We flew from Johannesburg to Kasane, Botswana on the 14 of July and made our way for a two night stay at Chobe Marina Lodge, a four star lodge located along the banks of the Chobe River.
On the evening of our arrival the lodge featured their open air buffet bbq. There was a a good selection of food with some exotic wildebeest, fire roasted pork, sausage, chicken etc. but to be honest the food was not very exciting and the meat was tough and so-so but the ambiance was excellent.
On the morning of the 15th we were picked up by a Bushlore rep (our truck rental company) and driven half way to the Zambian border (exaggerating) to pick up our Toyota Hilux Bush Camper which we will use for the next 21 days of exploring and camping.
Once we got our shit together with the “New Version” of the truck we had 5 years previous I immediately turned the wrong way in their compound, looked forward looking for the exit, didn’t see the giant drainage gully in front of me (everyone else did!) crashed down into the pit, everyone screamed, drove out and felt very embarrassed.
Just checking the 4 wheel drive I sheepishly told the reps who came running out wondering what the hell was going on with this old man they just rented a truck to crashing around their compound. It was fun. TFB.
The lodge is very close to the border of Chobe NP so with cool drinks in the cooler and some small appies supplied by our captain NT, we hopped on board our private little pontoon boat at 3:00 pm on our second day at the lodge and headed upstream on the Chobe River into the park to explore the shore line and very large island that separates Botswana from Zambia.
There has been drought through the region for some time now so the landscape has changed for the elephants but we did still have some great elephant sightings and close up water crossings along with crocs sunning on the shoreline, Cape Buffalo hanging out on the island and Hippo being their noisy selves with the Waterbuck, Impala, African Open Bills, etc. etc. It was a great three hour tour.
Tomorrow we head to Zambia.