Going to Botswana

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM
WARNING:  There are graphic pictures of elephants

Clive came to pick us up to take us to the Zambia border where we will be handed over to anotherdriver in Botswana.  On the way, he kindly stopped at the Jewish burial ground.  Here there  many of the Jews who helped Zambia for the fight for freedom.  It is a small little plot in the  middle of nowhere.  If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't know it was there. Right now there are only about 140 Jews left in Zambia. We just stopped for a while to pay our respects and off we went.

The border was totally bonkers. They are in the middle of building a bridge to get across but right now every takes some sort of ferry - that includes these huge trucks.  The lines go on forever on both sides.  Got our passport stamped on the Zambia side and Clive took us to our private ferry.  Put on the luggage, said goodbye to Clive (although we might see him on the way home), and the nice man took us across.  When we were in the middle of the Zambezi River, we were actually bordering four countries:  Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.  When we got to the other side, the guy in the boat said that he did not have a Susan on his list.  He showed us the list and he was right.  We looked at each other.  What do we do now?  Fortunately, our driver, Kennedy - thought that was pretty funny - showed up and we got off the boat.  I was a bit worried there for a while. Went through Botswana customs and had to clean the bottom of our shoes before entering the country. Protection again contamination.

Arrived at the Chobe Safari Lodge around noon.  There are lots of activities here and it feels somewhat like camp.  The first thing we  had to do was sign up for some of our activities.  We chose the 3pm boat cruise and fishing in the morning.  Then we were shown to our room.  The room is lovely and has a great view of the Chobe River.  The lodge, however, leaves much to be desired.  There is a small pool - no towels that we could find.  The worst of it is the day visitors. Boat loads of people come in for lunch and swarm the pool and restaurant area.  I did not know about this before booking and I made it clear to the agent we were happy with the situation. 

At 3pm we were down at the dock and boarded our boat for the river cruise.  This is more of a water safari.  We was a whole herd of elephants doing a whole bunch of national geographic things. In the Galapagos we called them two story penguins.  I've never seen two story elephants. It was quite something.  Even the guides were stunned.  This doesn't happen out in the open usually. Besides the elephants we saw hippos, birds, a couple of baby crocodiles among other things.  It was very relaxing and the scenery is gorgeous.  No bumpy African massage from those jeeps.  The cruise lasted till around 6pm and it was back at the dock.

Getting ready for dinner, we discovered our neighbors out on the lawn.  Lots of warthogs and baboons have a grand ole time eating and playing and watching the sunset. As for dining, this lodge only has buffet style eating - no fish and lots of meat. There is an a la carte menu at the bar which we might try tomorrow.  Tonight we went to the sister restaurant which is across the street up the hill, they serve a la cart. The food was not very good.  Not sure what we will do tomorrow but we will figure it out. Till tomorrow.

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM
WARNING:  There are graphic pictures of elephants

Next time... Fishing the Chobe River