Kasane to Chitabe (Sandibe), Okavango Delta, Botswana 22 - 24 Oct 07

The leopard changed its spot

Our immigration official friend Mugethi came out to the plane to see us off at Kasane. The flight to Chitabe airstrip took just over an hour. Our guide Tshabo was there to meet us with a Toyota Landcruiser. After placing thorny bushes round the tyres to keep the hyenas away, we drove off to the Sandibe Safari Lodge about 40 minutes away on bumpy tracks. There we were given a warm welcome by the assistant manager Jane and the rest of the staff and then had a late brunch in the lodge dining area that opens directly onto the surrounding bush. We saw some strange shapes hanging under the eaves and soon realized that these were large bats. They stay there all day, only flying out at night unless they’re disturbed by some of the many baboons that hang around the lodge, hoping to grab a sugar bowl when no one is watching. Our room was in a small chalet, set well apart from the other ones. We could therefore keep all the blinds open and see what was going on outside. There was also a game viewing deck with comfortable bed-chairs in front of the hut that were occupied more by the baboons than by us. It was the same at the pool. The baboons would come and drink the water while we were lounging in our bed-chairs, and would take over the bed-chairs once we’d vacated them.
We went on an afternoon game drive with Tshabo and Bee who took us to a small lake where they poled us around gondola-style in a mokoro (dugout canoe). Apart from a small frog, water spiders and some dragon flies, there wasn’t much wild life to be seen from the mokoro.