Out of Africa : On the road to Botswana

We left Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and drove the 100km to our next destination, Chobe River Lodge in Botswana. Our group of 16 are quickly becoming acquainted and are enjoying the camraderie of adventure travel, lead by our guide, Kembe.

The border crossing was an interesting process. Because Botswana is a very wealthy country...think diamond mines...border security is tight. We were told VERY CLEARY, do not take pictures and no joking around! Our group was herded off the truck at the Zimbabwian check point where our passports were stamped with exit proclamations. We then walked as a group a few hundred meters to the Botswana custom office where we were again processed. As our truck was carefully checked we were instructed to step on a mat of disinfectant...some of the elephant dung on the road looked more sanitary.

Chobe River is a huge game reserve, so after we settled in to our accommodations, a few of us were off on a game drive. This time in open sided, nine passenger jeeps. This park has one of the highest consentrations of elephants in Africa so we thought we might get a chance to get close and personal with a few of them. Driving through the bushland/forested area of the park our views of the River floodplain soon opened up and we were treated to a Jurrasic Park-like experience of huge elephants, hippos, and herds of many different kinds of herbivores.

As we continued on, observing colourful birds along the way, we came upon a large herd of elephants with many newborn and very young members. While watching one mother with two little ones following we became so engrossed with the sight that we didn't hear the other elephants come up behind us. A young male let out a trumpet blast that scared the living s......t out of us. I almost landend in a Danish ladies lap! We were to experience this behaviour on a number of other occasions and even though our guide for the day assured us that the charges and trumpeting were just teenage false bravado from the young males, we were none the less rather intimidated when they charged to within spitting distance of us.

We have been so fortunate in being able to see so many animals. The parks are so large that some groups hit it lucky and find many different and numerous animals while others see almost nothing.

As we rounded a corner of the woodlands one of our group spotted a leopard. Stopping for photos we spent a good fifteen minutes observing him as an elephant walked under the tree he was on. Two more jeeps came up behind us and he dropped to the ground and disappeared. They saw nothing. We've been told time and again that many african tourists never see a leopard even after many years of trying.

The last "event" as we headed out of the park was another herd of elephants. This time there was a bit of a commotion going on as a huge bull elephant in full must was following his object of passion. As the comments flew about the bulls obvious state amour, three or four young bulls approached the female in question. To say that a bull elephant can make a very loud trumpet sound is a huge understatement. The whole area reverberated with his angry blast and the foolish young males took off at a fast run as he charged them. This certainly left us with a lasting impression.

Several readers have mentioned the quality of our photos. Unlike the Japanese tourist who was observed taking close up pictures of post cards in the curio shop, we have been fortunate enough to come face to face with many opportunities to take our own photos. We are using a 300mm telephoto lens for many of the shots but to be honest, we have been close enough to many of the animals to smell their breath!