Back to Kasane

After our marathon weekend, which turned into 4 nights away from the Lodge instead of the two planned, and the little matter of a 300km detour, we arrived back to find there had been huge rainfall. The stores rooms had been flooded, but all was now cleaned up, and nothing had been damaged. Whew! That was a relief for the staff, because Kasane is remote, and owing to the distances that provisions have to be transported, it is not as easy to re-provision as it is for me to just nip down to a choice of 4 or 5 Supermarkets in Carlisle. There is one wholesaler and one Spar shop in Kasane, plus various other shops, but no vast choice selling everything under the sun. The population of the place without tourists is probably no more than about 12,000 (the size of a large village here)! However, what shops there are do sell a good range of the basics, and one becomes very adaptable in ones choice of ingredients. Traditional Raspberry Pavlova? Well, no, but fresh Mango or Paw Paw have to substitute, or fresh pineapple. The banana tree in the garden had produced a good crop, but they were still unripe.

These were growing outside my bedroom.

I had never realised that once the fruit is cut from the tree, the tree dies. Then again, neither did I know that the Banana is a member of the grass family either. There are fields of Bananas growing around Kasane. My plan had been to make Banana bread, and Banana Cakes, but alas, even a week later, the fruit was still not ripe enough to be peeled, let alone used to bake with. Now it was time for plan 'B'. This was just to go out and enjoy the Chobe NGR (National game Reserve) as often as possible. Every morning would see me going out with Kelvin, the guide, and sitting beside him in the cab of the Game vehicle, he was showing me how to track the various animals and recognise which spoors were left by which animal. All fascinating to me. With the height of the grass in the Reserve, it was very difficult to spot animals if you did not watch for the tracks. Here is the difference between the reserve in October, and February.

Another animal I was delighted to observe was the banded Mongoose. They are very garrulous, chattering away to their family group, and very playful. When I had been at the other Lodge in October with Vic and Terry, there were Mongoose playing in the grounds, but these were out in the Reserve. They are very quick, and I only managed to get a still of this one who was far too interested in examining something to scamper off into the grass.

As the year progresses, and the grass dies, and the water holes start to dry up, it will be much easier to spot the various species, but at the moment everything is lush and water is abundant. The Hippo can walk 10 to 15 KM a night, and will then find a nice deep water hole in which to wallow. It is quite startling to stand and look at a water hole and then have a dozen hippos raise their heads from the water and look at you. Their sheer size never fails to amaze me. In this water hole if you look carefully under the flight of the bird, you can just see one. Actually there were over a dozen in there, but submerged and seem to take it in turns to come up to look at us. A Hippo can stay under water for 5 minutes at a time.

Kudu are another wonderful member of the Antelope family, and again, very well camouflaged
and hard to see in the vegetation. These were very curious females (go on, boys! I know exactly what you are thinking! Nosey women!)

I must admit that when I look at these beautiful creatures, the words 'Kudu' and 'Steak' on a menu just don't appeal.

Whilst at Kasane, I met lots of very interesting people - some were travelling overland to far distant countries (a journey I keep promising myself that one day I will take!) Some, like a young man and his little boy, were Zimbabwean, and had left their native land because they could no longer bear what was happening there. This particular young man was absolutely fascinating, because he had been an activist, trying to help to get his country back to the way he had known it was and could be. He had been thrown into jail, beaten to within an inch of his life, had escaped to South Africa with his little boy, and now was heading for Zambia, where he had property. We talked very late into the night (Ok, the couple of bottles of wine oiled the voices a little) but I was very sad to see him on his way. It is good that there are young people who are just biding their time to go back and rebuild their country. Phil had had similar experiences, having been in the Rhodesian Police, so the three of us had a very deep and interesting few hours where I learned such a lot about the politics behind the present state of Zimbabwe. All I can say is no wonder Mugabe won't allow reporting from inside his boundary - he has a lot to hide!

I met people who visit Africa frequently, and others for whom this trip is the only one they will ever make. Before I went, friends told me that Africa has a way of getting into your soul. I didn't believe it. I do now! It is a sort of primeval 'cradle of mankind' sort of feeling. Yes, you do see the poverty, the dirt, the undercurrent of violence. But, what you also see is the immense vastness of its beauty, the smiles that light up those dark eyes of the children when you wave to them, the friendliness back if you show friendliness first, the surprise on their faces if you actually apologise for bumping into them in a shop, the even greater surprise if you stand back to let them go ahead of you in a supermarket queue because they have less shopping than you do - all things that I take for granted here. How they love to talk to you, and ask you where you live. In my case, when I say Scotland, their eyes open very wide and they ask if it is really as cold as they have heard!

This is a female pied Kingfisher - one of many such species that live on the banks of the Chobe River. They nest in holes in the soft river banks and are wonderful to watch fishing.



The beautiful Fish Eagles are nearly always to be found in pairs, as they pair for life and stay close together except when actually getting food.


This pied Kingfisher is perched on a Pampas Grass gently waving around in the breeze of a warm evening.