The Hidden Gems of Africa (part 6)

If Africa was a colour, it would have been a combination of ivory, brown, red, green, and black, except for many of its birds which boast the brightest colours ever! If you are a bird-lover, Botswana and the Caprivi Strip in Namibia are each a birding utopia! 

There are of course the "usual culprits" - all along the road, you will spot huge haystacks in the trees which are actually nests built by sociable weavers. They are amongst the largest nests built by any bird, sometimes house over 100 pairs of birds, and might weigh several tons! 

We also saw many Western cattle egrets, great egrets, egyptian geese, grey herons, black herons, goliath herons, squacco herons, African darters, white-breasted cormorants, Southern yellow-billed hornbills, Southern red-billed hornbills, white-backed vultures (the sight of which meant something was dying or was already dead in the area…), kori bustards, common ostriches, red-eyed doves, ring-necked doves, mountain wheatears, African jacanas, black-winged stilts, yellow-billed storks, marabou storks, and African fish-eagles! 

Then there were the rarer Rüppell's parrots, African spoonbills, helmeted guinea fowls, crested guinea fowls, wattled cranes, red-crested korhaans, Arnot’s chats, Southern ground hornbills, fork-tailed drongos, Southern pied babblers, red-billed spurfowls, long-toed lapwings, blacksmith lapwings, African sacred ibises, red-knobbed coots, pied avocets, African openbills and Ovambo sparrowhawks!

And last but not least - some of the brightest birds we had ever seen anywhere in the world were a delight for the eyes! We spotted bright-yellow Southern masked weavers, bright-red crimson-breasted shrikes, rainbow-coloured lilac-breasted rollers, green and purple Burchell’s starlings, red and green white-fronted bee-eaters, pink and blue Southern carmine bee-eaters nesting in the rocks along the rivers, black and white pied kingfishers, magnificent blue waxbills, yellow-billed oxpeckers and wire-tailed swallows, and the strange-looking, weirdly-named grey go-away birds.

Besides the carnival of birds, the parks in the Caprivi Strip presented the opportunity to see for the first time our fourth Big Five animal on a sunset game drive in the Buffalo Core Area of Bwabwata National Park - the African buffalos! 

The park is an "off the beaten track" protected area. The animals you will see there are truly wild and not that used to visitors as compared to those in Etosha National Park. 

Bwabwata National park is bordered by the Okavango River to the west and the Kwando River to the east, with Angola lying to the north and Botswana to the south. 

During the game drive, we also came across tons of elephants and their babies, hundreds of birds, as well as two lions and a bunch of cute vervet monkeys. 

We also saw zebras, a huge variety of antelopes, ticking new ones on our bucket list such as the Chobe bushbucks, and of course another gorgeous sunset - we were getting used to it!

In the park we also saw many warthogs. In the same way there are the Big Five, there are the Ugly Five and the warthogs are part of the latter group. I am sure Pumba the Warthog from the Lion King immediately comes to mind!

The other Ugly Five are the hyenas (difficult to spot during the day as they are primarily nocturnal animals), the marabou storks, the vultures, and the wildebeests. Beauty is of course subjective and, if you ask me, all these animals are gorgeous, except probably the hyenas!

$=Why is the hyena so ugly?=$

And last, but not least, Bwabwata National Park was the place where we saw our first hippos! You might wonder why the hippos are not part of the Big Five and the reasons are quite simple. They spend most of their time in the water and therefore are less of a threat on land. In addition, they are not that "difficult" to hunt or track - you can see them as soon as you get closer to a body of water in Africa! 

When we went back to our lodge - Nunda River Lodge & Campsite - for the night after the game drive, it was already quite late and dark. Our campsite neighbours immediately came to see us and warned us that our two campsites were very close to where hippos were coming to graze during the night and we had to watch out…

When we had arrived at the lodge earlier in the afternoon before the game drive, the sun had been shining beautifully and the birds had been chirping joyfully… So when we had been offered to choose our campsite, I had naturally picked one located literally next to the river (despite there being dozens of campsites available away from the river…)! After all, camping with a view sounded like the perfect thing at that moment! Intentionally or simply out of stupidity, I skipped the warning signs for crocodiles and hippos next to the site…

Luckily for us, JP was smarter and made us position our car in a way that the ladder to reach our tent was on the opposite side to the river! After our neighbours’ warning, we got closer to our car and heard clearly the noises usually made not only by hippos, but also by crocs, and they sounded like they were coming from the other side of our car! We got really scared and, instead of preparing our meal at the campsite, went for dinner at the restaurant of the lodge.

