A Southern African Tour - Part II

Welcome to Chobe National Park, Kasane, Botswana. This place is teeming with wildlife!

Throughout the trip we had been promised hippo, rhino, elephant, giraffe etc etc and hadn't seen so much up until this point. I think the guides were a little nervous that the group felt we hadn't seen enough, especially as we had seen no hippo in the Okavango Delta. 

"I found in one of the tombs an inscription saying, 'If you touch my tomb, you will be eaten by a crocodile and hippopotamus.' It doesn't mean the hippo will eat you, it means the person really wanted his tomb to be protected. " - Zahi Hawass 

But what can you do?! wild animals are wild and where they are one day isn't always where they will be the next, they are unpredictable and don't perform, you are always lucky to see whatever it is you see. All that said we had been promised Chobe was the place to see everything and I have to say, we were not disappointed!

We saw some baby elephants...

"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is 'elephant'. " - Charlie Chaplin 

...some angry mama elephants, warning us they were protecting their babies...

"Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole." - Samuel Richardson 

...more babies and youngsters...

...and a young bull showing us he could handle himself and he could protect his herd.

Abbey Road?!?

Some tiny baby baboons.

We got to camp in time for a wonderful sunset, a photography class was going on in the background and I was desperately trying to pick up some tips, after chatting to the teacher he took a look and said my pics weren't bad?! nice :0) 

If you look carefully can you see the ellies on the bank?

Sunrise in Chobe...

fish eagle

stunning cape buffalo

views in Chobe

family of giraffe

Whilst in Chobe we saw 2 very rare sights - one the president of Botswana and the president of SA in convoy and the other, rarer and (in my opinion) more impressive sight - a wild leopard! We actually saw two wild leopards, one as he ran into a bush and then through the veldt and another - below, utterly gorgeous and very relaxed for being out in the open, especially seeing as there were 10 game viewers parked about 10 meters away.

The pictures speak for themselves and anyone who knows anything about leopards knows how special an experience this was.

"I have seen, tasted and touched many places. This has made me realize, how small, how connected, how wonderful the earth is " - Anton Verwey

Following the morning game drive we headed back to camp, had lunch and a relax and headed out on the afternoon boat cruise, now to see the animals by river...

Firstly, after moaning at our guides for several days that we hadn't seen a hippo close up, we ended up with our own resident hippo who was living in the shallows next to the camp site...

Just as we got out on the river we spotted this croc on the banks

And saw some glorious sights of elephants bathing and playing in the water.

"The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?" - David Attenborough 

Here comes the hippo mama and baba, she was such a big girl her belly was almost touching the floor!

A few more ellies for you....

Matriarch mud bathing

Teeny ellie - a couple of months old

Big ellie

Come on guys this way!

Night night ellies!

Hippo hiding in the shallows

Crocodile very close to the boat

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Winston Churchill  

In the middle of the Chobe river there is an island - between Botswana and Namibia. The island was fought over for years and finally it was decided to measure the depth of the river on either side- from this it was decided the island belonged to Botswana- but lets just say the flag is very close to the Botswanan side!

One of the 'ugly five' - marabou stork

"I'll bet your father spent the first year of your life throwing rocks at the stork" - Irving Brecher

Giraffe aren't built for drinking!

Night night Chobe river!

Now we cross over to Zambia for "A Southern African Tour - Part III"to see Vic Falls, the lions and rhino! In the middle of river we crossed  you can see Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends upon them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in different situations. At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive.” - Paul Coehlo