Nigel Blake

Botswana Trip 2001

Chobe reserve

	We returned to Gabarone and stayed with my friends, Paul & Clare and the girls Sophie & Naomi for a few days during which we visited Mokolodi game reserve, A small park on the outskirts of the capital. In this reserve there are two hand reared Cheetah and we had a close encounter with them, quite an incredible experience. I had hoped I would get stunning portraits of these animals however they craved attention so much it was impossible, as they spent most of the time rubbing round our legs like a domestic "moggie", what was amazing is just how rough their tongues are.

Three days later Holly and I flew up to Kasane via Maun in the north and spent four days in the huge Chobe National Park, famed for its massive herds of Elephant, and this was at the peak of migration with some 45,000 of them on the move. We stayed at Kubu Lodge a wonderful place in Kasangula the warning signs on the doors read "beware of Hippo's on the lawns" but we didn't see any, much to Holly's relief. The first bird on the first game drive was a Fierynecked Nightjar, very close, it hit me in the face as we traveled up to the reserve entrance.

We had astonishing views of Elephant, Lion, Hippos, Kudu, Baboons, and Mongooses. The bird life was fantastic, Water and Spotted Dikkop (Thicknees), African Fish Eagle, Redbilled wood Hoopoe, Yellowbilled Stork, Saddlebilled Stork , and Hammerkop.

If you ever go to Chobe one thing you must do is take a boat trip down the river, not a big boat, something small that allows you to get close in to the shoreline, this is the only way to watch wildlife here and it is exciting, we had very close views of Kingfishers, Storks, Herons and raptors. Elephants, Hippos, Cape Buffalo and many Antelope all bathed and drank in the river and we saw many Crocodiles. I managed to shoot fourteen rolls of film in four hours.

White Crowned Lapwing is a bird that I had not seen before as well as Bradfields Hornbill and Ovambo Sparrowhawk, but I was very excited to find Barn Owls breeding in a disused Hammerkop nest, I stood on a chair in the boat to get the photo below, there where six youngsters inside the big "basket" of twigs.

Back in the reserve by vehicle on the following days we saw more Wild Dogs, and we watched as a pride of Lionesses tried to catch a Puku, it was incredible to see the teamwork for real and so much more interesting than on TV, the hunt failed when the lead Lioness spooked a nesting Crowned Plover whose calls in turn alerted the Puku and it promptly ran off.

Here are more of the birds seen in Chobe, as you can see below, getting close is not to difficult with some species, we shared our breakfast with Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starlings and Yellowbellied Bulbul most mornings, the Bulbuls loved cream cheese and butter.

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