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.
Skipper of one of the bangkas at Raymen Beach Resort during a break from sailing
Beach
Islands Guimaras  e  Ave Maria, Philippines

Towards Ave Maria Island, in a Philippines full of Grace

Discovering the Western Visayas archipelago, we set aside a day to travel from Iloilo along the northwest coast of Guimaras. The beach tour along one of the Philippines’ countless pristine coastlines ends on the stunning Ave Maria Island.
Annapurna Circuit, Manang to Yak-kharka
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna 10th Circuit: Manang to Yak Kharka, Nepal

On the way to the Annapurnas Even Higher Lands

After an acclimatization break in the near-urban civilization of Manang (3519 m), we made progress again in the ascent to the zenith of Thorong La (5416 m). On that day, we reached the hamlet of Yak Kharka, at 4018 m, a good starting point for the camps at the base of the great canyon.
shadow vs light
Architecture & Design
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Salto Angel, Rio that falls from the sky, Angel Falls, PN Canaima, Venezuela
Aventura
PN Canaima, Venezuela

Kerepakupai, Salto Angel: The River that Falls from Heaven

In 1937, Jimmy Angel landed a light aircraft on a plateau lost in the Venezuelan jungle. The American adventurer did not find gold but he conquered the baptism of the longest waterfall on the face of the Earth
The Crucifixion in Helsinki
Ceremonies and Festivities
Helsinki, Finland

A Frigid-Scholarly Via Crucis

When Holy Week arrives, Helsinki shows its belief. Despite the freezing cold, little dressed actors star in a sophisticated re-enactment of Via Crucis through streets full of spectators.
Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Cities
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
Beverage Machines, Japan
Lunch time
Japan

The Beverage Machines Empire

There are more than 5 million ultra-tech light boxes spread across the country and many more exuberant cans and bottles of appealing drinks. The Japanese have long since stopped resisting them.
Parra Sea
Culture
Mendoza, Argentina

Journey through Mendoza, the Great Argentine Winemaking Province

In the XNUMXth century, Spanish missionaries realized that the area was designed for the production of the “Blood of Christ”. Today, the province of Mendoza is at the center of the largest winemaking region in Latin America.
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.
Traveling
Inle Lake, Myanmar

A Pleasant Forced Stop

In the second of the holes that we have during a tour around Lake Inlé, we hope that they will bring us the bicycle with the patched tyre. At the roadside shop that welcomes and helps us, everyday life doesn't stop.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
Ethnic
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Sensations vs Impressions

Gothic couple
History

Matarraña to Alcanar, Spain

A Medieval Spain

Traveling through the lands of Aragon and Valencia, we come across towers and detached battlements of houses that fill the slopes. Mile after kilometer, these visions prove to be as anachronistic as they are fascinating.

São Jorge, Azores, Fajã dos Vimes
Islands
São Jorge, Azores

From Fajã to Fajã

In the Azores, strips of habitable land at the foot of large cliffs abound. No other island has as many fajãs as the more than 70 in the slender and elevated São Jorge. It was in them that the jorgenses settled. Their busy Atlantic lives rest on them.
Masked couple for the Kitacon convention.
Winter White
Kemi, Finland

An Unconventional Finland

The authorities themselves describe Kemi as “a small, slightly crazy town in northern Finland”. When you visit, you find yourself in a Lapland that is not in keeping with the traditional ways of the region.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Literature
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Santiago, island, Cape Verde, São Jorge dos Órgãos
Nature
Santiago, Cape Verde

Santiago from bottom to top

Landed in the Cape Verdean capital of Praia, we explore its pioneer predecessor city. From Cidade Velha, we follow the stunning mountainous ridge of Santiago to the unobstructed top of Tarrafal.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Visitors in one of the chambers of the Quadiriki cave
Natural Parks
PN Arikok, Aruba

The Monumental Aruba that Welcomed Arie Kok

In colonial times, a Dutch farmer developed a farm in the northeast of Aruba. As tourism boomed, authorities designated a large protected area around the old farm and named it in his honor. Today, Arikok National Park is home to some of the island’s most iconic natural and historical sites.
Ostrich, Cape Good Hope, South Africa
UNESCO World Heritage
Cape of Good Hope - Cape of Good Hope NP, South Africa

On the edge of the Old End of the World

We arrived where great Africa yielded to the domains of the “Mostrengo” Adamastor and the Portuguese navigators trembled like sticks. There, where Earth was, after all, far from ending, the sailors' hope of rounding the tenebrous Cape was challenged by the same storms that continue to ravage there.
Correspondence verification
Characters
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Drums and Tattoos
Beaches
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
Religion
Lhasa, Tibet

When Buddhism Tires of Meditation

It is not only with silence and spiritual retreat that one seeks Nirvana. At the Sera Monastery, the young monks perfect their Buddhist knowledge with lively dialectical confrontations and crackling clapping of hands.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
Young twin women, weavers
Society

Margilan, Uzbequistan

A Tour of Uzbekistan's Handicraft Fabrics

Located in the far east of Uzbekistan, in the Fergana Valley, Margilan was one of the essential stops on the Silk Road. Since the 10th century, the silk products produced there have made it stand out on maps; today, haute couture brands compete for its fabrics. More than just a prodigious center of artisanal creation, Margilan values ​​and cherishes an ancient Uzbek way of life.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Daily life
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Cliffs above the Valley of Desolation, near Graaf Reinet, South Africa
Wildlife
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.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.