Chobe National Park

The next mor­ning we peel out of bed at half past five and pack our things. Becau­se befo­re we con­ti­nue our jour­ney, we want to do the mor­ning game dri­ve. Over the dark road at the wild cor­ri­dor we dri­ve to Kasa­ne, for­t­u­na­te­ly wit­hout see­ing an ele­phant and park our car at the hotel whe­re we have boo­ked the game dri­ve. The car should be safe here in any case. At least we hope, becau­se wit­hout lug­ga­ge it would be dif­fi­cult to tra­vel on.

But we are a litt­le hor­ri­fied when we see the hor­des of tou­rists who appar­ent­ly all are going on safa­ri with us today. When 6 safa­ri cars dri­ve up I suspect that this trip will be less lonely. Of cour­se the­re are also 2 child­ren and I sin­ce­re­ly hope that they will sit in ano­ther car. To be on the safe side, I send a litt­le quick pray­er to hea­ven, but the safa­ri god appar­ent­ly has no mer­cy with me today. How could it be other­wi­se, we are unlu­cky and the who­le fami­ly tra­vels with us. Of cour­se, they also get the good seats at the top. That actual­ly annoys me the most and my mood is instant­ly on the ground! I’m even about to ask if we can’t move into ano­ther safa­ri car. Mirko’s evil eye is stop­ping me, though. Let’s hope they both keep their mouths shut and don’t sca­re the ani­mals away with their screams. Actual­ly, now only a lion sight­ing can save my day.

Lions and buffalo in the tourist bustle

After dri­ving through the park for quite a while, fin­ding a vul­tu­re, an osprey and a few colourful birds, I am almost dis­ap­poin­ted. Then we see first hip­pos in the water, some ante­lo­pes and other bor­ing birds. For­t­u­na­te­ly, our dri­ver gets a mes­sa­ge via radio in inde­fi­nable lan­guage. Appar­ent­ly the­re are lions and buf­fa­los near­by and that is of cour­se reason enough for him to dig out the Micha­el Schuh­ma­cher racing suit from the glove com­part­ment and switch on the racing mode on the safa­ri car. I would­n’t be sur­pri­sed if the safa­ri van tur­ned into a Bat­mo­bi­le with rocket propulsion.

The next 20 minu­tes he dri­ves like a luna­tic on the „afri­can mas­sa­ge“ mogul track, so that we get to see some­thing bet­ter. Fuck ante­lo­pes and birds, nobo­dy wants to see them now any­way! After all pas­sen­gers are almost sea­sick, we final­ly arri­ve. To our hor­ror, all 6 ful­ly loa­ded safa­ri cars that left the hotel with us this mor­ning are the­re and now the fight for the best spot beg­ins. Our dri­ver gives ever­y­thing and cur­ves like a wild one for­wards, back­wards, to the right and again for­wards. The only trou­ble is that the came­ra should be held as still as pos­si­ble for film­ing and that’s very dif­fi­cult to do for­wards, back­wards, to the right and back­wards. Mean­while Vero­ni­ca is alre­a­dy in the start­ing blocks to per­so­nal­ly remo­ve the other cars from the path. If she can’t pet the lion today, then she‘ ll be very angry!

Final­ly, we can see 2 lio­nes­ses snea­king up on the edge of a herd of buf­fa­los, appar­ent­ly wai­ting to sepa­ra­te any ani­mal. As if on com­mand, a lio­ness stops and looks scep­ti­cal­ly at the cars. Final­ly I can film and take a decent pic­tu­re. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the lions and buf­fa­lo run far too fast and dis­ap­pear in the den­se bush whe­re we can no lon­ger see them. Any­way, it was still a high­light. For a while we try to fol­low the herd and turn around various bus­hes. But now that 6 cars are blo­cking the way across the road for the ani­mals, we sim­ply have no luck anymore.

Short­ly after­wards we dis­co­ver a few more buf­fa­lo and they are even real­ly clo­se. Decep­tively peaceful they stand right next to the road and let the birds peck the insects out of their fur. Our gui­de warns again: Every ani­mal in the bush gives you a sign befo­re it attacks, only the buf­fa­lo does not. He just attacks direct­ly and wit­hout warning.

When about 30 seconds later the child in the best place in the safa­ri car starts crying I am about to push it right in front of the buf­fa­lo. This can’t be hap­pe­ning! At least 5 minu­tes I would have expec­ted peace, that can’t be so dif­fi­cult. For­t­u­na­te­ly, the buf­fa­lo only looks grum­py and does not attack. Other­wi­se I would have coll­ec­ted my safa­ri money from the par­ents personally.

After­wards we stop at the rest area for instant cof­fee and bis­cuits. They could­n’t have made my sto­mach hap­pier at this time of the day.

Of cour­se, we won’t stay unob­ser­ved for long. First litt­le mon­keys arri­ve, try­ing to ste­al our coo­kies. One sits direct­ly in front of Mir­ko on the flo­or and waits for the right moment. When the coo­kie is within reach, he makes a big leap and jumps direct­ly to Mirko’s chest to take the coo­kie with him. I’ll tell you what, if that mon­key had tried to ste­al my coo­kie, he had­n’t had a chan­ce. Even a warthog comes to visit us. It lies quiet­ly on a small pie­ce of grass and plucks off a few stalks.

After­wards we make our way back, sift through some ante­lo­pes and birds, enjoy the cool wind and the afri­can mas­sa­ge and arri­ve safe and unhar­med at the start­ing point again. For­t­u­na­te­ly, our car is still in good con­di­ti­on and our clo­thes are still the­re. We got lucky.

Con­ti­nue: Sun­set on Zam­be­zi River