Chobe Nat'l Park, Botswana

After a quick stint in Zimbabwe to see the incredible Victoria Falls, we caught a shuttle across the Zim/Botswana border to a town called Kasane. Here we set up camp at the Chobe Safari Lodge and prepared to lick our wounds and take some fun game safari rides into the famous Chobe National Park. We hadn’t counted on both becoming sick but with sneaking into the pool and some great animal sightings it turned out to be the perfect place for recovering.

The afternoon boat cruise was pretty crowded but filled with tons of wildlife. Red Lechwe ran playing thru the swampy riversides around foraging hippos, sunning crocodiles, and massive herds of buffalo. Elephants came down to the water to drink and cool down. It was pretty fun to watch them roll in the mud and spray themselves with water. One herd brought a tiny newborn with them that has to be the smallest elephant I have ever seen. Skimmers (the b&w picture), saddle bill storks, and fish eagles combed the waters for food. The most exciting part was when a massive hippo started charging our boat. He would fly up out of the water like a dolphin then go under and fly up again. Our boat driver gunned it away from him pretty fast.

The morning gave drive was Heidi’s first real game drive and it was a good one. We saw tiny baby impalas, a beautiful leopard walking along the branches of a tree, and a female lioness eating a freshly killed buffalo. Hyenas crossed our path and a business of banded mongoose (picture) ran around looking very cute. Towards the end of the drive herds of elephants started heading towards the waterfront to cool down. One herd came right in between our vehicle and the one just in front of us. Luckily these elephants were on a mission and didn’t feel like flipping over a few cars before their bath.