Since I’d never been to Africa before, the idea of leaving just after the safari didn’t seem right. What if I found out about something wonderful and missed it? What to do with two free weeks before we had to catch a plane in Livingstone, Zambia, hmm? We’d found a place on Airbnb before we left called the Blue house. A charming young French couple rents part of their home to guests. They also have a camping vehicle rental agency, Tawana Self Drive, for rates competitive or below the big outfits. Self drive options from Kasane are reasonable, not insane. If you want a nice, reasonable inn, try the Old House.
After a few days of sloth and indulgence watching the birds in the Blue house yard, we ventured out. Diddled around Kasane, visited the Caracol Biodiversity Center (a wild animal rehab center) and ate at several local resorts.
Green Wood-hoopoes, (about our magpie size).
Golden Weaver
Chinspot Batis
Green-winged Pytilia
Warthog in its favorite eating position. Many wild animals wander into town: It’s very close to Chobe and the river wildlife corridor.
The Caracol Center has raptors, snakes, a one-winged Marabou Stork and two special ambassadors we could hold.
Flap-necked Chameleon, only species found in Botswana.
Lesser Bushbaby (there is a Greater also), a nocturnal animal.
A short boat trip on the Chobe River was a rather bumbled affair,but it was nice to be on the water looking back into the park from the valley side.
Chobe River, low water.
Just-hatched baby crocodiles.
Big Daddy on the beach. These are all Nile crocodiles
Black-headed Heron
Mud covered cape buffalo with egret attendant.
Sedudu Is. or Five Tree Island.
Namibia burning fields across the river. Air quality, bad.
Sedudu Island (one of several names) is less than 2 uninhabited square miles, but ownership was a big deal between Namibia and Botswana. The boundary between the countries is the “main” channel of the Chobe River. It was decided in 1999 by the International Court of Justice that the main channel ran on the north side of the island, making it part of Botswana.
Victoria Falls chasm.
Next we ventured into Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls. We were hesitant to spend the money to see a waterfall, but are very glad we did. These are falls like I’ve never seen before. Instead of looking up at these waterfalls, you look down from a flat plain into a mist-filled chasm below. The falls stretch over a mile long with a maximum drop of 355 feet.
The short and simplified geological explanation is this: 150 million years ago (mya) lava covered the area. As it dried, it shrunk, leaving many fault lines. 5 mya, Botswana was slightly uplifted which changed several area river courses. Water spread out and began eating into the first fault line, for the first big falls. Since that time there have been 8 different fault lines scoured out by the vast Zambezi River. The river zigs and zags back and forth through these old canyons. In another 10,000 years they expect the river will be working on a new fault further upstream.
Bushbuck snacking along the falls viewing trail.
The only other wildlife we saw was just too cute to omit.
These people did this at every viewing spot along the mile and a half trail.
On the Zimbabwe side a trail leads all the way along the falls for the best viewing.
At the end of the trail, the river does a Uturn and continues into the previous fault channel.
First stop view.
On Zambia’s side, there is a deep pool with rock ledge at the lip of the falls. People swim in this pool if they are brave enough.
Bridge to Zambia
Zambia bathers mostly huddled on a mid-stream rock.
For our grand finale, our hosts rented us one of their Land Cruisers and we drove down to Nata Bird Sanctuary. This sanctuary is another good management story. The locals realized they had something special, so they decided to save it by charging a minimal fee to visit instead of hunting or farming it. The village reaps the benefits from tourism and the birds and animals are protected. The local resorts also contribute by paying to take tours in the sanctuary.
Nata Bird sanctuary is just a few hours drive, and several speed traps, south of Kasane. I managed 2 tickets with total fines of $105. Now I was hip to their tricks, not a single trap on the way back. Humpf.
Roadside picnic area sign.
Highway sign. Heed it.
Cabin at Nata Lodge
Red-eyed Bulbul
Pied Babbler
Arrow-marked Babblers
Shorebirds seem happy with the newly filled pans.
Grey Crowned (aka Royal) Crane.
African Spoonbill
Juvenile lesser flamingo
Two species of flamingos here, the Greater is the white one and the Lesser, the pink one.
Evening drive to the sanctuary under a threatening sky.
Salt pan that has no water yet. Dragonfly sitting on salt.
Lesser flamingos
Odd cactus in the sanctuary. Cactus species nearly non-existent in Botswana.
African Monarch. Doubt these have the same life cycle as our monarchs.
Great White Pelicans in breeding plumage. These may be even larger than our white pelicans.
Pied Avocets
Shaft-tailed Whydah
Plains portion of the sanctuary provides forage for the non-avian population.
Sua Pan holds a huge, ephemeral lake; in its second season now.
Toodle-loo.
And now, it really is the end. One last video for you, and then we sign off until the next adventure. Thanks to so many of you for reading the blog, and especially those who took the time to make comments on the website or by email. Happy trails to you all!
Click here for video. https://youtu.be/qBXUUnX7f-E
Sunset over the Chobe River from Kasane.