Chobe National Park

It was kind of crazy, but we went for it. We rented an all inclusive 4x4 manual car and drove around the safari and camped on top of it for 4 days. It was awesome! How more in nature can you get than seeing animals in your camp ground, watching herds of elephants taking a bath or a baby elephant playing with his sibling?

Our easy fold out tent

On day one we took a taxi from Victoria Falls to Chobe National Park and stayed at the Chobe River Lodge.  It was a small quaint self-catering lodge that had a nice kitchen for cooking our own meals. We took a stroll to the river side and long and behold, there was Pumba and his buddies.

Pumba strolling along behind our lodge

We then took a sunset river cruise tour on the Chobe River, and that was probably one of the major highlights of the trip! Right off the bank we spotted hippos in the water with their little eyes poking out and dipping away into hiding in a moment’s notice. We also got insanely close to a crocodile. My brother was scared that it would jump up and drag us down, but our guide assuaged us and told us that’s only what alligators do – who knows if that’s really true...

Hippo peaking out

Hungry hungry hippos who are not shy

Crocodile chilling in the grass

We also saw herds of elephants. HERDS. They were everywhere! It was nearly impossible to travel on the boat for more than 5 minutes without seeing more elephants.  We even saw a herd of elephants taking a mid-afternoon dip in the river to cool off. We got so close, it felt like we could reach out and pet them.  There a couple of adorable baby ones too! They were so cute with their proportionally larger head, shorter trunk, and more unstable gait.  Meanwhile some of the older ones got a little restless and were head butting each other. It was quite a sight. 

Elephants taking an afternoon bath to cool off. See the baby in the middle?

Baby elephant and mamma!

Toddler trailing along. Female elephants are supposed to have flatter, more angular heads and thinner tusks.

This one came so close it felt like we could reach out and touch it.

Fighting over the female?

Our final stop was the most incredible. When we were first approaching the bank, it was confusing why so many boats were stopped at the bank and why there were so many big birds on the trees.  Fortunately (or unfortunately for the elephant), an elephant had died at the river bank, so it was a major feast for all the carnivores. 

Vultures waiting to feast on the dead elephant

Another elephant came and chased away the lions

Elephant mourning the dead elephant. It touched its trunk to the dead elephant, curled it, and stood there for a bit, then left.

After the elephant left, the young lion went back to be the king of the wild.

The next couple of days, we drove to the southern part of the park where we found near the waterholes. We even had elephants wander into our camping ground!

Not an easy drive in the sand, and not having driven a manual car for 4 years.

Found some animals lounging during the hottest time of the day 

Spot the elephant in the campground?

We spotted some zebra butts.                                   This bird kept on flying next to our car

Mother and baby giraffe!                                           Red Hartebeest (I think?)

Baby elephant suckling                                             Checking us out

Same beautiful bird that flew beside our car             Two jackals tromping along

Funny little bird that ate all our crumbs                   Impalaaaa!

There was however one fairly scary moment. We were driving a long, and saw some elephants getting out of the river to go back into the bushes, so we stopped to allow them to cross the road. We saw the last of one cross, so we proceeded forward, But right as we rounded a bush, we saw more elephants coming. And this one was coming fast. I quickly put the car in reverse, and started backing up. The teenage elephant continued to charge at us, but stopped after a few steps. Man...thank goodness with my poor manual driving skills I didn't accidentally go into first gear instead of reverse!

Baobab grove - spot my mom?

Beautiful acacia on our campground

And our final moment of excitement was driving within touching distance of a large elephant while following another car. If they did it, then we could right?

After all that safari, guess what my brother had for dinner?....Pumba.