Chobi National Park (east) – Botswana – Africa – December 2017

Tags

Africa, Animal safari, Botswana, Chobi National Park, elephants, game drive, giraffe, monkey, Ngoma Safari Lodge, Safari, zebra

A dream come true!!

After our visit to Zimbabwe and the spectacular  Victoria Falls, my friend Jenny and I made out way over the border to Botswana where we stayed at the fabulous Ngoma Safari Lodge overlooking the Chobi Plains [but more on that in another post].

We had arranged a game drive and were collected one morning where we hopped into a large open air safari vehicle with a few others.  The vehicle was not full so we were fortunate to be able to sit on a side each which afforded us each a great uninterrupted view of the plains and animals.  So I must say I was incredibly excited and could not wait to see an animal; any animal really, but in particular an elephant and if I saw one crossing the road it would be bliss…guess what I first saw…magical!Then a little way along the side of the road, our driver stopped and we saw giraffe; and plenty of them – again what an amazing sight.We drove a little further and entered the park and first up saw elephants; this time not along the roadway but eating leaves just nearby – I can’t believe I didn’t have tears as it was truly magnificent to see such a huge animal living life as it should (no cages, no real boundaries).  They were really quite close and I had to remember to look at them with my eyes rather than through a camera lens!The next animal we saw was a huge tortoise; so cute!Then some very sweet baboons with their babies…so nice to see and so many of them.And one very cute little baby playing on the branches…Along the way we saw some lovely birds; all beautiful colours but flying too fast for me to capture well but I did capture a magnificent vulture in a tree…waiting for some prey I guess..and how unusual is this tree – would hate to see it at night alone!And then zebra; boy are these a striking animal…And buffalo… We then drove down near the Zambezi River and saw a tower of giraffe (no wonder a collective is called this).And along the way there were many (many) Impala and it was so lovely to see all the babies – unfortunately these animals are the prey for the carnivorous animals – circle of life I know.  And we also saw another large horned animal that I can’t recall the name of. We stopped off near the end of our drive for a cool drink and some snacks prepared by the lodge and had the opportunity to view the sun set; magnificent!What a day – words really cannot describe how magnificent this was for me.