The Majesty of the Chobe River

We had been heading north into the Okavango Delta and Chobe, the parts of Botswana that are world renowned for animals, and we had not been disappointed. In fact, we were beginning to think that a few less elephants would be a bit of a relief having had a couple of close encounters.

We drove from Savuti to Chobe Safari Lodge which is right on the Chobe River in the heart of the National Park.

As we approached the northern most part of Botswana we reached our first tar road in nearly 10 days – how quiet the world became without the constant rumble of dirt and rocks under our tyres! We arrived in the small town of Kasane rather dirty having not seen anything remotely like civilisation for as long as we hadn´t seen a tar road.

Normally I love being in remote, wild places with no-one else around but I found myself strangely pleased to see a beautiful lodge with smart reception area, restaurant, bar and air conditioning!

With gorgeous views

We were staying at the campsite behind the lodge which was not a quiet and idyllic spot but we were welcomed to use all of the lodge facilities and today that made the squash and the noise worthwhile.

It also became clear that we were going to share our campsite with a few locals….

Including this very interesting insect which we would love to know the name of if anyone can tell us

First things first, we stripped off in the toilets by reception and threw all our dirty clothes, towels and bedding into their laundry. Next we settled ourselves at a table in their luxurious restaurant for a wonderful lunch that we didn´t have to cook ourselves and didn´t require any washing up afterwards! We logged onto their remarkably fast wifi to catch up on internet land then popped round the corner to stock up at the local supermarket.

I had been anticipating a lazy afternoon writing some of the blog, calling my Mum, checking emails and the like but in the end we found ourselves running about getting all the basics done before dropping Henry at the campsite and dashing back to the lodge for our 3pm river cruise.

But the rush was worth it

Chobe River is not just breath-takingly beautiful

But it is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes

Elephants graze here – far less scarey from a boat than at close-quarters on land!

Buffalo too

Plenty of basking crocodiles

And of course, the ever present Hippo

We got very close to the Hippo and took full advantage of being able to watch them going about their daily business

Splashing their tails to show who´s boss

We got so close we could clearly see the scars on the big males from fighting over the females

And these yawns are actually shows of dominance intended to scare us away

This one looked very pleased with himself afterwards…

Whereas this one just looked a bit grumpy

Even the babies got some practice in!

As the boat drifted along the river we passed more elephants along the banks

And saw with startling clarity just how busy Chobe can get – no wonder the elephants get a bit grumpy every now and then

But the world continued to drift by, broadly unconcerned by the human presence

Until the sun sank below the horizon

And it was time to go home

Back at the Lodge we spent a last few minutes looking out over the river, soaking in the majesty of the natural world

And the luxury of the human one!

That evening I went for a shower at the ablutions block which was a long walk away through a maze of tightly packed pitches. I took a walkie-talkie with me so I could call James for help if I got lost trying to get back. I dropped the walkie and broke it and of course got completely lost in the maze – sometimes I am a bit of a liability!

But all in all it was a complete change of pace and scenery which we both very much appreciated.

The next morning we headed off on a long drive winding our way around the meandering trails following the path of the river through the National Park. This part of the Park is renowned for being choc-a-bloc with elephants who have a tendency to block the way of unsuspecting tourists, surrounding vehicles and stopping them in their tracks for long periods of time. But we were relieved to find far fewer around here this time and our drive was very much more relaxing for it.

The remnants of the wet season, now many weeks passed, still left some trails under water making for some interesting crossings

We had only just started off when two guide vehicles stopped in front of us. They were looking into the bushes with binoculars. We strained our eyes to see what they had found then suddenly a spotted paw appeared out of the trees followed by the rest of the beautiful cat. Our Botswanan Leopard sat and posed for his photos for a few minutes

Before striding out across the road and disappearing into the bushes

What a great start to the day!

We carried on along the river banks slowly winding our way west. After about half an hour our way was blocked by a troupe of Baboon playing on the shore

A youngster suddenly appeared hanging from the branches above us, silhouetted against the sun

She dropped down and sat by us happily playing in the sand by my window

But she got got a bit too close and an adult dashed up to bring her back to safety

A mum was holding tightly onto her new born baby, watched over by the males

She kept checking the baby over and giving him a good clean – the way she cared for him was so human it made me smile

She couldn´t hide how she felt!

Then, just as we were relaxing into the scenery and enjoying the lovely views, we saw a guide vehicle slowly coming towards us in the distance surrounded by what looked like about 12 large impala. Except they weren´t walking like impala, they had a definite swagger that looked familiar.

