Chobe National Park

 After breakfast we disembark the Queen for the jet boats to take us back to Namibia immigration and Botswana immigration for the same process of health forms and passports before we get to land cruisers to take us to the Chobe national park for wildlife viewing.

Our walk to Namibia immigration office.  A cow greets Burt.

We have two land cruisers with people and a third vehicle to transport a lunch for us in the park. Bert and I are in the jeep with one other couple and our driver is the owner of this Safari company. Rex and his wife Batima have lived in Kasane, Botswana for a number of years.  Batima is from Germany and the two of them in addition to running the tour company also run a restaurant in Kasane. Batima grows her own organic vegetables and fruits for the restaurant and is supplying our lunch in the park today.  They have two teenage daughters that go to boarding school in South Africa. Rex is extremely informative and knows every tree plant and animal that we pass and can tell many birds by the sounds. I am amazed at the number of birds here, Most of which are very colorful. We see an amazing number of elephants on their way down to the river for a water. It is so much fun to see them/and play in the mud and water.  As large as they are they do not make a sound as they walk. There are also many youngsters.

When Rex sees some tire tracks going off the main sandy road which is illegal he figures there must be some more animals about. With some careful viewing he spotsA lion under a bush and eventually we see several of them. They are all hiding behind the brush and never come out for good pictures but we can follow and see their silhouettes.  

When we enter the Chobe park there it is thick with teak trees that are all dry and dead looking. Rex explains that they do not provide food for the elephants but the elephants rub against them for scratching and have destroyed much of the forest. The elephants prefer grasses and will travel quite a ways to get grasses inland and then out to the river for water.

In addition to the elephants there are huge herds of antelope, kudu and buffalo.  We also see some giraffes, zebras, baboons and a rare animal called a Roan. 

Impala

Giraffe with skin disease.  Birds peck and eat.

Female Kudu

Baboon

Baboon

Male Kudu with horns.

When we stop for lunch we are warned of the monkeys that suddenly are in the trees over us and waiting to grab some food from somebody not looking. The men are chasing them away with slingshots while we eat.

Rex and Batima

Velvet Monkey

After lunch we head back to Botswana immigration, Namibia immigration and at the village in Namibia while we we’re going through immigration a boat comes in with a huge carcass. It turns out a hippo got in a fight last night was badly injured. The game wardens had to shoot it and the entire village has shown up to get their portion of the meat.