Today we are off to Chobe National Park in Botswana.
We had a 7:00am breakfast and we are expected to have our tents and bags packed before breakfast. We woke up at 5:45am so we could hopefully shower. Luckily the water supply had replenished. After a quick breakfast of bland cereal and untoasted bread we were off to Chobe. It was a short drive from Victoria Falls but we had to cross the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. It was simple enough. However we did have to take all of our shoes off the of the truck and walk them over a disinfectant mat, which is supposed to protect from foot and mouth disease.
Shortly after, we arrived at our campsite. We quickly set up camp, made sandwiches and set off for Chobe National Park. Chobe has the highest population of elepehants. It was our first game drive so we were very excited. Immediately we saw lots of Impala (in the antelope family. They are basically the deer of Africa. They are everywhere). Then we saw tons and tons of elephants. One pack must have been 30+. We saw a few giraffes and vultures feeding on an elephant carcass. At one point we had to stop because a herd of elephants were crossing the driving path. There were two 3 week old baby elephants and the mothers grew very protective. They kept a watchful eye on us until they cleared our path.
After the game drive we met with another group and loaded up for a sunset cruise on the Chobe River. We had packed a bottle of wine in the cooler, cracked that open and enjoyed the ride. The cruise was a bit disappointing. We saw some crocodiles, hippos, and a few elephants but one of the engines kept breaking down so we didn't get to go very far out into the river. Nevertheless it was a beautiful sunset.
Back at camp we had dinner: chicken stew with rice. After a nightcap beer at the campsite bar we retreated to our tents. We were camped right along the river so there were quite a bit of bug noises and hippo grunts throughout the night. I enlisted the help of my ipod and a sleepy playlist and eventually nodded off.
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