I finally arrived at the right lodge but missed my activity for the day because of the long flight dely. They were nice and let me do 3 activities the next day. The lodge was right on the Chobe river and Namibia was right on the other side of the river. All of the actiities are held in the Chobe Game reserve. THat is even when you are in the water, you have to sign into the park. The lodge was ok, but not as nice as the other places I stayed.The room was huge but it was more of a hotel feel that being at a safari lodge. My 1st activity the next morning was a game drive. We left at 6am and returned at 9am. It isn't like being at the small lodges were you stay out longer or if you are having a good drive stay out until lunch. It is strick, 9am you were back at the lodge. Also at the National Parks ou cn only drive on the roads. IF there was something off the road and you couldn't get a view or wanted to follow it you were out of luck. There were a lot of lodges and there trucks going into the park all at the same time so it was crowded and would have multiple trucks at a sighting. Too many if it was a good sighting. I prefer the small lodges with there own concessions where you don't have to worry about any of that.
My 1st game drive I was in with 2 couples rom Germany. We all liked looking at the birds bu our driver wouldn't stop for birds. He would just drive b them. I finally yelled stop please after he drove rght back to very colorful birds. They were 2 I hadn't seen yet. They were the white throated bee-eater nd the carmine bee-eater. THe Carmine was one I really wanted to see and they come to Africa in the summer from Europe. They had just arrived 2 weeks ago and I was so happy to see the 2 of them. There CArmines were all over everywhere. They are so pretty. THey are orangy red in color and so colorful when they fly. We saw a lot of birds of prey, my 1st hyena, a bat-eared fox, large herds of Cape buffalo, hippos out of the water and tons of elephants. Chobe is known for its large herds of elephands all of a sudden you will come up on a herd of 30 with small babys. It was amazing.
My 2nd activity was a boat cruise. You can get really close to the hippos and they aren't aggressive there. They are used to all the boats. I saw a lot of new birds, hippos, crocs and a group of elephangts playing by the water. We watched them for a long time and then they all crossed the river. IT was so amazing to see the elephants and all the aminals really. I loved going on safrai and being out with the animals. It felt like home to me. I could do it everyday. I didn't want it to end. When you talk to the people at the different camps most have been to Africa before and tell you how it is addicting THat they used to travel all over now they always go to Africa. I can say I will be back.
The 3rd activity of the day was a game drive. It started pouring rain, thunder and lightning. We had a cover but I got soaked. We didn't see mh on that drive and went back to the lodge early. The next day I went to Zimbabwe which will hve its own post and Friday was my last day there I had time to go on a game drive before my flight to the Kwando area to stay at the camp there. Friday mornings drive was better. We had a better guide that would stop for anything you wanted to see. The highlight of that drive was seeing a leopard. I had seen one at Shinde but it as night tme. THis was dring the day. My pics are partly throught the bush but they are still good. After that it was back to the lodge to pack everthing up and get back to the airport to get my little plane to Kwando River Lodge.
I was on a quest to see the wild dog while I was in Africa. This was my last safari before I came home. My dad and Cindy saw the dogs in Madikwe and I just couldn't manage to see them. I was starting to get angry. When I arrived at camp they asked what do I want to see and I said the wild dog, they said oh, you should have come in August, it is going to be hard to find them. It was the morning game drive and it was drizzling. We had to wear ponchos to stay dry. We set out to find the dogs. They found the tracks and the other vechicle joined us. 2 trackers we on foot and we followed in the car. It went on forever. After about 6 hours we finally stopped for a tea break. I had to go to the bathroom so bad! I had to pee behind an termite mound. We were out another couple of hours and we gave up. We were off road, driving over trees, through bush and over rocks it was a very bumpy ride. After we gave up the other vechicle went back in the other direction. It was still very cloudy and the guides couldn't see the sun to figure out which way was back to camp. We were driving around forever trying to find a road. At one point they stopped and we saw smoke coming from the engine. We had blown a hole in the radiator. Not only were we lost in the bush but we were broken down too. They radio'd camp and they would keep reeving up the engine so our rescuers could hear where we were. They finally found us, and we set off back to camp. We got back so late, we were out over 10 hours and we didn't even find the dogs. They asked if I wanted to still go out on the evening activity since we were all tired and I said of course I want to go out. It was a good thing too because we were out 10 minutes and the other car found the dogs! Our guide drove like a mad man in the new vechicle which was an older vechile and it didn't have lap belts. I thought I was going to fly out of the truck! We caught up with the other vechile and I got to see 6 of the 18 of the pack of dogs! I was so excited but I didn't get a good pic because it was getting dark. It made my trip!
