The Hidden Gems of Africa (part 7)

After two nights at Nkasa Rupara National Park, we crossed again the border between Namibia and Botswana. Even the highway to our next destination was a game drive on its own!

After the remoteness and wilderness of the Caprivi Strip, the city of Kasane next to Chobe National Park was a shock and a brutal return to civilization! Contrary to Namibia where we were amongst a limited number of tourists, mostly from Germany, France or the Netherlands, Botswana seemed to be much more popular, in particular with British and American visitors. Later on, we heard the theory that it was because the British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor had remarried her fifth (out of seven) husband Richard Burton in Kasane!

The real reason might be that Chobe National Park is another iconic safari destination which boasts more elephants - tens of thousands of them - than anywhere else on Earth. I am not exaggerating by telling you that during the morning game drive and the two sunset boat rides we enjoyed in the area, we saw hundreds of elephants and also learnt a lot about them. 

African elephants are the largest terrestrial animals and, as other elephants, are amongst the world’s most intelligent species - their brain has a similar trait with those of humans, apes and some dolphins. The idiom "have a memory like an elephant" originated from the observation that elephants possess exceptional memory capabilities. An elephant's memory is key to its and, sometimes, its herd's survival. It is said that while elephants do not have the greatest eyesight in the animal kingdom, they never forget a face!

As compared to their Asian cousins, African elephants are bigger, their ears are larger, and both males and females can grow tusks. You will notice that elephants constantly flap their ears in a very cute way, the purpose of which is to reduce their body heat.

Another interesting feature of the African elephants is their trunk which is an all-purpose tool - they use it for smelling, touching, feeding, drinking, dusting, producing sounds, loading, defending and attacking. It has up to 40,000 muscles (humans only have around 600 muscles in their entire body…), which allows them to lift with it about 3% of their own body weight! 

The African elephant herds have complex social structures which are matriarchies. They are led by matriarchs, and are composed of a group of adult females and calves (including young males), while adult male elephants tend to live in isolation or in small bachelor groups.

Elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal - up to nearly two years, and females give birth every three to six years. Most of the time they mate during the rainy season when there is plenty of water, which explains why you can see many baby elephants during the dry season.

African elephants can be more aggressive than the Asian ones and charge you in a flash, in particular when young calves are present or during musth. So, the best advice, like with any other wild animals, is to always keep your distance, make slow movements and not get out of the car or switch off the engine! Anything can happen in the blink of an eye!

We saw elephants in the bush, elephants on the islands scattered on the Chobe River and elephants crossing the river from the islands back to mainland Botswana or Namibia - yes, there were illegal "eleph-immigrants" on this side of the border as well! The adult females were surrounding their babies to protect them against crocodiles and other predators during the crossing. It was quite a show!

In Chobe National Park we also learnt how to distinguish the age of the calves. If they had tusks, it meant that they were at least 3 years old. If they struggled to use their trunk to drink water, they were most likely younger than 1 year old. It was really funny to watch them - they looked like they really did not know what to do with these weird long things stuck on their heads!

In addition to the herds of elephants, we saw hundreds of buffaloes which, unlike hippos, can actually swim. 

We also spotted tons of crocodiles. Most of them were hanging around the remains of a dead buffalo in the river. It took them only a day to feed on the carcass - all traces of it had disappeared when we returned on the following day. 

There were also hundreds of different birds, including the majestic African fish-eagle.

And last, but not least, our BFFs - the hippos - were there as well!

During the game drive at sunrise in the park, we also spotted a pride of lions feeding on a greater kudu… 

I know that these are the laws of nature but it still looked way too cruel to me… 

This was wild Africa with its charismatic wildlife and raw nature… 

At the same time, we witnessed a moment of tenderness between a lioness and her cub and this kind of balanced things up!

On that day our arrogance reached a whole new level - we saw lions twice but since we were looking desperately for our last Big Five guy - the leopard, we felt frustrated and our only thought was "Oh, just another lion…". I admit that we sounded like a bunch of over-spoiled kids!

Our next stop for wildlife-watching after Chobe National Park was Stanley and Livingstone Private Game Reserve near Victoria Falls. Crossing the border from Botswana to Zimbabwe was a game drive on its own - we saw elephants, giraffes and antelopes along or crossing the road. 

Stanley and Livingstone Private Game Reserve was the place where we saw the highest number of black rhinos. 

They were making funny faces, sending us air kisses or sticking their tongues out at us!

We also spotted banded mongooses, giraffes, buffalos, zebras, our second hyena - finally in daylight, and a cute lesser bushbaby! 

And we enjoyed another gorgeous sunset with a glass of wine and a can of beer, while making new friends! It was easy to get used to this amazing ritual which concluded each game drive!

We went for our last game drive in Nairobi. I must admit that it does sound rather surprising! 

Kenya’s capital, where we stopped for a few days on our way back to Europe, is the only city in the world boasting a national par - home to four of the Big Five - within sight of city skyscrapers. 

The place that inspired the movie "Out of Africa" is definitely worth the visit! 

The sneaky leopard kept hiding from us, or maybe just walked by without us seeing it! We are not giving up though - it simply means that we need to go for another African safari soon!

Despite the leopard curse, Nairobi National Park was an amazing sanctuary where we saw giraffes, elephants, lions, ostriches, zebras, antelopes, crocodiles and even one very rarely seen wild cat - the shy and incredibly photogenic serval!

The park is also home to both the white and the black rhinos, and we said hi to both species!

While we were discovering the landscape and wildlife gems of Southern Africa, we also got a taste of the adventure activity wonders it could offer to any audacious traveller…