Sleeping with Lions!

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On Monday we started our 3 week southern Africa overland tour and left Victoria Falls for Chobe National Park. We are now travelling via overland truck with a group of 19 - 1 other english, 3 dutch, 2 spanish, 2 american, 1 romanian and 8 australian, most of whom are around our age however the americans are in their 70s! We also have a Kenyan crew consisting of a tour leader, driver and a cook. We have a rotar system where we help out with cooking and cleaning, the food is very good!

At Chobe National Park we went on a sleep-out safari where we had an afternoon game drive followed by supper at the campsite in the middle of the bush where we slept for the night. We really were in the thick of it and were warned about what to do if we came across animals in the middle of the night (stand still and call for help!). We could hear lions roar as we sat around the campfire but fortunately they didn't come too close! Chobe is abundant with wildlife and the safari truck had to regularly pull over to let elephants pass or turn around on the spotting of a lion. We have now seen all of Africa's big five - elephant, lion, rhino, leopard and buffalo. On leaving the campsite a Black Mamba (one of the world's deadliest snakes) crossed the track in front of us, we were just thankful it hadn't found its way into our tent the previous night! Later the following day we went on a River cruise on the Chobe seeing lots of hippos and admired the sunset as the day came to a close.

Today we have had a 10hr journey (600 km) to Maun along very bumpy roads - constantly slowing down for massive pot holes! Tomorrow we head to the Okavango Delta for 2 nights. In the Delta we will be in dug of canoes called mokoros.

Hope all are well, speak soon.

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Photos

Chobe National Park, Botswana
Wart Hog very much like the Vine's Wild Boar though tastes nicer!

Vultures
Chobe National Park, Botswana

Buffalo
Chobe National Park, Botswana

Camp out in the bush
Sleeping with lions - could hear them roaring from the tent! Chobe National Park, Botswana

Monitor Lizard
Chobe river cruise

Hippos
Chobe river cruise

Fish Eagles
Chobe river cruise

Chobe river cruise
The golden hour!

Our truck lunch stop
Botswana

Comments

[Toobz]

The Big Five
I've often wondered about this list: what are the criteria exactly? I can't help feeling that the giraffe and hippo are a little hard done by here... Also, aren't buffalo the american version of bison? Sarah says the rest of the world's deadliest snakes are waiting in Australia! Seems like you've got plenty of convicts there who can confirm or deny that... Miss you both Toobz

[Si and Jess 2009 RTW adventure]

The Big Five
The Big Five are Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo. Yeah I know what you mean... giraffe and hippos are far more interesting that buffalo which are like wild cows. I think the deadliest snakes are in Oz, the Black Mamba though is the deadliest in Africa.