Day 288, Thursday 18 October 2012 – Chobe, Botswana
We had a morning game drive today so I was up and staggering blindly around at 5:10 getting organised before we all were loaded onto special game vehicles at the hotel office. Chobe National Park is eleven thousand square kilometres and is next to the Chobe River.
The game drive was interesting, our vehicle did not get to see the leopard that was seen by the other vehicle and I was in the middle which makes photography hard, but it was my turn and I am taller than the others. It was a slow start along the river bank, mostly seeing birds.
I am not sure who is being braver here, the Malibu stork or the small crocodile.
We did see lots of impala
And eventually some elephants, there are a lot of elephants in the park and a massive amount of elephant damage everywhere.
We watched this large troop of baboons for a while, there were quite a few babies around and they are very cute.
We were then taken to the site of a dead elephant – a feeding ground for dozens of vultures and Malibu storks. We were quite a long way off and it was hard for me to get decent shots from the middle of the truck, so I was a little disappointed with the results, but they have captured the moment, I love the dead tree and the final insult to the poor elephant was all the bird pooh on it.
We came across a couple of lethargic lions, they didn’t even acknowledge our presence.
Before stopping to watch a small family group of elephants playing in the bush, this baby must have been very young as it was spending quite some time trying to suckle, it was quite cool to watch.
As we left we spotted a couple of female kudu, with the dull colouring and the pale stripes they are quite hard to spot, especially against a small slope.
After the game drive we had a few hours to kill in the campsite before going on a game cruise on the river. I was on dishes and as we had a massive brunch prepared while we were out in the morning there was a load of dishes to be done, by the time that was over and I had washing on the line the afternoon was half gone. I took a quick dip in the pool and spent some time in the shade writing before heading to the bar for a cocktail before the cruise got under way at 4:00. After a bit of effort I found the lawn mower asleep under a bush.
The boat was fairly spacious, it had seats we could move around and roof access, so plenty of space to see animals and take photos. We saw a load of hippo, both in and out of the water.
A nice male elephant.
Herds of impala on the riverbank.
Crocs
A great sighting, but bad pictures of a couple of monitor lizards eating a catfish.
A cape buffalo in a bog ! loved this one – though I am yet to get a good full body buffalo shot.
On the river banks we saw the largest herd of elephants I have ever seen, I counted over thirty elephants in a couple of groups, very cool.
Our guide for the cruise spotted another, smaller herd of elephants walking on one of the many small islands in the river, they were walking towards the edge and he knew they were going to cross to the mainland. We motored upstream to get closer to watch this event, even the guide was excited, it is not something you see often – and he had his camera out too.
I loved the little trunks sticking out of the water.
It was a very cool thing to see, there were a number of crocs lurking in the water, but the herd made it through unscathed. WOW.
After that we motored back to the campsite, under a fairly cool sunset. It was a great trip, definitely another African highlight.
The evening was similar to the one before except we pooled all the remaining Botswanian currency – the pula and bought beer in the bar – again! Tomorrow is Zambia.
Apparently yes, there are too many elephants, but there is no political will to cull them at this stage. It is a very tricky situation.
Where is Phil now? 