Baobabs are said to live for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and look like a tree having a bad hair day. Legend has it that when the world was created, the Great Spirit gave each animal its own tree. The hyena got the baobab but threw it away in disgust. The tree landed upside down, which is why it now grows with branches that look like roots.
The wood is very light and fibrous, more like a piece of sponge. This has helped save baobabs from being chopped down to make dugout canoes. Baobabs have a remarkable ability to regenerate their bark from any exposed surface, rather useful given that elephants strip off bark to eat.
At Chobe there’s a koppie (hill) with a dozen or so baobabs on it. You drive through miles of mopane forest to get to it. Forest is a bit of a misnomer, though, as the trees have been chomped down by elephants into little more than leafy stumps. Approach the baobabs at sunset and you’ll also believe that spirits reside in these trees.
