Wouter, our guide from the Netherlands shares this wonderful aquatic experience on the edge of the desert whilst traveling on the accommodated BTa14 Botswana tour.

“On my latest tour, a ‘special’ Botswana tour with one of our agents, starting in Johannesburg, going through the major reserves in Botswana, and ending in Victoria Falls, one of the highlights is always the Chobe River boat cruise in northern Botswana, close to the point where 4 countries meet: Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, also the border of the Chobe National park and home of some of the biggest Elephant herds on the planet.

It is just one of those activities you know your clients are always going to have a good time. Besides the fact that it is a very relaxing experience with stunning scenery and magnificent Botswana sunsets, we can pretty much guarantee abundant animal sightings as well. Whether it will be herds of Buffalos or Elephants coming to drink, the many different types of antelopes that you find there including the very localised Puku, or of course water birds. The reason why I say ‘of course’ is because in my opinion and experience, this boat cruise is one of the best opportunities to observe “water” birds in Southern Africa.

Birds are truly a passion of mine, and I like to see myself as a birding enthusiast, so I always enjoy it when I find out I am doing the cruise again. I have seen over 500 out of the 964 bird species in Southern Africa now, but every time I do this cruise I ‘score’ a few new ones that I have never seen before. This time it was the Yellow Wagtail, a Black-crowned Night-heron, and a Black-winged Pratincole.

Straight after leaving the lodge by boat you see water birds everywhere: Herons, Terns, Bee-eaters, Cormorants, Kingfishers, Sandpipers and the like. The cruise brings us around an island called Sedudu Island meaning Hippo Island. This island has a very interesting history. The Chobe River is the natural border between Botswana and Namibia, but the island used to belong to nobody; it was no man’s land. Because the island is in the middle of such a rich environment, there used to be a lot of political arguments about this piece of land. That is why they decided to bring this case to the international court in The Hague in 1996. The international law dictates that the border should be the deepest channel around the island. This happened to be at the Namibian side (around 10m deep, the Botswana side around 3-4 meter), so now the island belongs to Botswana and we can do a boat cruise around the whole island without having to stamp our passports!

This same island is home to an incredible amount of interesting birds. The most spectacular sighting I had there is of two African Skimmers on their nest, feeding a tiny little chick, some 10 meters away from the boat. Skimmers occur on most of the bigger rivers in Africa with enough sandbanks that provide them opportunities to breed. However, they occur nowhere in great numbers. The global population of these birds is estimated at only around 10 000 individuals, 1 000 of them in Southern Africa. Seeing theme here is very special! Their feeding behaviour is also very special; it has given them the name Skimmer. The bird has an elongated lower mandible that is extremely sensitive. It uses it to ‘skim’ the water by flying very accurately just above the water surface and putting the lower mandible in the water, picking up anything that the bill hits. It seems like a very difficult way of foraging, but the birds seem to be very successful. I have seen them catching a lot of fish in a very short period of time. The chick that these Skimmers were trying to raise looked very healthy so let’s hope it will make it to adulthood!

To make this story short, the Chobe River is a birders paradise. If you are interested in birds and want to join a Sunway trip, I really recommend booking one that includes this boat cruise. Even if you don’t particularly like them, or even if you hate them, you will love them afterwards!! Wouter van Spijker