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.
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].
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.
On our second night we were honoured to have a large herd of elephants join us whilst we enjoyed a mock-tail and a glass of wine on the terrace. And the cuteness award goes to the baby elephants playing around when walking along side their mum.
Local residents at the lodge include a mum and baby Impala (some photos taken with my phone so rather grainy), some skittish blue birds (I think my blogging friend Mavis might know their name)…
And a lovely family of warthogs…now some people say these animals are not very pretty and that just might be the case but I think they are sweet and their babies are particularly cute…
The food was very good and there were lots of places to sit and read a book or just enjoy the scenery.
And every day at 1pm the lodge has a feeding program for the Vultures and a couple of rather large cranes. There are tens and tens of these rather unusual looking birds and they are fed large hunks of raw meat; some still on the bone and at night the Hyenas come out to finish off the bones – nothing left!
So my impression so far of Zimbabwe is pretty good and I still have a river cruise and animal safari to write about.