The end is nigh.

Monday 8^th August

Today sees the end of our tour and it will be sad to part from our fellow travellers who have all been such fun to be with.

Saturday was a day spent in Chobe National Park. We started the day with an early morning game drive – at the park gates at 6am. It was just before sunrise and we couldn’t really see anything as it was still too dark. We stopped to watch the sunrise but still saw no animals. We did see lion and leopard tracks along the road but the guide said they were headed away from us. The only animal we saw before morning tea was a sable antelope so we were feeling a little disappointed however things picked up when we were on the move again and we heard about a pride of lions along our route.  Our guide hurried along so they were still there when we arrived. There were 5 lions near a herd of buffalo – not sure if they had planned a buffalo breakfast, but the buffalo knew they were there and a couple of them ran at the lions and pushed them away.

Sunrise in Chobe National Park

Sable antelope - again. Beautiful animal.

 

Morning tea stop in the park. It was a freezing morning and was finally warming up.

Just 2 of the lions - the 5 of them never grouped together for a photo shoot. 

The buffalo are in the background and are very aware that the lions are looking for breakfast. The guide said the lions were hungry and he could tell that by their depressed stomachs.

Further along we came across a herd of elephant. I never get sick of watching the elephants and we took lots more photos as they crossed the road in front of and behind the car. I love watching how the babies are protected by the herd – the elephants are so huge but you never see them run into or trip over the babies. We were all pretty happy with our game drive after that and had plenty to talk about over breakfast back at the hotel.

The baby was having a great time rolling around in the mud.

Up close and personal.

We had a few hours spare in the middle of the day so wandered into the town of Kasane and did a little fabric shopping. I’m not too sure that the fabric is 100% cotton but I am sure I will find a use for it anyway.

A little bit of the colours of Africa.

Our afternoon game drive was a cruise on the Chobe River. It is obviously the thing to do in the afternoons as there were lots of boats on the river. They don’t seem to fuss the animals though as they all still come down to the water. We saw lots of hippo, buffalo, puku, crocs, elephants and lots of birds. A great way to end our game drives as we sat on the boat in the river and watched another spectacular sunset.

The bird on the buffaloes eye is picking off the insects. The buffalo didn't seem too fussed.

This elephant was crossing from the river bank to the island in the middle This was as deep as this part of the river got - note the snorkel trunk.

This was another sort of 'deer' - a puku.

A pied kingfisher - there were a lot of them on the dead wood along the river bank and they were hard to pick until you got your eye in. We also saw another tiny and very colourful kingfisher but were too slow for a photo. We saw a lot of different birds on our river cruise.

A purple crested roller - when these birds fly they have beautiful blue wings - apparently many shades of blue in the wings.

Spoonbill heron.

Another stunning African sunset - with a snake bird drying its wings.

Yesterday we travelled from Botswana back into Zimbabwe and to Victoria Falls. Our guide took us on a walking tour of the falls. They span Zimbabwe and Zambia and at this time of the year the Zimbabwean side is the more spectacular – the Zambian side gradually dries up over the winter and is dry by the time the rains start. The roar of the water is quite deafening in some places and as you walk to some of the viewing spots you get quite wet. We had ponchos for the ‘rain’ but didn’t really need them except for keeping the cameras dry.

Victoria Falls - all these photos are of the Zimbabwe end of the falls.

Livingstone I presume!

The afternoon was shopping time – how am I going to get this stuff into the suitcase? Last night was our final dinner together as a group. I think we are all flying out today back to Johannesburg. We will stay tonight in Johannesburg then tomorrow we fly up to Kruger National Park for 3 nights. We are hoping to see rhino there – and any of the big cats would be a bonus.