We stopped and peered at the group for a moment. I lifted my hand and pointed uncertainly. ´Is that…..??´ I stopped, surely not, there were far too many of them. But our eyes were not deceiving us. Slowly but surely a pride of 12 lions were walking along the river front straight towards us

We switched off the engine, wound our windows all the way down and sat there, watching and waiting

With the confidence that only comes with animals who know they are at the top of the food chain and who fear very little – especially such a large pride of healthy, well fed and clearly successful lions – one by one these magnificent creatures walked right up to us, striding past without so much as a glance in our direction.

Two adult females

Then another

A group of young females

And a young male

They just kept coming, a long line of beautiful cats making their way from a night of hunting to a soft and hidden bed under the trees for a good day´s sleep

When the last one had past we switched the engine back on and followed the trail in the direction they were heading. We watched them as they crossed the plains away from the river and disappeared into the bushes.

It was only 9am but our day was complete – how could we beat that??

We spent the rest of the day meandering along the river front.

Our way occasionally blocked by water

But with so much wildlife around it didn´t really matter which way we went

At one point we decided to head inland for a while to see what else was around – there are rare Sable here but only in the forest areas. We quickly found ourselves on yet another barely-used and overgrown trail so headed back to the river keen to stay out of trouble this time!

Eventually we reached the end of the Park and passed through the gate back onto the tar road. It was only half an hour´s drive to our next camp site – a place we had stayed at last time we were here but not particularly enjoyed. We called it the ´Fish Bowl Campsite´ as the camping was on the grass lawn in the middle of all the chalets with no privacy at all.

But when we arrived this time we were greeted warmly by the manager and owners and appreciated the lovely setting with the restaurant area over-looking the plains

There was also remarkably fast wi-fi which helped get a few bits of year-end admin done and also allowed us to start the exciting task of applying for our Angola visas. The lovely owner helpfully scanned in a few of our documents so we could upload them to the electronic application web-site and I spent hours trying to format them to the very detailed and onerous specifications required by the Angolan government.

That evening James didn´t feel like eating much but I was treated to a wonderful supper of beef stir fry courtesy of the management team and we spent hours chatting to the two owners about anything and everything. They even introduced us to another British guest who was in Botswana studying the animals in Chobe for her PhD in parasites. It was a fascinating day.

We were sorry to be leaving the next day but were heading to a nearby lodge which had been one of our favourites last time. It was deeper in the bush, far away from the main road and with a beautiful waterhole which the restaurant area over-looked

Although, even as the sun started to set, the animals seemed to have found somewhere else to drink that evening

We had no interest in staying at the lodge itself preferring, as always, to camp on their adjacent campsite

Surrounded by Babobab trees

And watching out for the locals crossing the road in front of us

But we made full use of their facilities to have a nice lunch and a delicious dinner watching the sun go down over the horizon

Despite the high cost of this place, there was no working wi-fi and whilst the welcome we received was friendly and professional it lacked the personal touch from the previous place. So we headed off the next day back to the ´Fishbowl´ where we were welcomed back with open arms and put our feet up to relax for our final day in Botswana.

We had reached the end of our Botswana adventure. After a shakey start we had had a great time in this country, although there had definitely been something missing. Only in hindsight can I put my finger on it. We had been to both Namibia and Botswana before and it felt a bit as though we were simply going over old ground. Namibia is a special country that we hope to make our home at some point in the future and it also has a huge variety of things to do and see, most of which we had not experienced on our previous trips there – so it held a fascination and excitement all of its own.

Botswana is very different. It is a lovely country to visit but it is not somewhere we could consider living – there is not enough infrastructure or really any major towns to be able to source the necessities of life and make for a comfortable home. It is also all about one thing – animals. Try as I might, I never found anything to do or see in all my research on the country that was not connected with animal spotting – national parks and private game reserves were all anyone could suggest to do here. We had done all the main areas before and were simply re-tracing our footsteps and, moreover, less successfully than last time as it was the wrong time of year. The right time for green grass, thick bush and water which is all beautiful, but you need more than that to maintain an adventure.

So after two months here we felt satisfied that we had done Botswana justice and were pleased with our wild and up-close animal experiences – there are few other places in the world where you can sleep surrounded by elephants, hippos, hyaena and lion wandering straight past your tent.

But we were pleased to be moving on to new things. Angola was calling, a new country to both of us and finally breaking new ground for the first time in a number of months.

But before we could get to Angola there was a strip of land in the way. Botswana does not border Angola, there is a long, narrow finger of another country jutting out between the two which we had to cross. We weren´t too upset about this, in fact we had smiles on our faces as we crossed the border out of Botswana and into the Caprivi Strip, the most northern slice of…you guessed it….Namibia….