A reporter's experience at Chobe National Park

ISAAC PINIELO
Correspondent | Friday November 12, 2010 00:00

I was among a group of 18 local journalists, from both print and broadcast media, who were taken on a game drive by local tour operators, Upengu Tours and Safaris, under the auspices of the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA). I really was not sure what to expect, and everything was definitely a new experience for me.

We were split into three groups to ride in three tour vans that had been availed to us. The group that I was in had five journalists, some CEDA personnel plus our guide, Walter Chika.

These were a bunch of lighthearted people, especially our guide, who was an awesome man. As we got into the tour van, one journalist asked the tour guide if we were going to see lions to which he replied: 'It depends, but let's just hope that we will see them'.

One female journalist made everyone laugh when she pleaded that the CEDA photographer should not be accommodated in our van, as he would endanger us by stopping now and then to take pictures of the wildlife once in the park.

'O tla re bolaisa diphologolo ka go tsamaya a emisa-emisa koloi a batla go tsaya dinepe,' she cried.Our journey to the park began at Water Lilly Lodge at around 4:30pm. At this moment, excitement had gotten the better of me. Who would not be excited if they are about to enter one of the largest national parks in the country!

We went past the Chobe Marina Lodge, the police station and the mall and then we made a few left and right turns and eventually we made it to the entrance of Chobe National Park.

The park is known for having some of the most diverse wildlife and vegetation of any forest in the world. We continued into the forest where we stopped on the banks of the Chobe River to take a look at the elephants, which were all over the terrain.

It was my first time to come that close to these gigantic beasts. Honestly, my heart was beating very fast as I did not know what to expect of these animals. Here the tour guide advised us to be quiet and to remain seated in our van. He indicated that the gigantic elephants do not entertain too much noise.

He also noted that an elephant seldom attacks people who are in one van, noting that it sees them as a single large object unlike when it is one person outside the van. Baboons could also be seen all over the riverbed. As we moved further into the park, we noticed that spotting animals was not that hard as herds of elephants would cross our path.

At one moment the tour guide stopped for us to watch an elephant that was coming towards our van. Everyone in the van froze when the giant animal approached us. It stopped  some inches from our van and at that time I could sense that every one of us, except the tour guide, was praying silently in our hearts. The elephant then hit a U-turn, to our relief and it went back to the others, which seemed to have been waiting for it to pounce on us so that they could join in.

'Ka re ke paletswe le gone go e tsaya dinepe - I have even failed to take pictures of it,' said one journalist bringing us to stitches with laughter.

Along our drive, there were also buffalos, springboks and in the river we could see hippos and some crocodiles. Our guide, Chika revealed that the springbok was capable of committing abortion.

'This animal knows how to control its breeding. If it gets pregnant in times of drought it consumes a certain herb so as to commit abortion,' he explained.

We were however unfortunate, or 'fortunate' not to have seen the king of the jungle or leopards. Chika explained that these animals might have been chased away by the tourists who visited the park in the morning. Even  giraffes were nowhere to be found. At some point we came across antelope. The twilight was now descending on the horizon and we had to head back to the exit. We came across more herds of elephants that seemed to have been departing from the river into the plains. This is where a small elephant calf seemed to become agitated by our visit. It came running towards our van as if it wanted to charge at us but, surprisingly, it stopped, spreading its leaf-like ears and kicking the soil at the same time.

The playful journalists cheered and requested the guide to stop, shouting, 'A ko o eme re bone gore tlounyana ye e batla go dirang - Stop the van so that we see the intensions of this small elephant'.

Surprisingly, the older elephants seemed to be unfazed by the behaviour of their young one.

We finally came out of the national park with vivid memories. of our experience still vivid in our minds. The fear that we had earlier had now turned into excitement.

I realised that the idea of a national park to protect the varied wildlife found here as well as promote tourism was a superb one.