Chobe River Cruise – Botswana – Africa – December 2017

Tags

Africa, African bird life, Botswana, Chobe River, crocodile, elephants, hippopotamus, impala, Namibia, river cruise

My second river cruise in Africa

We arrived in Botswana after a wonderful time in Zimbabwe; seeing magnificent animals and the beautiful Victoria Falls.  In Botswana we stayed at the Ngoma Safari Lodge which had spectacular views across the Chobe Plains.On our first morning we were driven down to the Chobe River for a two hour cruise. Chobe boat cruises are a wonderful way to experience the Chobe National Park as you can see large herds of elephants on the shore and in the water where they come for a drink and a bath.  In the dry season an estimate of up to 85,000 elephants can be within Chobe National Park, where the majority can be found along the river.  I loved seeing every single one of them; beautiful animals!If you are lucky you can also see herds of elephants cross the river to or from the islands, when the tide is low; we were lucky enough to see this and what a sight.Water lillies were plentiful too…never tire of looking at them either.Common sites on the river are also hippos and crocodiles.  We saw many hippos in the water and were keeping our eyes open for one on the river bank and towards the end of the cruise we finally saw one.  Suffice to say I was very excited and took many photos..this hippo had lots of battle scars on his/her body.  Our guide said they were from crocodiles – wow!!We only saw only one crocodile who didn’t move the entire time we were photographing it…probably tired from biting hippos!!We also saw quite a few African birds on the river and some on the shore including egret, geese, storks and ducks…all lovely to see even thought many were too far away for me to get good photos [and I hadn’t worked out my new camera at that stage].We also had the opportunity to see various other wildlife along the shore; some more interesting than others.  Our guide called the Impala ‘McDonalds’ because they have three black stripes on their bottoms which look like an ‘M’ similar to the ‘M’ of McDonalds fast food restaurants, and as there were so many of them, they are like ‘fast food’ for lions and other carnivorous animals.I did like the lovely little river cottages that were available to rent; how nice would it be to wake up each morning to beautiful views of the Chobe River and its occupants!This cruise is a must if you visit Botswana!!  We started in Botswana and made our way along the river to Namibia and then back to Botswana…a great way to spend a couple of hours.