Tuesday, April 28, 2009

It’s day two in Chobe and the alarms are going off at 5am. We were at the gates of the park at 5:50 – ready to see the wildlife and we weren’t disappointed. By luck, we spotted a hyena heading off in the direction away from the river and decided to follow it. He took us right to the place where they had made their evening kill. One of them was still there finishing it off.

Then we headed off into the bush to explore.

And we saw…Baboons

Lilac Breasted Roller

Mongoose

 

Black Backed Jackel

Buffalo

White Backed Vulture

Female Kunu

Male Kunu

Herd of Impala

African Eagle fish

Humans

Dirty Buffalo

Tawny Eagle

Bushbuck

There was an island in the middle of the Chobe river in which the elephants trekked back and forth…

 

And the babies…we saw at least a dozen throughout the park

Check out the baby under her mama – in the shade on the ground!

As I mentioned before, one of the nice things about having our own vehicle in the park was that we could stop whenever and where ever we wanted to stop. If we came upon a particularly beautiful spot along the river – we just parked the truck and spent 15 minutes enjoying the view and taking pictures.  We also stopped for lunch and an afternoon siesta.  Siesta included food, a couple beers and a nap. I have never slept as much as I have this past month!  Honestly – and just to digress for a moment – I generally go to sleep at 9pm and get up at 6am. I’m ready for a nap around 10:00am and again around 4:00pm – not that we nap every day- but we could.

So, after lunch and a couple beers, I lay back and siesta’d for a few minutes as did the boys. But when I woke up – it was to two very ugly warthogs 5 ft away – staring at me – not moving.  The guys got up and made some noise and they slowly turned and walked away – not in the least bit bothered by us. But I was freaking out and totally un-nerved! WAY too close.  Otherwise, I love the wildlife that we saw!

All in all…a wonderful safari trip to Chobe National Park!