Water Lily Lodge Kasane

... tell which male is dominant because they are the only male that does not have poop covering its back. We also saw a lot of elephants, crocodile, baboons, and exotic birds. Then we watched an amazing sunset over the river as we headed back to camp. The river cruise got us all really excited for the rest of the safari.

That night we cooked dinner and listened to Tim tell us funny stories of his past overland trucks. We were determined to be part of one of Tim's epic stories he ...

... Lodge and from first impressions it looked very nice. The gentleman in reception was friendly and helpful and allocated us pitch number 6. We had originally thought to stay here for 4 nights but decided 2 nights would be more than enough. The campsite is on first impression very dusty but it is level and all pitches have their own ablution block with shower, wc and wash hand basin, and on the other side a washing up sink and drainer ...

... 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.

... court with the rims made from bicycle wheels nailed to upright branches.

The afternoon boat cruise was a little anticlimactic after the great sightings of the day before. Everyone was pretty tired from the Namibian village walk, but we managed to see some puku for the first time, and the best single view of giraffes and ...

... The drive to the border was on a good road pretty much empty of traffic. We stopped in the middle of the road for a few minutes to watch some red Ground Hornbills on the roadside, and there was no worry that we would be obstructing traffic. We also saw 8 giraffes along the way, poking their heads above the trees of the savanna, and it was like we were on an unscheduled game drive.

We reached the Botswana border after about an hour ...

... hand-washed clothes [I am putting it off as much as possible :)] until 3pm when we boarded on to a Fish Eagle Cruise boat for a 3 hour tour around the Chobe River to see hippos in the water and elephants on the water shores.

The cruise was beautiful! There weren't a ton of animals but we saw a huge herd of elephants. They were at the water drinking and we were able to stop the boat really close to them. I have to remind myself all the time to not spend the ...

... and birds, and we then spotted a herd of hippos in the water and were able to get relatively close to them. They are happily munching away on grass and it's amazing to see them so closely. We also then spot a herd of elephants taking a drink and there was a baby who was adorable and couldn't quite walk yet so kept falling over. He obviously also hadn't managed to master how to use his trunk yet as to drink he was just dunking his whole face in ...

... co stay apparently. Saw heaps of hippos, elephant, crocs, birds and monitor lizards. Not a place to go swimming. Cruise went for about 2 hours and were treated to a stunning sunset before getting off and heading back to camp for dinner. Rugby was on so settled into the bar which became quite full of locals. Suzy's friend Ryan turned up but I was in bed by then so didn't get to meet him.

... southern boundary to the International Court of Justice. The core of the territorial dispute concerned which channel of the Chobe River was, the bona fide international boundary. This was important, as, depending on the decision, a large island, (known as Kasikili or Seddudu by Namibia and Botswana, respectively) would fall into national territory. The Botswana government considered the island as an integral part of the Chobe National Park, whereas ...

... site at night - I think it may be the same one; it looked similar!!!!! A bit later on the thing walked towards our site and just let us know that he was boss and we were in his space by trumpeting at us and flapping his ears - time to get in the vehicle - fortunately, due to previous experiences with the Viner's, camp rules were always to keep the front seats clear for a bolt hole. At 4.30pm we went on our boat trip which wasa bit disappointing considering the cost with the only ...