Blogs from Chobe National Park, North-West, Botswana, Africa

Breakfast with a view this morning - of the sunrise!! Am a little bit over these early mornings ?. Left the hotel at 7am for about an hours drive to the Zimbabwe border. Everybody off the bus, through passport control (a little faster than the airport), then back on the bus, drive a little way, everybody off the bus again, through passport control to enter Botswana, then back on the bus headed for Chobe Marina Lodge where we transferred to 4WD vehicles for a morning game drive through Chobe National Park. We were not too hopeful of seeing many animals, it was very windy today and apparently that makes them stay sheltered. But did come across a few. Firstly a herd of female kudu, who decided to cross the road in front of the jeep. Lots ... read more

We did get a shadowy glimpse at dusk yesterday of a lioness and then she was gone. No photo and no video. We just have to do the morning drive this morning and then this afternoon if we are unlucky this morning. So here it is again,5.15am and we get ourselves dressed for the wind chill factor that you can’t avoid in the open sided Toyota land cruiser whistling along at 40kph towards the park entrance. This morning our guide is Odey and in the front passenger seat is a young woman from the capital Gaborone who is studying tourism hospitality. Our fellow passengers are a couple of Aussies from Wollongong who we met yesterday and found them to be enjoyable company. Sometimes one of the things you miss when there is just the two of ... read more

Nous sommes en Afrique! Je n’ai pas vraiment le temps d’y aller avec de longs exposés, mais je vais faire un bref résumé de ce que nous faisons avec quelques photos pour ceux que ça intéresse. Nous avons quitté mercredi en fin de journée. Trente-cinq heures de voyagement, donc 25 heures d’avion et deux escales (Doha et Johannesburg). À Doha, nous avions neuf heures d’escale donc nous avons quitté l’aéroport pour aller dormir quelques heures. Doha était un four avec une température de 43 degrés Celsius, sans l’humidité. Le projet d’aller se promener à pied dans la ville a donc rapidement été abandonné. J’ai dû dormir 15 minutes sur 25 heures. D’une part pour ne pas rater la distribution d’un sac de croustilles et d’un verre de jus d’orange (on prend ce qui passe en classe ... read more

Geo: -18.5421, 24.5105 Since first reading Alexander McCall Smith's books on the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series years ago, I have wanted to come to Botswana. What a stunning country it is! We arrived yesterday, a group of twelve of us travelling on OAT's Ultimate Africa trip. The Baobab Lodge is our home for three nights; this is a beautiful, remote camp in the wilds of Botswana, in my opinion much too elegant to be called a camp. Our tour guide is Sku, a very handsome, delightful and enormously knowledgeable guide. We are lucky to have him as our leader on this trip through these African countries. When I woke up this morning the almost full moon was pouring its light through my big front window. I just stood there looking out, watching this beauty ... read more

. Going down to breakfast we watched the red wing starlings and spur winged geese. In the dining room there was humour in watching the staff continually chasing out the velvet monkeys. We ate a hearty breakfast and then we loaded up into the vans ready for our day trip to Botswana. . The road was long but not winding and the warthogs were out in force. We almost had a collision with a yellow billed hornbill. At last we saw the lime-vested border police. . We had learned that Botswana gained independence in 1966 but the old colonial bureaucracy was still extant. We lined up to walk through the hut which passed as the immigration office. The staff were incredibly friendly. Once we had cleared immigration we noticed that on the road leading from Botswana ... read more