August 10 to 12, 2018
The Chobe Safari started with a boat tour on the Chobe river. Crocodiles were on the shore, along wigh various shore birds such as African fish eagles and darters. We saw the elephants swimming over to their feeding area on an island in the river. Some impala were cautiously drinking from the river, with one eye on the river for crocodiles and the other on land watching out for lions.
The afternoon game drive followed the river further into the park and to our campsite for the night. The campsite is umfenced to allow free movement by the animals. At about 9:00 (on a dark moonless night), I heard some chomping noise that sounded like elephants. My impression was confirmed with a fellow camper's flashlight. Our safari driver, Campbell, advised us to just stand still if an elrphant comes close, especially if the elephant begins to charge. Apparently, elephants have bad eyesight and may be convinced you are a tree if you do not move. Thankfully, we did not have to put the guide's advise to the test. Even so, it was still a bit disconcerting to hear the stomp/chomp noise of elephants continue as we all tried to fall asleep.
The following morning, we dropped off the other five guests (who were on a one-day camping safari), leaving my wife and I to have morning and afternoon game drives to ourselves. We enjoyed seeing the impala pronking, and learning about the licak birds as the driver told us it is usually pretty quiet on the morning drives.
Shortly after hearing that the mornings are usually quiet, we noticed a buffalo dashing to the river followed by four lions (1) all stirring up a whirl of dust. Soon, the buffalo was overtaken, a lion mounted its back and the large animal was brought down. The four lions worked to kill their prey as the buffalo kicked and cried out (2). One lion was at the buffalo's throat, but due to inexperience, the adolescent cub was unable to quickly subdue the struggling animal. After some few minutes, the kicking and crying from the buffalo ceased and the lions began to feed. Soon, a jackal appeared, hoping to share in the meat from the kill.
That evening, we were joined by ten other guests. A young guy from Belgium was surprised to hear that we began our trip at the Wacken Metal Fest before going on safari. He said he really liked a folk metal band called Eluveite, and almost fell off his chair when we told him we had seen them live in New York.
On our way out of the park the next morning, there was a large herd of buffalo gathered around the carcass of the buffalo the lions had killed yesterday. They had chased the lions away from the deceased buffalo.
(1) The buffalo was probably hoping to cross the river to safety, as the lions will not go into the river for fear of the crocodiles.
(2) There was one other safari vehicle nearby which rushed to the scene, but soon departed. I was surprised, but our guide said the scene was too much for one of the guests in the other safari truck who was crying at the buffalo's fate.
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