Well, we knew the drill and asked for a breakfast pack as we were getting picked up at seven in the morning. Patti was especially touched by the welcome and kindness shown by a security guard at our report. His name was "Gift" and indeed he was a gift to all of the guests as we went off on our adventures. There were so many logistics that happened in the course of this day. The first included driving around to several hotels to pick people up.We loaded into another larger bus and headed off 80 km down the road to the border of Botswana.
At the border, we were off the bus, checked passports, sanitized our shoes and hands, interviewed by immigration people assuring them we were there for a one day day trip. And then we were split up into two pick up trucks (similar to what we rode in at Kruger National Park), and headed off to see the animals.
We had to go a ways into the country before we got to the edge of Chobe National Park. There we all got out and our guide checked our group in. This stage just had so many checking in checking out kind of times. We are used to being able to cross the whole United States without having much of this kind of bureaucracy. But, today we were in indeed headed off to another country.
Chobe National Park looked quite a bit like Kruger. The first half hour produced no animals, but a lot of really bumpy dirt roads. This was a little disappointing, having heard that they had an amazing amount of animals in this park. But, soon the animals started showing up.
During the course of the day we saw giraffes, lots of warthog, Impala’s, Cape Buffalo, many different kinds of birds, hippos, and lots and lots of elephants. We also saw a pride of lions.
We were so glad to have one more day just to soak in the beauty of these amazing wild animals. There were so many wonderful photos and opportunities. We can never share all of them here, but rest assured it was such a blessing to be seeing so many wonderful animals.
Eventually, it was clear we were running late for lunch and had to leave the park and go to a resort where we had OK buffet lunch. The highlight there was an enormous, ancient baobab tree in the middle. We loved seeing that. After we finally all finished for lunch. We hopped back in our trucks and went a little ways down the road to where we would catch a boat to take us by water on the Chobe River to see the places that the animals visited this wide wide, river. Some more logistical trouble that there had been confusion about the size boat we needed and the one that was available had space for only 17 passengers while they were 18 of us. Law did not allow us to have more passengers than their receipts so they had to split the group up and a third eventually went on another smaller boat.
The time by boat was really sweet. It was where we were able to get very close to crocodiles as well as watch a pod of hippos, underwater and coming out of the water, including a baby hippo. There is an island that is in the middle of the Chobe River between Namibia and Botswana. We got to see how many animals would swim over and graze on that land, which was partly covered with water at this time of high water. It was really interesting place to be.
We also made an unscheduled an illegal stop on the beach at Namibia for about two minutes where anyone who wanted to could hop out and declare they had now been to Namibia. People were uncertain if they should do that, but Patti led the charge. Why not, here we are. We both thought we have never entered a country illegally before. In these crazy times that takes on a little bit deeper meaning.
Finally, it was time to head back, but about 10 minutes out the motor of our boat quit working. We were stranded. Our guide called one of his fellow guides from his company for help, but she was already on another errand going to the border. So, he had to wave over and ask a guide on another boat for some assistance. The two of them got the motor started, but it immediately quit. The other boat pilot offered to tie up the two boats and get us into shore. His kindness was really appreciated.
Patti was reminded of the old TV show Gilligans Island where they were going on a three hour tour and ended up stranded for many years on a deserted island.
Luckily, we were not stranded and got in pretty quickly. Then, we all piled on our trucks got back to the border where we went through all the bureaucracy again.
One of the interesting people that we met on that day was a woman from Hawaii, Cynthia, who is traveling for a little bit before she was headed off to a wonderful experience working with a traditional music teacher in the villages. We adopted her and helped support her as she had some things that were very confusing about her visa.
But eventually, everybody was through. We hopped on the bus and drove about an hour back to Victoria Falls. We both agreed we would not try to do any packing in the night because we didn’t have to leave in the morning until a little after 11. Another amazing day in South Africa.
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