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Chobe National Park, Botswana
Elephant Valley Lodge
Date: 03.-05.10.2007
Assessment Criteria
Satisfaction in %
Comments
Pool
60
Tent/ Room
60
functional
Restaurant atmosphere
70
Food
60
Management & Staff
60
Sean & Eugene
Camp/ Lodge
70
Originality of reserve
70
Diversity of reserve
80
Vehicle
60
packed with 9 tourists, clearly
unaccaptable
Guide - communication
80
Guide - information
70
Guide - cust. orientation
70
Wildlife - quantity
80
Wildlife - diversity
90
Wildlife - extraordinary occurrences
80
elephant herd crossing chobe river to
escape the fire in Namibia
Chobe National Park is during this time of the year very dry. All bush and - if there are not yet fully eaten by elephants -
are yellow-grey-ish and only occasionally one may find a small green leaf on a bush which specialised for this
uncomfortable conditions. However, there is a big river going through the Park - the Chobe River which is a garden
eden to a lot of animals.
Unfortunatey, not only to the animals: Almost all game drives are targeting this area and as such one may find a couple
of lions circled by 14 (!) vehicles each loaded with at least 6-8 tourists plus guide. Passing this jam is simply not
possible as the path and all solid area around is packed. Since Chobe is a National Park it is open to the public during
the day. Whoever favors to drive through the park with their own vehicle can do so, which results in even more cars.
It is worth mentioning that we were there in October which isn't even the peak season. We were lucky and happy that
Chobe was our first stop as we figured later that this was by far the most swamped spot we visited. On the other hand,
we did see a lot of animals since the river certainly acts like a magnet to them.
On the first we had marked off most animals on our "imaginary" check list, such as:
Elephants (in great numbers!!!)
Hippos
Antilopes
Liones
Buffalos
Gnus
Krockodiles
many birds
Baboons
We did both, game drives and boat rides. We actually enjoyed the both rides even more since it was less shaky, less
packed, and we could get even closer to the animals (except lions) as they usually hang around the river. We were
lucky to see a big herd of elephants crossing the river which is a very breath-taking experience.
Our guide was Eugene - a very friendly and open guy, pointing out the animals and always prepared to answer
questions or offer explanations.
The Elephant Valley lodge is "okayish". We received a friendly welcome and the rules and conditions were made clear
to us while we were sipping our welcome drink. The lodge was built next to a waterhole and the main area with
restaurant and bar was facing this way. Our tent was luckily alos facing that way as a couple of other (Tent number 16-
20).
That way we could not only view the animals coming to the waterhole while having breakfast, lunch or dinner but also
from our terrace in front of the tent. Further more, we were able to listen to the animals at night when they came to the
waterhole for a drink.
Elephant Valley Lodge is fenced against elephants and buffalos. We were explained that the lodge is very close to the
Zimbabwe border and that the buffalos are hunted in Zimbabwe. When the buffalos reach the camp they are fairly
stressed and aggressive. Since the camp does not want to take any chances with the tourists, they put up the fence.
However, the fence is no guard against lions or leopards and therefore we were asked not to leave the tent after
midnight and we were accompanied to our tentafter dinner. We thought this habit a little awkward since on our game
drives we saw that the predators were already active during sun set.
Food and drinks were simple, especially looking back after the stays at the other lodges. For example, sun downers
provided were beer or soft drinks - no GinTonis !
Concluding, we did not mind not staying at a lodge within the national park since there was a lot to see on the drive up
and from. On the contrary, viewing the traffic jam near the Chobe river, we enjoyed the calm at "our" waterhole.