Game Drive in Botswana at Chobe

From Zimbabwe we took a one day trip to to Chobe National Park in nearby Botswana for a Game Drive.  Our tour included a 3 hour morning river cruise (in a big, nice boat) on the Chobe River and a 3 hour Game Drive in a safari rig in the afternoon. Taking pictures of big game from the comfort of a nice boat with sodas and snacks was a real treat compared to a bumpy safari ride.

During our float trip, we saw tourists in canoes on the river and Gregg and the guide agreed that they looked like "hippo bait."  The guide said hippos will attack for no reason at all.  You would never ever catch us in a canoe in Africa.  We saw lots of hippos and crocodiles.

The park is probably best known for its spectacular elephant population.  It contains an estimated 150,000 elephants, perhaps the highest elephant concentration of Africa.  Elephants living here are Kalahari elephants, the largest in size of all known elephant populations.  We were lucky enough to see a tiny baby elephant, still wobbly on its legs and weak enough to need to lay down and rest often.  Our guide estimated this baby was just a couple of weeks old. 

If you are an elephant, there is probably nothing better than an afternoon swim.  Right after Gregg shot this picture, the elephant on the left fell over backward into the water making a huge splash.  They also dunk each other just for fun.  I could have watched them all afternoon.

There are no fences and the elephants migrate as far as Zimbabwe.  But they always come back to the Chobe for water. We also saw giraffe, sable, cape buffalo, greater kudu, baboons, impala and puku antelope (puku are only found here).  This picture is the majestic Greater Kudu.

Birding is also excellent here.  Our favorite was the African fish eagle.  As we came near a marshy area, hundreds of Whistling Ducks took flight.  They can really whistle!  Thank you Santa for these wonderful binoculars.  I love them.