The Ultimate Botswana facts

Experiences such as this (below) are not so common..yet they occur often enough to many people in Botswana..share your experiences and let others know that we, Toff and Kiddy of Ultimate Africa Safaris Botswana - will be there to help provide you and your friends with the wilderness and wildlife experience of a lifetime!

Photos from safari

An elephant or two...hundred

A short note and a few photos..a 3 day camping trip into Chobe National Park, we camped at Ihaha site. It is looking beautiful and the river is already filing with the annual flood waters.
I had not expected to see much game (wildlife) at this time of year - well, were we in for a surprise! On the way in to camp, we saw lions and a small herd of sable antelope, giraffes and many impala.Our outings brought us a herd of buffaloes - unusual indeed to see around 200 or more in January amidst the rain.

One afternoon, we sat for an hour and a half while elephants of all ages and sizes passed our two cars and came down to the floodplains to drink, bathe in the mud and feed on the fresh grass. We had them as close as you can want to the vehicles. We were charged by a cow with young and we saw what must be one of the better sized tusker in Chobe. We counted about 200 elephants; it was spectacuar.

Yesterday, at our humble little home in Kasane, our neighbour's children alerted us to two adult boomslang ("tree snake") moving in the branches over our gardens. With the help of the local snakepark folk, the snakes were captured and safely removed. These were two big snakes - well above the average (1,5m) at 1,8m.

Yesterday afternoon, we had two hours of blissful, peaceful relaxation on the Chobe river- slowly going down by boat to the rapids and returning to see the sunset near Sedudu Island. Now today I am off with friends to Pandamatenga to see our piece of land there. Kiddy is with her family in Holland and hoping that it will soon snow - apparently there's a good chance of that happening. You can bet that she is well wrapped up! Her time at the Djoser travel event went very well and she enjoyed it - we hope to see some of the visitors to the show out on safari with us soon!

If it's Tuesday..

Well, it seems that life in the small town of Kasane is not all that relaxed - or it is so relaxed that is fels busy! We have been subjected to the onslaught of tours - both private holiday makers and tour operators from Botswana, South Africa,Namibia and furhter afield - and tourists in their droves coming across from Zambia for a day visit to the Chobe, which has lasted through November and December. And..suddenly, town is quiet again! I am not the only one who has been saying "You know, I had to wait for seven cars to pass before I could enter the main road!" Shocking! Why,I nearly encountered another car on our quiet side street the other day as I was leaving home.. More seriously, it is lovely to have the quiet for a while, but it seems that each season, the town grows a bit more, and we lose the quiet that used to be here. That said, it means that we are "on the map" more than before, and that, despite a downturn in ecomonies, there are still a lot of people coming to visit Victoria Falls (on the Zambian side mostly) and the Chobe National Park.

The rain clouds have closed in again and we have had several days of thunder showers, with some good downpours. The good news is that some of this rain is and has also fallen in the Central Kalahari - now there's something to see when the rains have come down! And I am off there with safari clients and friends in 9 weeks time.It could be sooner. Here's a pic of the Kalahari taken by friends on a trip there 2 years ago..rainy as heck but so rewarding in tems of game viewing and scenery.

This evening Kiddy flew out of Johannesburg on her way to the Netherlands - arrives tomorrow in pretty cold conditions for us Botswaners. Me, dogs and cats all alone at home. But we start tomorrow preparing for a short safari into the Chobe Park this weekend, and friends ar arriving on Friday. We will be busy..

For those interested, we will be out on the river (in between rain storms and showers), seeking out game on drives along the Chobe River and going to visit Pandamatenga - all in a relaxed manner over the next week and a half. Isn't that the only way to be? Relaxed? I think so.. African time - a marvellous invention. The other picture is of a lvely Kalahari black maned lion - also from two years ago.

Enjoy!!

Kiddy Departs for Holland

Today Kiddy left on the first leg of her journey to Holland. She will be attending a travel show (of note I believe) in Leiden, Netherlands hosted by a prominent tour agent there, Djoser. She will have the opportunity to meet most of the worldwide agents of Djoser, as well as all the Djoser head office personnel with whom we will be concerned. We operate their tour in Zambia and Botswana. Catch them on http://www.djoser.nl/ (Dutch) or http://www.djoser.com/. Go check out her blog on her trip at 360.yahoo and search for kid brakhoven.

Some more overcast weather today with showers. I have heard that Savuti area of Chobe National Park through to Moremi Game Reserve is flooded and muddy - that means nearly impassable..I am planning a safari to the Central Kalahari at the end of March - that's the right place to be in this weather! Will post some pics from friends who have been out with us soon..quite stunning. This one is our camp site in Deception Valley in February 08.

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Seasonal Rains

We have had early and good rains; they started in mid November last year and by Xmas we had had nearly 440 mm (a lot for those two months). Becoming a bit more sporadic now in January, but nontheless some good downpours. With the overcast weather, it tends to be a bit cooler than the high temperatures of Octoer and November..but, at the mid 30s C the humidity is very high here!

All around the bush is lush and green..for those who arrive here and want to do a safari, be prepared to confront rain and lots of greenery! We still have a pretty good variety of birds, it being the summer migration period when we have the Central and Northern African and the European migrants here. Elephants still abound and our local lions - along the Chobe River, in Lesoma Valley area and south of here towards Pandamatenga and Kazuma, are still home - albeit harder to spot them at times.

The Zambezi is starting to fill - rainfall already influencing the flood water and we are looking forward to another year of high water levels I guess. The Vic Falls will be a better sight with some more water in them..a good time to get there before April and the very high water levels.

Welcome to our blog

Hi all,
Living in Kasane, on the Chobe River in North East Botswana, we hope to share experiences and photos with you as we visit friends and go on safaris in this beautiful area. We are about 70 km from the Victoria Falls and can help with lots of comments and news too.