Nature
Kemi, Finland

It's No "Love Boat". Breaks the Ice since 1961

Built to maintain waterways through the most extreme arctic winter, the icebreaker Sampo” fulfilled its mission between Finland and Sweden for 30 years. In 1988, he reformed and dedicated himself to shorter trips that allow passengers to float in a newly opened channel in the Gulf of Bothnia, in clothes that, more than special, seem spacey.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Cliffs above the Valley of Desolation, near Graaf Reinet, South Africa
Natural Parks
Graaf-Reinet, South Africa

A Boer Spear in South Africa

In early colonial times, Dutch explorers and settlers were terrified of the Karoo, a region of great heat, great cold, great floods and severe droughts. Until the Dutch East India Company founded Graaf-Reinet there. Since then, the fourth oldest city in the rainbow nation it thrived at a fascinating crossroads in its history.
UNESCO World Heritage
glaciers

icy blue planet

They form at high latitudes and/or altitudes. In Alaska or New Zealand, Argentina or Chile, rivers of ice are always stunning visions of an Earth as frigid as it is inhospitable.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Plane landing, Maho beach, Sint Maarten
Beaches
Maho Beach, Sint Maarten

The Jet-powered Caribbean Beach

At first glance, Princess Juliana International Airport appears to be just another one in the vast Caribbean. Successive landings skimming Maho beach that precedes its runway, jet take-offs that distort the faces of bathers and project them into the sea, make it a special case.
gaudy courtship
Religion
Suzdal, Russia

Thousand Years of Old Fashioned Russia

It was a lavish capital when Moscow was just a rural hamlet. Along the way, it lost political relevance but accumulated the largest concentration of churches, monasteries and convents in the country of the tsars. Today, beneath its countless domes, Suzdal is as orthodox as it is monumental.
End of the World Train, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
On Rails
Ushuaia, Argentina

Last Station: End of the World

Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Society
Campeche, Mexico

200 Years of Playing with Luck

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the peasants surrendered to a game introduced to cool the fever of cash cards. Today, played almost only for Abuelites, lottery little more than a fun place.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Wildlife
Valdez, Alaska

On the Black Gold Route

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker caused a massive environmental disaster. The vessel stopped plying the seas, but the victim city that gave it its name continues on the path of crude oil from the Arctic Ocean.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.