Totally Terrific Travels: Chobe - Game Drive and Boat Ride

Chobe National Park promised to be different than our other two destinations, and we weren't disappointed. We were told that over 60,000 elephants inhabit the park. Plus, the only watering hole is the Chobe river that borders the park, so if you're looking for animals going to the river is a great strategy.

We started yet another 6 AM game drive, and fortunately it wasn't nearly as cold as Entanebi or Simbavati. Since Chobe is a big and famous park, and the rules dictate that all vehicles must stick to the road, we started out in a train of about seven Land Rovers. Immediately, we saw a pride of three lionesses in hunting formation - all even evenly spaced, going at the same pace. We saw more hippos, tons of impala, lots of elephants, warthogs, baboons, and even a female leopard. Our guide told us that the afternoon drive would be even better, since the weather had been cold, and today was forecast to be 80 degrees.

Female Leopard

Our afternoon plans didn't include a game drive, but instead - a boat ride! Our crew of 25 boarded our own river boat, and we proceeded to cruise down the Chobe river. This was the best game sighting experience we've had on the entire trip. There's an island in the middle of the river, and it had tons of crocs, elephants, hippos and other game. Our boat drove right up to a variety of pockets of animals. The elephants were playing in the mud, eating grass and spraying mud on themselves. The crocodiles were everywhere, lounging on the banks, and some posed for us with their mouths open and their sharp teeth showing, The hippos were in a variety of poses, some grazing on the grass, and some wallowing in the mud in groups of nine or ten, and occasionally the pod leader would open his mouth wide for us as well. We had lots of great photo opportunities.

Posing Croc

Grazing Hippos

This hippo looks like he's about to eat a bird

The highlight of the ride was watching a herd of about 50 elephants swim across the river to get to the grazing island. The dominant female elephant went first, and the other elephants followed behind - even the babies. In about three minutes, the entire herd had crossed to the other side. It was incredibly beautiful - so mush so that one mom in our group was crying. It was a sight none of us will ever forget.