Chobe Marina Lodge Kasane

... day at the pool readying for late afternoon river safari on the Chobe River which runs in to the Zambezi.

The river safari is a must experience, where you cruise amongst families of Hippos, some seemingly taking exception to our presence, ducking and diving alongside the boat, and we were thankful that we were on a large boat (about 20m x 5m , with a bar and toilets). Some people go canoeing with these animals and we had heard that in one lake ...

... was in town, but we didn’t see him so after fuelling the car we set off for the Zim-Botswana border for our trip to Kasane and Chobe National Park.

The trip to the border was pleasant, again on very good roads, with many baboon and vervet monkey sightings, and after minimal fuss at the border posts cleared customs and immigration without hassle. It only took about an hour and a half to reach Kasane , which is a Batswana town (In Botswana, the ...

... always seems to say one thing, do another or have something that is not common to occur. Prophecy fulfilled. So it’s off to another lodge, the Lesoma Valley Lodge, which is notified of our imminent arrival only an hour before. Turns out, it is a lovely place, with individual rondavel units. They are so taken by surprise of our arrival that there is no beer or wine at the bar and they certainly are not ready ...

... lunch and shopping for dinner for the day, we continued to drive. We were stopped every hour or so to take all our shoes off the truck and walk through the antiseptic for foot and mouth disease. They also got on the truck and asked us if we had any meat or dairy products. When we responded no, they gave us a guilt trip about how they are "only trying to keep their country safe." I think they knew we yelled "CHECKPOINT!" and hid all the meat and dairy products under the back seat ...

... 20 it cost us for the ferry.

On the other side of the Zambezi is Botswana and we were warned that the border officials here can be rather officious, that all the car paperwork needs to be in order and they would search the vehicle, and we needed to look smartly dressed or could be refused entry. We entered the immigration office and filled out an arrivals form, our passports were then checked and stamped (no visa fee), then onto ...

... boat ride to see the animals which are found here feeding on floodplains made by the swollen river. We saw many buffalo, elephants, hippos, crocs, birds, baboons, kudu, gazelle, It was a sunset cruise and the sunsets as always stunning red orbs sinking into the horizon.

... 8217;m now up! It’s still very windy and actually pretty cold, so I am sat in the car! Out of the window I can see six buffalo straight ahead, there are a few more to the side and I can also see zebra. There are lots and lots of birds about – the franklin have just arrived to pick up the scraps – they will start shouting soon and then everyone will be up!!

Dave and I drove to the toilets earlier as we needed water. Because we have an unreserved ...

... when he went out of sight

- 35 Baboons who were grooming, wrestling, carrying babies, digging through dung for seeds, and acting as acrobats as they jumped and pranced around our vehicle

- 2 Elephants

- 2 Kudu

- 20 Impalas

- 4 Giraffes

- 50 Buffalo in the distance

- 10 Banded ...

... wildlife at it's finest and most abundant. In my travels through Botswana I'd heard a lot about Chobe, and had chalked it up to my list of places to visit on my next tour of Africa. But when Kathy, WUSC's regional director, decided she'd drive us up to Malawi through Zambia, Chobe fit nicely as a stopover.

Arriving just before sunset, we hired a boat to take us onto the Chobe River, where within metres of the safari lodges crocodiles ...