Chobe National Park, Day 1, Botswana

Sunday, April 26, 2009 We left the lion park after lunch on a Friday with all the essential ingredients for a good weekend away from home…box of wine, case of beer and a camera…

Four us went to Chobe that weekend. Two norwegians, a brit and a bloody american. Andreas and Oyvind are both students from Norway here doing research work for school. They’re graduating this spring and their next trip is on bikes. They’ll be starting in North Cape, Norway and finishing on the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Their website, if anyone is interested in following them is…bikecapetocape.com It’s going to be a great trip! That’s Andreas on the left and Oyvind on the right.

Ben is the brit…lion handler extraordinaire…Project Manager, Volunteer Coordinator and soon to become a banker…when he goes back to London. He knows a hell of a lot about Africa, the wildlife and in particular – birds – referably of prey. He’s great guy and lots of fun! That’s Ben in front.

I, of course, am the lone american here and frankly – I’ve been taking a lot of crap from everyone about a lot of things American. They are all, of course, just wanna be’s! Ha! It’s all in fun. But back to our weekend away. We drove an hour through Zambia before reaching the ferry that would take us to Botswana.

Line of semi’s waiting to get on the ferry

We crossed at the point where the Zambezi and Chobe rivers meet – then continued through to the visa counter and off to the park. We stopped for groceries, two coolers and some ice – then went to the lodge to drop our stuff off. LOVED the lodge!

Mine and Ben’s room

We drove into the park around 3:00 in time to see some wildlife for a few hours before the park closed at 6:30 pm. Because we had our own vehicle, we could go anywhere we wanted to in the park and were able to get really close to the animals – as you can see. Ben was determined to get as close to them as we could – it was exciting.

Warthog – truly a face only a mother could love.