August 21st - Day 18

We were able to make a late departure from the Royal Livingstone Hotel as we only had 100 kms to drive to the Chobe Game Lodge, just across the border in Botswana.

Breakfast on the terrace at The Royal Livingstone Hotel, with Chris Matthews in the foreground

There were now three Toyota Landcruisers going 'off piste'. Stuart and Sherrie Jamieson from San Diego, John and Elaine Chambers from England and ourselves. The return journey to the ferry and the crossing back into Botswana was comparatively uneventful.

On the ferry back across the Zambezi to Botswana

We all needed fuel, which is 30% cheaper in Botswana than Zambia so we stopped at the first garage after the border to fill up. As we were getting our fuel there was a power cut and all the pumps stopped! Luckily for us the next garage had a generator that could operate one pump at a time, which made for a very slow fill-up.

The drive to the lodge took us a short way into the wilderness of the Chobe National Park. One of the great wildlife parks in the world. It has an estimated population of nearly 100,000 elephants. The lodge was on the southern bank of the Chobe river which is the border with Namibia.

Waiting to take the boat for our Chobe river safari

 

The river is a natural attraction for all sorts of animals and on a two hour boat ride we saw large herds of elephants coming down to the river to drink.

Elephants on the bank of the Chobe River

They were joined by a herd of impalas. Baboons, hippos, crocodiles and a many birds, including fish eagles all use the river.

Fish eagle

Five metres long crocodile basking in the evening sun

It is a truly magical place, especially as the sun set on our way back to the lodge.  At supper we discussed our options for the next day's route. The two alternatives were to drive 650 kms south to Maun, and meet up with the rest of the group or head west into Namibia and drive through an area called the Caprivi Strip. This is a rectangular part of Namibia that extends between Angola to the north and Botswana to the south. Taking this route, and joining the tour a day later, meant we would save about 800 kms and also visit an area of Namibia that is very rarely seen by visitors because of its remoteness. The Caprivi Strip is also an area renowned for its wildlife. A few phonecalls and we booked ourselves into a lodge in a small town called Rundu, some 600 kms west of Chobe.

The adventure continues!