Chobe National Park - Botswana

Bring-g-g-ng-ng. Bring-g-g-ng-ng. The alarm sounded bright and early this morning, at a safari rest camp in Kasane area of Botswana, just outside the Chobe National Park. Bright & early, actually, might be a bit of a mis-statement. Early, yes. But at 4:40 AM, it’s still plenty dark.

None of that matters, though, as I get myself up and ready for the day. The early hours are nothing in the face of the anticipation I feel for my very first game drive. After camp breakfast in the dark, an open Jeep picks up a group of us at the rest camp, and we head in to the National Park. It’s a busy day, with dozens of Jeeps filled just like ours, waiting to get in. Luckily, our guide quickly takes a turn on to a side road, and the adventure begins.

The sun is slowly rising as we see our first special sight: a craggy tree, filled with White-Backed vultures. On a small log below, we see a Magpie Shrike, and within just a short while, we a large group of Guinea Fowl. As we continue along the track, we start to see more Jeeps… but also, more wildlife. We arrive at the banks of the Chobe River, and immediately spot hippos in the distance. In fact, the more we look, the more we see! In addition to the hippos, there are water buffalo, maribu storks, and impalas. The river lives up to its reputation in terms of diversity of wildlife. Eventually, we turn away from the river, and see what else the park has in store.

(Note: I’d have loved to include more pictures in this post, but I’m lucky to have wifi at all, & I have to take what I can get in terms of photo upolading. For some reason, the wifi I’ve run in to here likes single photo uploads, but not galleries. So… enjoy the limited selection.)

A hippo in the sunrise, with more hippos and a guinea fowl in the background.

As the morning goes on, I hear some people remarking that it’s a bit “slow” this morning. That may be true in terms of big animals, but the “slow” certainly does not apply to baboons, monkeys, and impala! In fact, we pass hundreds of impalas – some males, with their gorgeous, curved horns, and many females. At a quick stop for a cup of tea, we see even more vervet monkeys – quick and curious, they are a delight to watch.

As we head back towards the entrance of the park, our guide decides to take us on an unorthodox route: up to the main, public road that runs through the park. This is the road that runs through to Namibia, and as such is a thoroughfare for trucks and tour buses (although those not on an official safari with paid park fees are not allowed to stop for viewing). We wondered: why are we here? We have an off-road vehicle! Our guide assured us that sometimes animals like elephants prefer this higher ground, in the cooler season. It did not take long for that prediction to come true!

Within just a few minutes, we spotted several kudu. Just a moment later, a beautiful water buffalo, right near the road.

And a few minutes after that – ta-da – a mother elephant and her baby, right there on the side of this major road! Of course, we oooh-ed and aaah-ed, took photos, and just stared in pure awe, for as long as we could. The elephants walked slowly down the road, paying us very little mind, just as we’d like it. Unfortunately, time was ticking, and all too soon we needed to depart and head back to the rest camp. But this was only part one of the day…

Back at camp, we enjoyed a nice camp lunch and some free time, before heading back out in to the park. This time though, we weren’t in an open Jeep. We weren’t in a car at all! Oh no, this time, we were in a boat.

We met our captain and guide and pushed off from the shores of the Chobe River, thinking we might sail a while in to the park before any sightings. How wrong we were. Within a minute, our guide spotted two male crocodiles on the shore, and we got an up close look at their open mouths (they lack sweat glands, and so have to keep their mouths open to release heat, similar to how dogs need to pant).

From that point on, we were off to the races. Within the next five minutes, we saw our next stop: two elephants, wading across the river and in to a marshy area. Surrounding the elephants were lots of hippos bathing in the mud and munching on the river grass, as well as several species of bird, and some beautiful floating flowers.

It didn’t stop there – we saw more beautiful birds (yellow-billed storks, yellow-billed egrets, ibises, and jacana just to name a few) as well as a new mammal for the day: the water buck, an antelope that can swim!

As we were rounding out the day, we came across what might have been my favorite moment of the day (and that is saying something!) – a large pile of hippos, relaxing in the water, all on top of one another. With an occasional grunt, and once in a while huff, these totally captured my attention.

The afternoon eventually wound down with a beautiful sunset over the river, and a safe drive home to camp. Today was my first full day in Botswana, and I have to say – it lives up to the hype, and more.

Chobe National Park - Botswana

Northeast Greenland