When we came back, we quickly climbed the ladder to get into the tent and knew that, despite any urgent need to go to the loo during the night, there was no way we were getting down before daylight. The noises continued during the night and we did not get much sleep… 

The knowledge that only a flimsy canvas and a ladder separated us from an angry hippo was quite disturbing... In the morning our neighbours, who had left their camera running on the window of their huge American-style motorhome, showed us a video of a hippo who was leisurely grazing next to the riverbank at 1am…

I guess that we drew a couple of lessons out of this experience - 1/ our tent was on the rooftop of our car for a reason and the person who had thought of it deserved (at least) a Nobel prize; 2/ sleeping two meters away from deadly hippos was not a joke (to be avoided at any cost at future campsites); and 3/ we did not sign for this type of craziness when we started our self-drive safari trip! I completely agree that sleeping in a tent in Africa is tempting - after all, it is the antithesis of the modern world’s hustle and bustle!

However, if you have pictured yourself doing this while listening to the quietness of the African night and the crackle of the campfire while gazing at the infinity of stars in the immense sky, you need to think twice! Camping in Africa is not for everyone! 

In case you are still not convinced and think that hippos are nice animals with cute chubby cheeks, you should know that they are actually extremely aggressive and dangerous, and are the deadliest large land mammals on the planet! They are responsible for more human deaths than lions, leopards, elephants, and crocodiles combined.

Their remarkably strong jaws can open up to 180 degrees, and their bite is nearly three times stronger than a lion's and can cut a human body in half. They can attack in the water but also outrun a human on land! In an encounter with a hippo, a human has an 86.7% chance of fatality (not the other way around)! 

Hippos are submerged throughout most of the day in order to protect their unique sensitive skin from the sunlight, and only emerge in the late afternoon, evening and night to graze on the riverbanks. Despite their name arising from the Greek for "river horse", they do not actually swim but walk or run along the bottom of riverbeds, creating an impressive network of "hippo highways". Hippos can even stay underwater for up to five minutes because they can shut their ears and nostrils tight to keep the water out.

After this "memorable" experience, we decided to go for a slow and peaceful boat ride on the river to the Popa Falls… What were we thinking? 

The hippos were everywhere! However, our captain kept enough distance with these guys, and the size of the boat and the running engine were reassuring enough for us! 

We also saw a baby croc sunbathing on a rock, as well as dozens of stunning birds! 

The Popa Falls were not exactly what I had in mind when I thought of waterfalls, but the place was charming and peaceful as we were the only visitors there!

The following night we slept in a safari tent at Ndhovu Safari Lodge. We had a river view but the river and its dangers were close without being too close! We could see the hippos in the river and hear their cacophony of noises, but they were far enough for us to feel safe!

We slept like babies and in the morning woke up to the chirping of the birds! Before leaving the lodge, we also checked the tiny shop - it offered some gorgeous ceramic tableware and accessories for the home where local artists had painted their own versions of Africa's wildlife gems!

Our next stop was a game drive in Mudumu National Park where, in addition to the usual hippos, crocs, impalas, birds, elephants and warthogs, we saw for the first time a few new animals such as the lechwes and roan antelopes.

Another "off the beaten track" area in the Caprivi Strip which offers an amazing and authentic wildlife-watching experience is Nkasa Rupara National Park - the next destination on our safari road trip. It is located on the Nkasa and Rupara islands on the Kwando River, which later becomes the Linyanti River. It is the same river but is known by different names in different areas. Botswana lies to the west, south and east of the park. 

Similar to the Okavango Delta, most of Nkasa Rupara National Park consists of channels of reed beds, lagoons and islands which are home to hippos, elephants, lions, warthogs, baboons, various species of antelopes, and many birds. 

We went for a boat ride in the park which offered some spectacular sightings. 

We saw up close elephants and hippos eating in the narrow tunnels or crossing the waterways to and from Botswana. I am not sure they had their passports but this did not seem to bother them at all! 

The highlight of the boat ride was the gorgeous sunset and the stunning reflections of the orange light on the mirror-like surface of the river.

Nkasa Lupala Tented Lodge, located immediately next to the park, was one of our favourite accommodations during the trip. 

Our bungalow was literally next to one of the two waterholes, the other one being in front of the restaurant-reception building where we were having our meals. Our entire stay was a non-stop National Geographic live stream!

We observed for hours the families of elephants, baboons and warthogs come, drink, play around, take a bath, and then go back to the park. 

It was funny watching the elephants chasing the warthogs and the baboons trying to drink at the same time as the gentle giants and their babies, or a young elephant trying to reach with his trunk the leaves of a tree which were obviously way too high for him!

$=Can I reach this branch?=$

After two nights at Nkasa Rupara National Park, we crossed again the border between Namibia and Botswana…