Kesane - Chobe River

We left Nata and travelled to Kesane today. Along the way we stopped at Pandematenga. There had been a big robbery of tourists there a few days ago. Before we knew that bit of information we had already got a bad vibe from the place. There were a lot of shifty looking characters hanging around.
We saw random groups of elephants and giraffe along the highway. Stephan has come across accidents between trucks and elephants a few times at night. It never ends well for either party. The locals all come with machetes to carve up the Elephant to eat it.
On our way into Kesane we passed a huge line up of trucks waiting for the border crossing. It was massive. Apparently some trucks can get stuck there for up to 2 weeks. Drivers don't leave their truck or they risk losing their spot, so they set up little camps on site, cooking meals under their truck, etc. Prostitution is rife, with prostitutes traveling with the drivers for a distance which helps spread HIV. At one point 7 out of 10 people in Botswana were HIV positive. Education has improved things and sufferers can readily get the drugs they need for free now. That is a huge health crisis for any country.
Talking of health crisis, on the way into Kesane we passed a golf course - the first one we had seen in this country. Apparently it is "extreme" golf as one has to contend with possible predators while playing; crocodiles, hippopotamus, elephants and wart hogs! There were wart hogs all through the town as we drove in. Even in the very centre of town we had to wait for a wart hog to cross in front of us as it headed into the busy shopping street. Sometimes they actually get into the shops and have to be hunted out which involves lots of noise from both wart hog(s) and human(s).
We arrived at the Chobe Sands Hotel here is Kesane for a quick lunch before our boat cruise on the Chobe River. We had a boat all to ourselves which was nice as we could freely move about and take photos. We were lucky enough to see the elephants swimming across the river to get to the Island. It was an amazing sight with their trunks sticking out of the water. The babies are put in between two adults - the baby wraps its trunk around the tail of the elephant in front and the elephant behind wraps its trunk around the babies tail. This keeps the baby safe. Once they were out the other side they covered themselves in mud. They were quite funny with the vigor they used to apply the mud - rolling around in it and shaking their ears like a dog. The mud helps protect them against insects overnight...so they were aeroguarding themselves in effect. A couple of young elephants had been play fighting on the bank when the others crossed and missed the group crossing. As a consequence they got stuck trying to cross for a while because there were so many boats in the way. They would enter the water and then change their mind when they saw all the boats. Eventually once the boats cleared they made it across. The river got very busy with boats everywhere. It is unregulated too, so there is no impediment to how close we could get. This is good for the tourist and we had prime viewing but it is probably not ideal for the animals. The elephants didn't seem to mind too much but the hippos look generally pissed off...but maybe hippos are generally pissed off anyway?
The bird life was numerous and varied and among other things we saw the Yellow billed stalk, Open billed stalk and the African Skimmer which is endangered.
A tower of giraffes (yes that is the collective noun for a group of giraffes...I looked it up) shyly made their way to the water to drink. They are funny things that tend to hide behind trees and act like no one can see them like that. Their faces are so pretty & they were interested but cautious about the boats.
We did the beautiful red African sun setting into the water before coming back to shore for a drink at the waterfront bar and then dinner at our hotel. I am deeply concerned about the amount of food going in and the complete lack of exercise going out! There is no opportunity for any form of exercise...unless you want to risk getting eaten by something!Read more