Safari in Botswana is quite tiring with thw early starts at our Chobe lodge. The way things are run in these parts is that everyone wants to be at the gates of the national park at sunrise. We counted seventeen other safari vehicles as we went in. There is also a lodge inside the park called the Chobe Game Lodge that was made famous when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton honeymooned here. Additionally, they only employ female safari guides, which is quite a rarity. We started our morning drive looking for cats, but only came across elephants and birds.
Eventuallly, we made our way back to the river and discovered a pride of lions resting on the sand. We stayed with them for about half an hour as they all eventually woke up and wandered off to their next location.
After we left the lions, the part didn’t fail to disappoint as we saw some more animals. Chobe is well-known for it’s large population of elephants, but it is also recognised for it’s diversity of wildlife. The park covers over 11,000 square kilometres in the northern corner of Botswana.
Following lunch we took a boat ride up the Chobe River to the Kazungula Bridge which is a bridge over the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Botswana. The 923 metre links Zambia directly with Botswana. Before the bridge was opened in May 2021, direct traffic between the two countries was possible only by an old pontoon ferry. The bridge takes advantage of the short 135-metre border the two countries share at the river, and is curved to avoid the nearby borders of Zimbabwe and Namibia. The bridge construction, which took 7 years to complete, was overseen by the South Korean construction firm Daewoo E&C.
Then it was time to return to the national park. We were lucky this afternoon because our guide had picked up on the trail of a leopard resting under the trees. We had been hoping to see another one since our distant sighting at Etosha.
We finished a wonderful day of safari action watching the elephants walk back to the mainland from their afternoon cooling off in the river while we had our sundowner drinks and another african sunset.
Until tomorrow….
Leave a Reply