Botswana
Kasane
Kasane: Riverside Town at the Edge of Chobe National Park
Kasane is a small Botswana town strung along the south bank of the Chobe River, with Namibia across the water. It is the way in to the Chobe riverfront, where elephants come down to drink, above all in the dry season from May to October. The area is in a malaria zone, so see a doctor about protection before you travel.
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Arriving in Kasane
Your cruise line arranges the transfers and boarding around Kasane, so its program is the guide to where you meet your boat or vehicle. The town is the northern entrance to Chobe National Park and its riverfront.
- Kasane International Airport is about 4 km south of town on the A33 road, and lodges run shuttles to and from it.
- The main road through town follows the river.
- Namibia's Impalila Island lies across the river, and a passenger ferry crosses to a Namibian border post.
- About 8 km east, at Kazungula, border posts serve the bridge into Zambia and the road into Zimbabwe.
- The town has several banks with cash machines, and supermarkets.
Kasane on Your Own
Many of Kasane's lodges, shops and banks between the Chobe Safari Lodge and the Mowana hotel are within 2 km of each other along the main road. Elephants roam the land between the airport and the town, so take a vehicle rather than walking outside the built-up area.
- Taxis: Taxis wait beside the Spar supermarket. Agree the fare before you get in.
- On the river: Boat trips on the Chobe leave from docks in town. Many last about three hours and run from mid-afternoon until sunset.
- Into the park: Sedudu Gate, just south of town, is the usual way into Chobe National Park. Lodge game drives last from three hours to a full day, and the park fee may be included in the price.
- Photographs: Do not take photographs near military or government buildings, and ask before you photograph people.
- Carry ID: Carry some identification. A copy of your passport photo page is usually enough, as long as you can show the original if asked.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
Food and Drink
The traditional meat dish of Botswana is seswaa: beef or goat boiled until tender with little more than salt, then pounded and served with pap, a stiff maize porridge. Lodge restaurants in Kasane serve buffets that include game meat alongside local dishes.
- Seswaa is the dish cooked for weddings, funerals and national celebrations such as independence day.
- Bogobe jwa lerotse is a sorghum porridge cooked with lerotse, a melon grown in Botswana that tastes rather like butternut squash once cooked.
- Madila is soured milk, eaten on its own or stirred into porridge.
- Tap water in towns is chlorinated and local people drink it, but short-term visitors are advised to drink bottled water.
People and Language
English and Setswana are the official languages of Botswana, and Setswana is the first language of most people. The currency, the pula, is named after the Setswana word for rain, which is scarce in a country that takes in much of the Kalahari.
- About four in five people in Botswana are Tswana, the people the country is named after.
- The pula is divided into 100 thebe, a word meaning shield.
- Botswana celebrates Independence Day on September 30.
A Brief History
San hunter-gatherers were the first people of the Chobe area, and their paintings survive in rocky hills inside the national park. Today Kasane is the administrative center of the Chobe District.
- Britain declared the Bechuanaland Protectorate on March 31, 1885.
- An Anglo-German treaty of July 1, 1890 set the boundary between Bechuanaland and German South-West Africa along the main channel of the Chobe River.
- A national park for the area was first proposed in 1931, and in 1932 about 24,000 square km around the Chobe District were declared a non-hunting area.
- The Chobe Game Reserve was created in 1960 and became a national park in 1968. Timber settlements such as Serondela were moved out, and by 1975 the whole park was free of human settlement.
- Bechuanaland became independent as the Republic of Botswana on September 30, 1966, with Seretse Khama as its first president.
- In 1975 Kasane made headlines when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remarried here.
- Kasane's present airport was completed in 1990, replacing an older airfield that became a golf course.
- In 1999 the International Court of Justice ruled that Sedudu Island in the Chobe River belongs to Botswana rather than Namibia.
- The Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi to Zambia opened to traffic in May 2021, replacing a ferry.
Kasane with Children
Wildlife is the reason to come, and the day can be shaped to the age of your children: a boat on the river for the youngest, a game drive for school-age children and a longer outing for teenagers.
- Younger children: A boat trip on the Chobe lets you watch from your seat, and crocodiles and elephants can often be seen at close range.
- School age: On a game drive you can look for four of the Big Five, elephant, lion, leopard and buffalo, but not rhino, which were moved out of the park to protect them from poaching. More than 400 bird species have been recorded in the park.
- Teenagers: Victoria Falls is about 70 km away, and day trips cross into Zimbabwe or Zambia, so budget for a visa fee for each person, which depends on nationality, as well as the entrance fee at the falls.
- Never try to interact with wild animals, in the park or around town.
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