Day 3 ... travelling to Botswana

September 21, 2024

What a day!!! 

Today we had a day trip to Botswana. We were being picked up at 7.00 am so we were up just after 6.00 am ... dressed and then breakfast before we waited in the hotel lobby for our driver to arrive. 

Stanford appeared just after 7.10 and we jumped into our mini bus and headed off to pick up the other 9 people in our group. We had two from the US, two from the UK, one from Portugal, a local Zimbabwean and 2 ex Brits who live in Zimbabwe and a friend visiting from London. So a varied group. Cheryl from Illinois was our oldest at 80 ... but wow she was impressive! 

Stanford drove us about 45 minutes to the Zimbabwe-Botswana border where we transmitted through (not before walking through the disinfection station) and handed us over to Cobra who was our guide for the day. We clambered up into our safari jeep and drove to the Botswana immigration centre where we again had our passports stamped and then we were ready for the day.  

We began by heading to Chobe National Park for a safari drive. Chobe was formed in 1960 and is one of the largest parks in Botswana at over 11,000 km². We entered via the Sedudu Gate (more paperwork for Cobra) and then we were off. 

The safari drive (just over 3 hours) was incredible. Cobra is clearly a guide who is held in huge regard as other drivers would wait for us to pass after pausing to photograph whatever animal we had paused to see. Like other game drives we have been on before in other countries the guides have constant radio contact with each other about where certain animals are within this massive park. 

We were super blessed today as we saw the magical animals. Botswana only has 4 of the Big 5 ... with the Rhino not found in this area. But this meant we got to see elephants (about 150), lions (5) and leopards (2). We had already seen the Water Buffalo earlier with Stanford as we drove to Botswana! 

It is incredibly rare to see lions and even rarer to see leopards. So we have been blown away. We saw the lions within the first 5 minutes of being in the park! 

Throughout our drive Cobra was constantly on his phone and radio and at one point told us all to hold on as he was going to move really fast as there was a  leopard spotted but it was some distance away. He wanted to get us to it before our drive ended .... so he floored it!  

When we arrived we found that there were two! One of the leopards was out of its tree and walked across the ground to settle beside a fallen tree. We were so close to this incredible creature that I am still pinching myself. 

Other animals we saw were ... impala (hundreds), giraffe (80), Kudu Antelope (80), Sable Antelope (15), springbok (10), Vervet Monkeys (10), Baboon (10), Mongoose (10 ... including poor Bruce who was injured), zebra (10), Guinea Fowl (hundreds  ... and they are all crazy) and a couple of warthogs (on the golf course of the resort where we stopped to have lunch). 

Lunch was a wonderful buffet at the Mowana Safari and Spa Resort. The food was plentiful and delicious. We had the chance to cool off, regroup, visit the toilet before Cobra gathered us all up again to walk us to the jetty where we were met by AK who would be our sea captain for our cruise on the Chobe River. Side note  ... after lunch I was blessed to see two glorious white butterflies flitting about in the garden surrounding a giant baobab tree ... Dad had clearly brought Mum along with him to say hello. 

Our cruise was in a small motor boat (covered from the sun). We sat at the back which meant we were able to hear all of AKs commentary as he was steering from right behind us. 

The boat ride (which was just over 2 hours) took us around the Sidudu/Kazakili Islands which sit between Botswana and Namibia in the Chobe River. The wildlife have free roam again and are protected from poachers. 

In the course of the cruise we saw ... Egyptian Geese, Nile Crocodiles, Water Monitors, Buffalo, Snake Bird, Hippos, Greater Egret, Red Bill Oxpecker, African Jacana, Greater Kudu, Impala, Guinea Fowl, Giraffe and heaps of elephants ... including one set of elephants that were down on the rivers edge and paused to have a drink right next to our boat. 

AK then headed us back to the dock where we were met by Cobra and we began our journey back to Victoria Falls. At the Immigration post in Zimbabwe we said goodbye to Cobra and rejoined Stanford. We have had an incredible experience! 

The drive back to Vic Falls was surprisingly quick. We made good progress as there was very little traffic and we didn't stop to take photos of animals along the way. We asked Stanford if he could drop us in town so we were able to have dinner at the local takeaway again (all of the friendly staff were excited to see us back).

Dinner done we walked back to our hotel just as night was falling. Back in our room it was time for a well earned shower, and to finish off the blog (I had written a fair chunk of it on the bus ride home). Then to try and select photos of our day (without driving everyone crazy!).

Tomorrow we leave Vic Falls and head back to Johannesburg. Part 1 of 4 parts almost completed.