Chobe National Park: 21st Aug 09

Got up at 4.45 this morning. Ugg! We’d managed to sleep OK despite the noise of hippos mooing through the night. We had a light breakfast and were picked up by jeeps for our game drive at 5.45. The best time to see the animals is either sunrise or sunset, hence starting so early.

We drove around for three hours, with a tea break on the banks of the river half way through. We saw lots of baboons, water hogs, impalas and lots of birds, including the lilac breasted lolan, Botswana’s national bird. We didn’t see any of the big cats or larger animals though, which was quite disappointing. Chobe is famous for its large game. I guess we were all so spoilt in the Serengeti, seeing so many fabulous animals up close and multiple times, that we thought every game drive would be the same. Unfortunately it appears it really is a game of chance!

We had a few hours of leisure time in the middle of the day so Matt and I found a nice place to sit on the lawns on the banks of the river and read our books. I left before Matt to change clothes and after I’d gone he heard a large grunt behind him. No, it wasn’t me sneezing, it was a huge Water Hog! Matt panicked because he thought it would get him and looked a bit pale when he caught up to me! (spent a lot of time on the loo too – hmmm).

In the afternoon we went for a sunset cruise and game watch on the river. Rick smuggled on a bottle of spirits so we all got a tad tipsy (aka bladdered). We saw some hippos and elephants in the distance, but again found it a bit disappointing compared to the Serengeti. That is until we rounded a bend in the river and came across a HUGE herd of elephants, I counted 55 in total, from massive bulls to tiny babies. They were gathered on the side of the river to drink, and then started swimming across to eat the grass on the island in the middle, an amazing sight! We got to bed early, tomorrow we go to Namibia before heading back to Botswana and the Okavango Delta in a couple of days – can’t wait!