26th January 2022
Own Correspondent
Entertainment tourism on the Chobe River is becoming increasingly popular amongst local tourists who have lifted an economy hard hit by travel restrictions to contain the debilitating COVID-19 epidemic. With international tourists no longer visiting Botswana’s tourist mecca Dream Safari’s owner Mist Setaung, has had to turn inward to keep afloat with most businesses struggling.
With noise off limits in most areas to avoid disturbing wild animals easily agitated by sounds Setaung has hit a rich nerve of form tapping into a niche loved by local travellers.
“We have now begun to tap entertainment tourism because it is popular with locals. We now play music in boat opposite park and locals love it. We do not do so inside the Game Reserve to avoid disturbing the animals and the response to this product offering has been amazing,” said Mist Setaung, the Operations Director of Dream Safaris.
He said, “We are already fully booked for the Bridge Marathon scheduled for the 26th February 2022.”
An indigenous Motswana in a sector dominated by foreigners with better resources and big lodges with a strong base of overseas customers, Setaung begun his journey as an entrepreneur in niche market in 2010 and has never looked back. He offers boat cruises along the enigmatic Chobe River.
“Chobe boat cruises cannot be compared to any other. You get to see animals like Hippos, Elephants and Crocodiles. In December we had a sighting of a lion killing a buffalo on the island. You can only see that from the Chobe River,” revealed Setaung.
With Namibians seen fishing along the winding river many like Setaung see the opening of the Kazungula bridge as another opportunity to attract tourist revenue to the area with big pockets of grinding poverty and sprawling urban slums set in a pool of incredible wealth and opportunity.
A foray into the Chobe National Park amplifies an aspect of this observation with a wealth of wildlife and flora as we enter its gates the morning after an exhilarating journey begun on boat cruise. With voices at a minimal level it is explicitly explained that no off road excursions following animals are allowed.
The park is dominated by Zambezi teak trees which produce a white flower, which is popular amongst furniture manufacturers in Zimbabwe. A buffalo trail is seen on the ground by our local guide who tells us that an elephant we encounter soon after entering park is about 25 years.
It is eating grass and tree shrubs with a sense of stress reflected acutely from a liquid released from its temporal glands, located midway between the eye and the ear. Devils claw flower used for kidney ailments by western pharmaceutical companies litter rich grassland vegetation.
The park overlooks the disputed Sedudu islands and during this particular excursion we witness herds of buffalo, hippo and water buck sharing feeding ground. Elsewhere a herd of impala feed in an open area with animals facing different directions in case of the emergence of a predator.
“They avoid bushes for precisely this reason,” said Matengu Matengu, a local tour guide who is working with Kwalape Lodge.
Matengu observed a lone hippo down the Chobe river and revealed it was likely chased away by the big group for delinquent behaviour. It will likely return after being chastised and be reintegrated.
Sighting of wet elephant faeces on the journey back are allegedly likely to be those of a female because of the genital make up of the animal causing it to urinate close to the faeces out tour guide reveals.
