But How Many Elephants Are There?

After spending the night at a campsite on the banks of the Cubango in the Caprivi Strip, we enter Botswana through the Ngoma border post. The road leading to Kasane (about 60 km) crosses Chobe Park, and the elephants don't take long to appear. The best choice for visiting Botswana if you don't want to end up "plucked", is to rent a car and bring your own tent. The solution is a bit spartan, also because most campsites have no facilities at all, but you certainly gain in authenticity and contact with the animals. At times all too much, like the sleepless nights with a pack of hyenas squabbling outside our tent or with jackals stealing your bag of meat for the BBQ. The Chobe and Moremi parks are certainly among the most interesting in Southern Africa. Never seen such a concentration of elephants!! There are more than 65,000 in Chobe alone.

Once in Kasane, a first excursion in Chobe, sailing for a few hours among groups of elephants, buffaloes, hippos. The campsites inside the park can be called minimalist and it's best to stock up beforehand with everything you might need. Often and gladly you find yourself alone in the camp, and every African night is different from the previous one and always holds some unknown. From Chobe a magnificent sandy track leads you to Moremi Park; alternatively, if you don't have a 4x4, you take the tarmac road passing through Francistown which crosses the various Pans, expanses of nothing covered in salt that can prove to be dangerous traps if you venture off-track. Flying over the Okavango in a small four-seater plane could be called an almost mystical experience; on the islets formed by the inland delta the animals gather, and from above they are idyllic scenes.

In Maun you can sleep cheaply in some local campsites, certainly far more affordable than the fabulous lodges with astronomical prices.