A birthday in africa

Trip Start Sep 04, 2008
1
16
18
Trip End Oct 13, 2008


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Flag of Botswana  ,
Friday, October 3, 2008

The Elephant Back Safari was great. We were on the Elephants for about an hour. Anthony had a very tempremental elephant that kept wanting to go off and have a tree or two to eat, so his ride wasn't that comfortable. My elephant was quite good, she had her baby elephant walking behind her the whole time. After our ride we were able to feed them by hand which was certaininly the highlight of the experience.

We were having a bit of a rest in our room after the elephants and was rudely interrupted by a monkey IN OUR ROOM. he came in through the roof and proceeded to run up and down the walls. it was quite an amusing act by us to find shoes, clothes and the room key to get out of there without the monkey seeing us! After we got out, he ran out the window aswell. Of course there is a lot lost in writing it down, the story is much better told over a drink.

In the afternoon we were at a loss of what to do in Vic Falls so we booked ourselves on a water safari. it started with us zooming across the river to see 4 elephants swimming across. It was amazing - until our driver (who was called Professor) grounded our boat in the middle of the Zambezi! While we were attempting to take photos the driver kept trying to get us off the rocks, another boat came to our rescue and we were free to head off on our safari. We saw a few hippos and many more elephants feeding in the water (which was new for us). On our way back after sunset we came across a herd of 14 adult and 7 baby elephants all crossing the water.

The following day we left our overland truck and joined acacia small groups to head to the Okavango Delta. Our first day was long and hot (45degrees - again). We spent the majority driving and crossing the border from Zambia into Botswana. That night we had a river cruise on the Chobe River. We saw hundreds of elephants all coming to the water's edge to drink in the evening. Heaps of hippos and Anthony finally got his yawning shot. AFter our cruise our old overland truck cooked both groups a dinner for an early birthday treat for ANthony. It was a feast.(The two groups were driving the same path for the first 2 days.)

Oct 3, Anthony gets a game drive for his birthday in Chobe National Park. Yet again we saw a heap of elephants up close, all waking up for breakfast with their young. It was also a morning of death, we saw three carcasses, one which was being eaten by vultures, so it would have been a kill from early morning, perhaps a lion's breakfast.
 
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