This trip happened in 2018 so the report is a little late but I thought people might be interested anyway. For me it was an important trip because it really got me into listing my wildlife observations. An invitation to a family wedding in Johannesburg led to my wife and I visiting Africa for the first time in March 2018. Naturally we wanted to view some wildlife in the short time available, and the initial thought was of course Kruger. However, somebody recommended Chobe National Park in Botswana and a further recommendation led us to the Bakwana Eco-lodge in Kasane. We booked in for four nights, and as rates are fully inclusive including two game drives per day, this suited African neophytes like us. Kasane is located at the north-east corner of the national park on the Chobe River with Namibia on the northern bank. It is also an easy drive to Victoria Falls and many tourists take a day trip to Chobe NP from there. Most other guests only stayed a night or two but staying slightly longer enabled us to get to know the staff and their culture a little better. We were also able to develop a relationship with our guide who by the end of our stay was doing everything he could to allow me to see the animals I was interested in. Wildlife watching was easy, with a morning and afternoon game drive every day in open-sided four-wheel drive vehicles with a capacity of up to 10 guests and a driver/guide. While some vehicles we saw on drives were packed we never had more than one other couple with us. The guide was excellent, very knowledgeable and willing to help. Wildlife guiding is obviously a prestigious job in Botswana, one for which he had to complete an extensive course to qualify. We were not allowed to leave the vehicle except at designated rest spots. Honestly, I could not see the difference between the rest spots and where the lions were resting one kilometre down the track, but it all seems to work. Every evening drive included a stop for a sundowner. There were of course other vehicles around, though not enough to annoy or hinder us. There were a lot of day tripping tourists from Victoria Falls who tended to turn up just as we were leaving after our morning drive. Otherwise, everybody else was from one of the lodges in Kasane. One group consisted of very prim and proper older women all dressed in neatly ironed khaki, clutching sketch pads and pencils. Probably a group of aspiring wildlife artists. Most of the time you could not hear anything from other groups, but one memorable comment was a loud American female voice asking “is that lion going to eat that buffalo?”. There was also the opportunity to take boat trips on the river in place of a drive, and we did that twice. Unfortunately, no night drives were allowed because of poaching. I think the problem is if you are mistaken for poachers, the results could be fatal. Botswanans take wildlife protection seriously. Game drives went for about four hours each, giving us a total of 32 hours over the 5 days / 4 nights we were there. Between drives, we rested at the lodge, dipping in the pool or watching birds at the feeder. We could have taken short cultural excursions but the only trip we made was to Caracal, a rescue centre come environmental centre come mini zoo nearby (see separate report). However, wildlife watching was not limited to the drives, there was plenty of wildlife around the lodge, which was situated in regrowth forest on the river. There was a resident population of bushbuck as well as a family of banded mongoose, while a warthog ran into the compound one day. Best there were southern galagoes in the trees in front of our tree house every night. Chobe is known for its elephants and we must have seen around 100 on the first game drive we had. It was fascinating watching these massive animals in all aspects of their lives. There were three prides of lions in the region and we were recognizing individuals by the end of our time. My wife practically jumped into my lap when our guide virtually parked on top of a big old male and his mate. There were so many highlights but there were also disappointments. We never saw a leopard, the closest we came was parking opposite a corpse of trees in which we knew there was a female and cubs. Likewise, we saw hyena tracks but no animals. I would have liked to see more small animals but with no night drives and having to stay in the vehicles this was difficult. Sometimes though it is the small things that are memorable, watching giant millipedes making tracks in the sand, a dung beetle rolling his ball across the road, or a column of army ants on the march. After leaving Kasane we crossed the border into Zimbabwe for a short, touristy, visit to Victoria Falls before flying home. Animals seen: Mammals Almost all species were seen in abundance and multiple times. Only the slender mongoose was seen only once. 1. Bush elephant 2. Vervet monkey 3. Chacma baboon 4. Southern galago 5. Smith’s bush squirrel 6. Black-backed jackal 7. Lion 8. Slender mongoose 9. Banded mongoose 10. Common zebra 11. Common warthog 12. Hippopotamus 13. Southern giraffe 14. Impala 15. Waterbuck 16. Puku 17. Greater kudu 18. Bushbuck 19. African buffalo Birds Birds were abundant and easy to see. Had we been with a birdwatching group no doubt we would have identified many more species. As it was some of the people we went on drives with were a little annoyed at the time spent on birds. Strangest thing is that we did not see any sunbirds. 1. Egyptian goose 2. White-faced whistling duck 3. Spur-winged goose 4. Helmeted guineafowl 5. Coqui francolin 6. Red-billed spurfowl 7. Little grebe 8. Namaqua dove 9. Laughing dove 10. Ring-necked dove 11. Senegal coucal 12. Kori bustard 13. Red-crested korhaan 14. Grey go-away bird 15. Marabou stork 16. Yellow-billed stork 17. Hamerkop 18. Great egret 19. Squacco heron 20. Western cattle egret 21. Black heron 22. Little egret 23. African sacred ibis 24. Reed comorant 25. African darter 26. Spotted thick-knee 27. Water thick-knee 28. White-crowned lapwing 29. Blacksmith lapwing 30. African jacana 31. Lesser jacana 32. Common sanderling 33. Shikra 34. Tawny eagle 35. African fish eagle 36. Gaber goshawk 37. Black kite 38. Martial eagle 39. Bateleur 40. White-headed vulture 41. Trumpeter hornbill 42. African grey hornbill 43. Southern red-billed hornbill 44. Southern ground-hornbill 45. Crested barbet 46. Acacia pied barbet 47. White-fronted bee-eater 48. Southern carmine bee-eater 49. Blue-cheeked bee-eater 50. Little bee-eater 51. Olive bee-eater 52. Lilac-breasted roller 53. Pied kingfisher 54. Malachite kingfisher 55. Red-footed falcon 56. African golden oriel 57. Brubru 58. Fork-tailed drongo 59. Magpie shrike 60. Southern red bishop 61. White-browned sparrow-weaver 62. Village weaver 63. Southern masked weaver 64. Red-billed quelea 65. Blue-breasted cordon-bleu 66. Village indigobird 67. Long-tailed paradise-weaver 68. African pied wagtail 69. Wire-tailed swallow 70. Yellow-bellied greenbill 71. African red-eyed bulbul 72. Red-billed oxpecker 73. Cape glossy starling 74. White-browed robin-chat Reptiles I did not really think of reptiles on this trip but had I asked I’m sure I could have been shown chameleons or other small lizards around the lodge. 1. Nile crocodile 2. Nile monitor
