Botswana Bound

Animals as far as you can see with lots of baby elephants.

 It was an average day getting up at 6:30 which is crazy that we all consider that normal now, even Jenna!  We packed up and headed for the border with our new crew of eight people along with all the families that did the first leg with us.  We were lucky that four of the people that were supposed to be on our tour couldn’t get through England and missed the trip.  It’s mean to say but the bus would have been packed and it’s sure nice to have a few extra seats so people can move around a bit.  So we added four young Germans who just finished Uni that are super friendly and are entertained by the kids (or vise versa).  We also have two older women from Australia and two younger sisters from New Zealand so our crew is still very diverse and seems pretty fun.

Huge crocodiles that you can get really close to, good thing for the big boat!

On our way out of Victoria Falls the bus stopped just out of town and Muma Flow jumped into the back with us.  We asked her what was going on to find out we picked up a hitch hiker!  He just happened to be in a border guard’s uniform so thanks to the quick thinking of Flow, we got a quick pass through immigration at the Zimbabwe border as he fast tracked us right through!  We headed for the Botswana part where we had to get our passports stamped and then headed over to dip our shoes as part of a quarantine measure between the two countries.  We made it across the border in no time and within 10 minutes we were in the town where we were to spend the night.  Groceries and next thing you know we were setting up tents.... the fastest travel day ever!

Hard to believe they're so dangerous.

Playing in the mud!

After lunch as bunch of people headed out for a game drive while we hung out by the pool for a while and took it easy.  At 3pm we headed out for a boat tour along the Chobe River which was completely amazing.  I have never seen so many animals out in one place as on the edges of the Chobe.  There were elephants, buffalo, hippo, crocodiles and antelope as far as you could see eating the lush grasses along the river.  There were also a pile of tour boats zipping around but the animals just seemed to ignore us and just went on their way.  There were baby elephants that ranged from having no ivory to little stubs and it was cool to watch them running around their mom playing. 

No short supply of elephants here.

Animals everywhere and birds too.

Alyssa had made some friends at the pool who happened to be on the tour so she hung out with them for much of the cruise but as the sun set we all headed to the top level of the boat to watch.  It was completely surreal to sit back and look at the scenery and wildlife.  It was like some of the crazy stuff you see on TV and would think you’d only see it in some secluded game park... not the case.  The guides knew exactly where to stop to get the classic African sunset photos as we headed back toward the dock. 

Once we were back on land, we headed back for dinner and had a really mellow evening.  It’s a 4:45 am get up with 600 km to travel to Maun where we enter the Okavango Delta!  I’ve heard incredible things about this part of the trip and given the amount of wildlife we’ve seen in Botswana already, I can only imagine what is to come!

The sunsets are absolutely stunning in Africa.