Another day, another border crossing. This time from Zambia into Botswana on a short ferry across the Zambezi river. Wealthier than most of its neighbours due to the large diamond industry, it is a beautiful sparsely populated country. The evening we arrived, we went for a sunset cruise on the Chobe river. We saw so much wildlife and were able to get very close to them while in the boat. There was a large herd of elephants, with several small babies that were incredibly cute, and a couple playing in the water together. We also saw a large group of hippos that were clustered tightly together, sort of climbing on top of each other as if they were trying to snuggle. We were lucky enough to have one pose for pictures with its mouth gaping wide open.
I really loved the lodge we stayed in Chobe NP (Thebe River Lodge), constructed of rough wooden beams and thatched roof, it had a very African Safari feel. The rooms were spread out around a large open courtyard, and was located right on the river. We only stayed the one night before heading to Maun, our launching pad for the the Okavango Delta excursion. It was a 1.5hr drive through the bush passing some small mud and thatch villages to the delta where we met with our polers and loaded into our mokoros (small dugout canoes). We spent the next 2hrs gliding serenely through the waterways of the Okavango Delta, following hippo trails through the tall reeds and grass. By early afternoon we arrived at the bush camp, situated on a large island in the delta, and had the rest of the afternoon free to explore around on foot. There was a nice crocodile free swimming hole to cool off in before setting out on a walking safari. There wasn’t much wildlife to see, but we were lucky to get within 25m of a couple of giraffe.
On the way back to camp our guide got heat stroke and nearly fainted. He was lying in the grass shaking while we forced him to drink our water. Fortunately for both him and us, he recovered enough to walk us back to camp, as there was no way we could have found the way ourselves. The poor guy went straight to his tent and we didn’t see him again until the next morning. The evening was spent around the campfire; our polers entertaining us with African songs, and we reciprocating with classic rock and roll of which we knew only a few verses.
