Botswana is the size of France or Texas, and has a population of 2 million people. Their biggest industry is diamonds (discovered in Botswana in 1966), followed by tourism and beef. In fact, we disinfected our shoes at the border in order to control for foot and mouth disease (primarily found in Zimbabwe), which impacts the beef industry. Botswana was liberated from the British in 1967, and has maintained a stable economy due to very little corruption. Their currency is the Pula, which means “what you can see around,” and the Pula is stronger than the South African Rand (10 Pula vs. 14 Rand to 1 USD).
Most of the food in Botswana is imported from South Africa and Zambia because Botswana is a desert country, with 80% of the country sitting on sand, while the fertile soil sits on the river. There are 8 tribes in Botswana and we were in the Chobe district, with the next town being 500km (310 miles) away. The game area is between those towns, and it is typical to see elephants and monkeys walking around, as they are not restricted by fencing. We saw and heard monkeys around our lodging, but did not see elephants there. Chobe National Park (which is 11,000+ sqkm [4247sqmi]) is known for the number of elephants they have, approximately 45,000 over 12,000 sqkm (4633sqmi) at last count (about 10-15 years ago). This is the only place in the world where you can see a large concentration of elephants. We were told that we may not see many during our game drive because it had just rained, so, water was everywhere and there was no need for the elephants to seek out a water source (i.e., the Chobe River). Despite the abundance of elephants, the zebra is the national animal of Botswana.
We were in the northern part of the country, where they have a majority of their tourism. The Capitol of Gabarone was 1000km (621 miles) away from where we were in Kasane. The Chobe River creates the boundary with Namibia. The Chobe River comes from Angola and changes names when it goes through different countries, and eventually feeds the Zambezi (zahm-beh-zee) River. The part of the Chobe River where we did our game drive was considered to be international boundary water, and it surrounded an island called Sedudu Island, which is between Botswana and Namibia. Sedudu Island was fought over by Botswana and Namibia in 1992, and eventually became part of Botswana (the flag above is planted on Sedudu Island).
On the safaris, the main goal is to see one of the Big Five, which are considered to be the animals most hunted for trophy purposes: Elephant, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Lion, and Leopard. There are no Rhinoceroses in Chobe. Our tour guide shared that there are also the Small Five, which are derivatives of the Big Five: Leopard Tortoise, Rhino Beetle, Elephant Insect (I couldn’t understand what he said the actual name was), Antelion (an ant that kicks soil up from the ground, the soil becomes soft inside, and then the ant hides inside and traps the would-be predators), and the Dung Beetle (a buffalo derivative). Our guide also referenced the Ugly Five, which he said was any animal you think is ugly (e.g., Warthog). Aside from the mammals are plenty of birds, which are amazing to see even if you are not a birdwatcher. Another piece of landscape that is often seen is the Baobab (“bow-bahb”) Tree, which is called an “upside down tree” that only has leaves in the summer. We were told that trees in Chobe have shallow roots, which means they can easily be pushed down by the wind.
While in Botswana, we did a short trip during the day to Namibia…