Botswana

Well, today was incredible. That's the only word that comes close. Amazing? Excellent? Fantastic? Anyway, Ill get on with it. 

Overnight I woke up hearing random animals calling out... Pretty cool! We woke up at 6am to prep for our 7am pickup. We'd asked the kitchen to pack is breakfast and we picked up toasted cheese and bacon sandwiches... Oh, and in passing an elephant was drinking at the river just below the restaurant. Good morning Zambia!!

It was an hours drive from Livingstone to the boarder and along the route I saw some of real central Africa. People quite literally live in mud huts. Scenes from movies which I thought were made up or enhanced are quite the truth.  And then there was the boarder... Good thing we had a guide, as it was a mess! Semi trailer trucks line up literally for a week to cross this boarder, as it is a river crossing with a baby ferry that takes one lorry at a time. One. Footies? We take one of a few  aluminum boats to scurry us across the river. We crossed at a very interesting crossing: Kasungulu crossing, where the countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana all meet. It's also where the Zambezi and Chobe rivers join. Pretty cool to be seeing it all from a little boat.  

The passport stamping process was quite amusing, as on both sides our guides just walked me (as the family rep) past the huge line straight to the window. Ok, works for me!! 

Suddenly we were in Botswana! Cool! Instantly I could tell a difference- a little more money, a little tidier, and a lot drier. The bush in Zambia, so far, is dry, but a but green nonetheless. Botswana, at least the Chobe region, is twig dry. Like, look at it and it will burst into flame dry. 

So our morning was spent on a Chobe river cruise, riding up and down the river that acts as a boarder both for the national park, and between the countries of Botswana and Namibia. Aunt Martina, I waved at Namibia for you!! 

I can't begin to describe how lovely this ride was. It was about 2.5 hours, at a lovely slow pace, and the water provided a cool breeze so it wasn't too hot. Photos will have to explain all we saw, but I will list the sightings:

African Darta (a black bird)

Cape Buffalo (water buffalo)

African Pied Fisher (small black and white bird)

a pod of Hippos (many)

Nile crocodiles (many)

White Egrets (white long neck bird)

Jakara bird (runs on water, called a Jesus  bird)

Fish Eagle (like a bald eagle)

Lechwe (a rare red antelope)

Water lizard 

Elephant!! (So, so many)

Impala (an entire herd)

Water buck

Grey heron

Two incredibly memorable moments were when 4 make elephants came runnin down to the river to drink and spray mud, so amazing! And then we got to watch another elephant make a full river crossing, getting rather deep and using his trunk as a sort of periscope for breathing!!

After the cruise we had a buffet lodge at a rather fancy hotel which is situated on the Chobe river. As you all know I'm a chicken with food, so I had standard fair, but mum and dad were adventitious and had warthog stew... Said it was quite good. I enjoyed deliciously flavoured beef  kebabs. 

We then drove to Chobe National Park, which at over 10,000 km^2 is larger than the country of Lesotho. There are no fences, and the animals are lucky enough to not need passports and travel between countries quite frequently. Botswana seems to have very 'western' attitudes toward conservation, poaching etc, which I was so pleased to find out!

Our drive lasted for about 2 hours and kept us mostly next to the Chobe river delta, basically along the banks of the river we were on in the morning. I cannot, once again, describe how amazing this drive was. It started in incredibly dry bush, which slowly got a tiny but more lush closer to the water. It's winter here, but with a little imagination I can picture the lovely lushness in the wet season. 

The list:

Sable antelope (extremely rare, but seemed to like me, as they kept showing up!)

Impala (antelope, herds and singles)

Kudu (another kind of antelope, has a funny hump like a camel which helps it jump)

More Cape buffalo, hiding under bushes

Giraffes (all over, boys, girls, babies, by water and in the bush)

Elephants (huge numbers. Like, hundreds. Herds of 15 or so kept wanders around, some very far away, others not 10 meters from me!! Got to see quite a few mud baths!)

Black smith plove (small black and white bird)

Crested Barbet (bright yellow tiny bird)

Warthog (shuffling around on knees!)

It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Truly amazing.

But all things come to an end. We said good bye and made out way back through the questionable boarder posts, across the Zambezi, and home to our lodge. We wandered around a bit, amused at the hippos having dinner in the river just below our restaurant. 

I forgot to mention that my suitcase, being overladen with delicious wine from SA, was rather overweight, resulting in charges to get it here. To attempt to resolve this issue, we are 'suffering' through one of my bottles tonight. Gutted I can't bring it home, but it IS delicious... 

At dinner tonight we were happily mining out business when I looked up and noticed a hippo walking past. Through our lodgings property. Enroute to our tent. Ok... When in Africa??!

So that was my amazing day. Ranks pretty high!!!! Photos shortly.