Day 72 May 18 – Chobe, Botswana

Day 72 Monday May 18th (47 days to go) — After a good night sleep we woke up at 5am to begin our day with a game drive into the Chobe National Park. We start the morning with coffee before heading out. Because our lodge is the only one inside the national park we have a 30–45-minute head start before the other jeeps enter the park. The jeeps communicate with one another to point out where animals are located and there were times when up to 10 jeeps were in one area. This was somewhat disappointing although we had equal opportunities to see the animals.

After the game drive, we return to the lodge for breakfast at 9am with a mid-morning boat cruise scheduled for 11am. This river cruise lasts 2 hours and we return for lunch. There is a 3pm afternoon tea and coffee with pastries. Then, there is another game drive that starts at 3:30pm and we returned to the lodge at 6:30pm for dinner. After this long day everyone is off to bed for rest before the next morning activities.

The schedule is nonstop, but for only 2 days it was worth pushing forward to experience as much as we could. After the Currents copies, I posted photos and videos for the day’s activities. In an effort to get the blog out today, I will post animals in groups and identify when we saw the animals during the day. This will be on the morning or afternoon game drives or the mid-day river cruise.

My last time here I saw three giraffes and all three were some distance away. On this trip, there were at least thirty giraffes and on a couple of occasions we would drive up to 5-6 in one place.

This giraffe was drinking at the river during the river cruise.

A few giraffes we captured in the afternoon right at sunset. I like these photos.

This giraffe was killed in a fight with another male giraffe

We tracked this pride of lions a couple of times during the day. This is late in the afternoon, and they are just laid out by the river. Later in this set of photos, you will see why they are hanging around here as they have their eyes on a mother hippo and baby hippo. They know the hippos eat at night and they are waiting for the hippos to come out the water. The mother hippo saw the lions and waited them out as the lions grew restless and left the area.

In the background is the mother and baby hippo

We were about 30 feet from the lions

They grew tired of waiting and decided to leave the area

This was our first sighting of the lion pride as they were tracking water buffalo

The lion sees one that he thinks might be behind the rest of them, but the lion decides not to attack

The herd the lions were following

This was an awesome moment as both animals came around the bushes at the same time and had a stare down

Later in the day we caught up with the herd and they were still be tracked by the lions

An exciting video as the chase is on and the buffalo form a circle causing the lions to back off

Baboons strolling by as we are driving on the road looking for elephants

Impalas were quite numerous in the national park making for a lean meal if caught by a lion

Elephant in the river cooling off along with the hippos

Large ant pile

Mongoose

The crocodiles were sunning themselves and we saw a few large ones

The kudu is a large African antelope known for its striking spiral horns, vertical white stripes, and elusive woodland behavior.

Jackal

We ran across elephants throughout the day as the number in the Chobe National Park is above 30,000. Some of the elephants were eating as we were parked less than 10 feet away

The sun was going down, and it was time to head back to the game lodge. On the way back we had fun as the guide spotted a leopard. We tracked it for a few minutes, but it was running so fast it was impossible to photo or film it. Actually, it moved so quickly the two times we saw it, Jackie missed it both times.

Heading back with Dave and Marta in the middle seat along with Kevin and Wendy in the back seat of the Jeep.

It was a great day and we were ready for a shower or bath and some sleep.