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Published: October 24th 2009
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Final Safari Day
During the night we heard lions roaring several times. Apparently their sound carries quite some distance and it's hard to tell how far away, or how close they really are. Until morning, that is. If there are fresh tracks in or around camp, we know they were there.
As usual we were up early for a morning game drive along the Chobe River flood plain. We saw lots of cape buffalo and elephants crossing in front of us from the river to the forest, and lots of new and repeat birds. By now we are old hands at game/bird spotting and only oooh and aaah over something new we haven't seen before. The wonder of watching the animals and birds never wears off, though.
We ate our bush lunch overlooking the Chobe River. Richard and Kayla went down to the shore for some photos. Chris warned us to watch for crocodiles. Sure enough, just as we were walking back, Chris pointed to a large croc cruising in the water very near the shore where we had been walking. Word of warning: never take your safety for granted in the African bush.
Our license in the
park expired at mid-day, so after lunch we said a reluctant farewell to Chobe Park for the last time and headed to Kasane, first on a very sandy track then on the tar road (pavement). This was our first tar road since Maun. Remember the guy from North Van who we hauled out of a mud hole back in Khwai? He honked at us and we stopped to say hello and goodbye to him as he headed for Kasane. He was on an extended trip by himself, headed for Zimbabwe and finally back to South Africa before returning home.
Some of our group were more then delighted to leave bush camping behind as we arrived at the Garden Lodge in Maun. And even we had to admit it was nice to get out of the intense heat and into air conditioning for a change. After a much needed shower and time to relax a bit, we spent the late afternoon on a sunset boat ride on the Chobe River, back into Chobe Park. We circled an island that was once disputed land between Botswana and Namibia. Botswana won out and has their flag prominent on the island along with
croc, hippo, cape buffalo, impala and elephant but no humans for obvious reasons.
It was great to see all the wildlife from water level. We saw a couple of monitor lizards raiding bird nests on the river bank, harassed by several White Breasted Bee Eaters (beautiful green and yellow birds). A female croc resting on a nest of eggs. Several other crocs basking in the late-day sun. At sunset we saw five elephants crossing the Chobe at a shallow spot, witnessed by a crowd of other tourist boats.
Supper was a delicious meal back at the Garden Lodge. They provided complete mosquito netting over our comfortable beds. We were very spoiled, but missed all the African night sounds one hears when sleeping under canvas.
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Mom
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Safari goodbye
Thanks for all the prize-winning pictures. It must have been sad leaving all that excitement behind.