We drove through down town Livingstone and then out of the park that apparently all the land is in and then on to the open road toward Botswana. The drive from the hotel to the border took a little more than an hour. Adam had asked me to help gather the list of everyone’s names and passport numbers for the border crossing between Zambia and Botswana.
Crossing the border into Botswana. As the bus approached the border many trucks were lined up at the side of the road waiting to cross the border. They can wait up to five days to get across as there are only three ferries and no bridge and most of the time one of the ferries isn’t working. As we stopped at the border on the Zambian side I collected all the 20 passports of the group and went into the immigration office with the bus driver. We walked past all the people waiting in line and immediately got all the passport stamped. We got back in the bus and it drove us right to the edge of the Zambezi River where ten of us piled into a skiff which ferried us across the river. On the Botswana side we waited for the other group of ten. At this location in the river it is the only place in the world where four countries meet: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.
We then got into another bus from the tour company and it took us to the immigration office on the Botswana side. This time we each had to go up to the window and have our passports stamped individually. As we walked across the border were were also supposed to wipe our feet on some chemically treated towel to prevent foot and mouth disease but in reality it turned out to be just a muddy towel in a metal tray. Our driver for this part of the trip was named Blessing which I thought was great.
After the border crossing and passing the other set of trucks waiting to cross into Zambia it was immediately clear how much greater was the wealth in Botswana. The roads got instantly better, there were street lights and even the raised reflectors embedded into the road in places.
Chobe Resort and River Cruise. From there it was about a 15 minute drive to the Chobe Lodge, another amazing African resort, where we boarded a boat for our real African wildlife cruise. The 20 of us were on it with at least two other groups. As we left the dock we were immediately served coffee or tea and some great baked goods. WE first look at he left side of the river and saw a baby crocodile, an African Darter and some Mongoose. Some of the highlights of the cruise were seeing a crocodile with a huge catfish IN ITS MOUTH!
Hippos. A family of hippos which are supposedly the most dangerous and deadly of the Big 5. Some elephants off in the distance coming down to the water’s edge. We also saw Cape Buffalo, Impala, Antelope and probably over 15 different kinds of birds. The whole cruise lasted about two hours.
Back on the dock we all enjoyed another great lunch buffet with all kinds of great meat and fish under the amazing thatched canopy.
Chobe Safari with Moses. At 1:30 we split up into two groups and jumped into our safari vehicles which were amazingly reminiscent of the jeeps on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Our guide was named Moses and he was truly amazing. After leaving the hotel we stopped at the gate of the Chobe game reserve and then were off on out big game safari. To try to put this into words that captures what we saw and did would truly be impossible. It was everything I could have imagined and more. AS we entered we saw a number of giraffe off to the left but as giraffe are shy they were off quite some distance away. Soon we starting seeing elephant and before the trip was done we must have seen hundreds. Chobe has between 120,000 and 150,000 elephants which is said to be the largest concentrations of elephant in the world.
We circled back toward the river’s edge where we saw hippos, baboons, mongoose, and more elephants.
Nine Lions. Moses had told us earlier that they had spotted some lions who had made a kill in the morning and that we would try to find it. He had a radio and I’m sure they must have scouts out to determine where all the best viewing is.
This was utterly amazing. We came up on a pride of lions. There was one off to the left and then gathered around a bush with their kill were eight others. Two other vehicles were already there but Moses maneuvered us closer. At one point we must have been within 30 yards and we were able to just sit there watch and take all the photos we wanted to. Incredible. Nine lions.
Flirting with Moses. We then slowly drove away and headed to a spot by the river where we took a break and could have a drink or slither off into the buses to take care of the drink you had had earlier. I chose the latter. Zoe and Natasha had fun talking with Moses and had their picture taken with him and he told the story about when he was almost killed by a hippo when he was a tour guide on one of the smaller boats. He had gotten between a baby hippo and its mother and she had attacked the boat and almost got them all.
Lion Cubs. We left our break spot and it seemed impossible that we would see any thing that would rival what we had see to this point but we did! Off to the right in a tree we saw two baby lion cubs that the mother had placed in a tree to keep them safe. So those made a full dozen lions.
Elephant Crossing. We also came about upon about 20 elephants heading down to the river and Moses backed up the car so that they crossed in back and in front of us. At times I think they were less that 20 years away.
Elephant Morning. Up the road we also saw another group of elephant stop and pay respects at the carcass of a young elephant that had died or been killed the day before. Moses said they were morning it’s passing. Whether or not it was true, it was still quite a moving sight.
Giraffe.The only thing that we had not seen that I really hoped to see were some more giraffe up close but as were were so close to the end I did not think it would be possible but we still had to drive back through the area where we had seen them before. Me of little faith.
Did we ever see giraffe up close? We stopped probably within 50 yards of two beauties and there were at least ten others around. They are so majestic. I love watching them move.
Soon we were back at the front gate and stopped to use the restroom. I think it was about 4 p.m. The women somehow over came the lack of toilet paper in the restroom and we headed off in the open air jeep to the border crossing.
WE each had our passports individually stamped on the Botswana side then took the skiff back across to the Zambia side. I gathered all the passports and took them into to be stamped by the driver but we kept coming up one short. I finally grouped them and realized that it was Katie Reeder’s that was missing so I went back to the bus, got it, took it back to the passport office, got it stamped and we were back on the road again.
The return trip took a little over an hour and we were back by 6:15 as the sun almost had completely set. Moffat had left a message for us to gather at the business center for a time of debriefing and prayer. We lost a few of the folks including Zoe and Natasha but we had a great time of fellowship together. Moffat asked each of us how we were doing and if we better understood the mission of Northrise University and then we went around the room and each shared our hearts. WE ended with a time of prayer and then headed off to dinner.
By God’s grace we got the seating arragements all worked out and had a great final meal and time of fellowship.
It probably was about 9:30 by the tme we went to the business for one last look at the email and then off to bed.
Another perfect day in Africa.
Animals
1. elephant
2. impala
3. mongoose
4. crocodile
5. monkey
6. monitor lizard
7. warthog
8. kudu
9. cape buffalo
10. hippo
11. sable antelope
12. antelope
13. water buck
14. giraffe
15. babboon
16. slender mongoose
17. Lion (12)
Birds
1. African Darter
2. Pied Kingfisher
3. Wire-tailed Swallow
4. African Fish Eagle
5. White Egret
6. Ginea Hen
7. Spar-winged Geese
8. Vulture
9. White-faced Whistling Duck
10. Yellow-billed Stork
11. African Spoon bill
12. African Jakana
13. African Skimmer
14. Marabou Stork
15. Egyptian Geese
16. Little Egret
17. Gray Heron
18. Giant Kingfisher
19. Yellow billed Hornbill
20. Crown Plover
21.Lilac breasted roller
22. Starling
23. Red-billed Hornbill
24. Blacksmith Plover
I just got to read the list of viewed wildlife...animals and birds....are you kidding me!!! What an awesome experience. How did you get all those bird names?
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