Chobe River Cruise

 Breakfast circle before setting off.

 Elephant crossing.

Eland crossing the road.

 Banded mongoose.

 Watching us watching him.

More baboons.

 A spoonbill.

 An elephant cleaning and eating weeds.

An elephant conversation.

An open billed stork.

Friday, October 13^th.

Up at the crack of dawn again, pack up, eat and set off for the Chobe River. We drove for about five hours. About half way we stopped at a little pull off spot where there was a sign that warned not to wander off too far into the bush as there were animals about... and we were here for a bush pee break. We didn't lose anyone.

Shortly after we drove through a game area and came across an elephant standing right by the side of the road. Later we found a herd of eland crossing the road.

The first stop at our destination was a plaza where we had a chance to get money from the ATM and buy ourselves lunch and some snacks for the next two tours. Interesting fact: Zimbabwe does not have a usable currency and you cannot get any money out of ATM machines. They do take American dollars, Botswana pula and South African rand. So I took out more pula to last the next few days.

We arrived at the Thebe River Lodge and Campground early in the afternoon. After we set up camp I wandered around for a bit and came across a group of banded mongoose on the lawn by reception.

Then we had an hour to chill out and cool off in the pool before our late afternoon river cruise. Then it was time to load up and drive to the boat. We boarded a basic flat bed type boat with a roof and folding chairs and headed out on the Chobe River. This river is the border between Namibia and Botswana. We cruised slowly down the river and stopped for photos whenever the guide found us something. We saw cape buffalo, hippos in the water, an open billed stork, a fish eagle, elephants, red lechwe antelope, waterbuck, crocodiles and baboons. At the end we stopped and watched the sunset before heading back to the dock to reboard our truck and drive back to the camp for dinner, which was a stirfry.

Timon gave us a briefing for tomorrow's busy day and then I headed off for internet connection and blogging. I can do the blog but I can't check e-mails. In other words I can upload but not download. The computer is hanging on, barely....