An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We awoke mostly refreshed, but still not sleeping so well. Breakfast was a nice buffet, then it was time for the 7:30 pickup for our full-day safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana.
We drove first about 90 minutes to get to the park (including the obligatory stop at the border crossings to get our passports stamped leaving each country, and entering each country, as we had to do on our return in the afternoon), then we boarded a flat, open boat with a roof but no sides - with small railings - along with Brooks our driver/guide and Jan and Packy, a lovely couple from Ireland, on a vacation from their four sons. (His real name is Paul, but as he explained, most Irish have nicknames since they all use the same names and there could be 5 to 10 John Ryans in any given town)
The ride was great - we spent about 2 1/2 hours slowly motoring up the calm and wide Chobe river, observing and mingling with the animals. We saw many birds of all sizes and colors, including several catching fish during swooping dives right near the boat. We also saw a few large lizards, about the size of a big house cat. The river was filled with hippos, and we’d see their eyes, ears and noses briefly peek out of the water everywhere. When the boat went up on one shore so we could see some warthogs more closely, we looked down and noticed that we were next to a large (15-foot) crocodile, who had been immobile, with just his eyes above the surface.
We then saw a pack of elephants ambling down the hill to the river. We waited, and the group of about 5 of them stopped at the riverside to drink for a while, then walked across, sometimes submerging themselves, sometimes turning around to playfully fight with each other (which they like doing in the water as they’re so much lighter there) All the while, we were floating about 30 feet away, madly snapping pictures. We followed them as they walked up onto a large grass island in the middle of the wide river, where they ate and showered dirt all over themselves.
We then continued down the river, stopping to get near a group of hippos dozing in the water. Our noise evidently disturbed them, as all 10 or so then lumbered out of the water and onto the shore to graze. We motored on, seeing many pukus and landwes (gazelle-like creatures) along the shores. Time was then up, and we headed back for lunch. The Chobe Safari Lodge’s buffet was actually quite tasty (though it didn’t feature any of that morning’s sightings), with the cooked pumpkin being the most memorable.
We then boarded the open-air range rover-like vehicle for the afternoon game drive. We drove around the park for about 3 hours, with one bathroom/drink break, seeing along the way: many groups of monkeys (mostly lemon monkeys and baboons), with as many as 100 in each group, several herds of impalas (with their skinny, wavy antlers), a few warthog families, 3 big giraffes, and innumerable elephants, ranging in age from around 4 to over 70. All of these, except the shy giraffes, we were close enough to touch (though, of course, we didn’t!).
Throughout the day, we learned many interesting facts about the land and the animals, including: why we so often saw impalas hanging out with baboons (baboons climb trees and have excellent vision, so they warn the impalas, and each other, about approaching predators; in exchange, baboons occasionally eat very young impalas) and the fact that male hippos will try to kill their own babies, if they’re male, as they become competition for him with the mother, since hippos mate with any other hippo, including their own offspring and parents.
Our drive ended, so we boarded the van for the paved-road drive back to Vic Falls. We sweet-talked (using the universal language) our driver into taking us to two different hotels so we could check availability and see the rooms. This place is new, vibrant and had friendly employees (as well as a phone that we can log-on from!!), and we were able to bargain successfully, using the fact we had learned just today from our new friend Jan that they offer rates over 50% cheaper if you give a local address. We then zoomed back to the inferior Ilala, packed up and taxied back over here where we savored room service (grilled chicken sandwich, smoked salmon, gazpacho, Zambezi Lager, two juices all for $14, including tax and tip) and a great shower, before crawling under our mosquito netting for the evening.