Part 9 - Babs and Andy get lost in mass tourism (21.08.2018)

There are miracles that don't exist. Did I lose the lens cap somewhere on the way to the salt pan? Who finds it the next morning in the dust and dirt after the nearly 2-hour drive? Our salt pan guide. I already imagined arriving in Europe with a scratched polarizing filter. Yesterday morning, I held the cap in my hands - that's exactly what we needed to get started.

Off to the far north - about 400 km on an animal-rich route (stop & stare!), And we ended up in Kasane, where we couldn't resist staying in one of those luxury lodges. Even at the campsite, the bathrooms are so luxurious that you can't believe it at first sight. It's just a mega spectacle that's going on here, nothing like ours. It's a side of Africa that we didn't know... but you have to see everything in life (I'm just saying: golden glittering ballerinas! There are many fans of this camouflage safari style here...).
As fancy as the giant complex is, they saved a lot of money on the fence around the campsite, which is right on the banks of the Chobe River. Because there's no one there. Instead, they invested a lot in the sign forest - everywhere you can read 'Beware of crocodiles' & 'Beware of hippos'. We feel very safe when going to the toilet at night.

Kasane is the hub of the world, at least for all those who want to visit the Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls. The former is still quite affordable compared to all other parks. You also get a lot of little animals for your money. 3 hours of game drive in the morning, 3 hours of boat safari in the afternoon. In between, time to sweat. If we couldn't put enough layers of onions on us in Namibia, here at lunchtime (not in the morning, mind you...) we would wish for exactly 0 layers (but the luxury part doesn't offer a naked area...). 

3 hours of game drive is simply not enough - although (!!!) we saw quite a lot, including 3 lionesses with their 4 little ones less than 2 meters in front of us. Mega cute, I've never seen this cinema on any of my safaris before. 3 hours are completely sufficient for the boat safari, you see everything that is swimming in and around the water and in the worst case you even get a sunstroke as a bonus.
The animals are overall very close to you, you could almost think they are tame - on land as well as in water. Just a little info: all photos uploaded to Facebook are only taken with a mobile phone. So you can calculate for yourself what 'close' means in this context. As long as the lovely animals stay in one place and don't move in your direction, everything is fine. We were a bit scared when an elephant approached our car at a distance of 20 cm... then it was gone again. He just wanted to check us out. When taking the close-up photo of the smiling animal (do you see how it smiles?), I thought to myself on the tip of the boat: 'If it attacks now, that was my last photo...'. I survived, as you can read.

The tourism industry is certainly very important for the country; the question is only how long it can continue with such masses of tourists before the ecosystem collapses. Besides, all the money invested in wildlife protection is useless if we don't do anything about climate change. We just wanted to mention that by the way.

To escape the European buffet at lunchtime in the lodge, with Christine's help - she organized these great tours for us in no time via WhatsApp - we found a local restaurant to try out the national dishes again. This time: pap (maize porridge) with morogo (African spinach) and grilled chicken. Awesome. For comparison: lodge lunch for P135,-, local food for P20,-. Little difference.
We also decided to explore Botswana for one more day, as we want to take good close-ups of the Big 5. Tomorrow Vic Falls, the day after tomorrow full day game drive in Chobe. 

Now the latest blog post is being created under the African starry sky, by the Chobe River under trees where monkeys and bats bid each other good night (a salute to the rabies vaccination...). Enjoying travelling, enjoying life.

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