Blogs from Chobe National Park, North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 5

Next stop another game park, Chobe. Chobe is the third largest national park in Botswana and has the highest concentration of elephants in Africa. We arrive late afternoon so only have time to set up camp and cook dinner. There is a bar at this camp and many of us are low on booze so we try it out. There is a South African freak in there, he seems to be some kind of personal trainer and has too much energy. He spends the whole evening running around and then performing dances/workouts for everyone, involving side blocks, duck and swerves and marching out, hilarious! Another early start for our game drive, this time in an open sided truck. We leave at 5:45, before sunrise and take extra clothes for the cold. The girls are completely in ... read more

There is something about the Giraffe that is a must see. When you come to Africa they are like the centrefold in a magazine. You go through the normal poses before you get to what you really want. They have the long neck, their tongue licking around their lips as they chomp on the leaves; they are wearing the giraffe pattern designer clothing. They even do a running shoot, which is in slow motion. All this is captured plus the giraffe centrefold spread with a trip to Botswana and the Chobe National Park. Chobe is in the north east of the country close to the borders of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We did an overnight trip there from Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe). Basically no matter whoever you book with (unless its with the 5 star hotel) you ... read more

Botswana - Chobe National Park Chobe National Park was Botswana’s first park. It is famous for it’s elephants - there are more than 50,000 elephants in the park, the highest concentration of elephants in Africa. I’m Not The Only One With Bad Feet It’s yet another early start for us. We are on the road by 6a.m. which means we have collapsed the camp and had breakfast by 6a.m. We have a long drive ahead and we are expecting to be stopped a number of times along the route. Most of the stops are for foot-and-mouth checks. The first stop delays us about 30 minutes. We have to get off the bus and walk through what I presume is disinfectant, we have our bags searched {for shoes, I guess} and the wheels of the bus are ... read more

Savute to Chobe RiverWe left camp early for the morning game drive (6:00 AM) and almost right away spotted two lions resting under an acacia tree. At one point along the way a huge male elephant came directly towards us where his track crossed our track. Guess who got priority for crossing! We followed a firebreak for quite a while, going over many sand ridges that changed colour from deep red to light yellow. Very pretty. Leaving the firebreak, we traveled along a horrible wash-boardy gravel road that ran through a few villages. Beside this road was another road under construction that would eventually be paved all the way to the village of Kachikau. Botswana still has lots of money from diamonds, and so is putting that to good use by building roads, schools, good health ... read more

Savute Marsh and Bushman Paintings Up and away for a morning game drive at 6:30 AM. for a complete circuit of Savute Marsh, once a wet marsh but since 1981 a dry grassy plain. We visited two man-made water ponds with water pumped from aquifers for the wildlife. At the one we visited this morning, there were two bull elephants with their trunks sucked on right where the water came out. A black-backed jackal and hyena were waiting their turn, clearly wary of the elephants. Finally the jackal inched his way down for a drink, but the hyena wouldn't brave it, and when we drove away he still hadn't had a drink. The dry marsh provided viewing of Secretary birds and Ostrich, but other than that, there was little game here. Just not enough water. Somewhat ... read more