Nilay, Shaun and I decided to go on safari in Chobe National Park. We ended up negotiating with a man named Lucky (sounds like a more reputable guy than Grubby, eh?), who had two friends who were freelancing for the next couple of days. We agreed to a very good rate and were up and ready to go the following morning.

With Nilay & Shaun on the Chobe River.

Chobe National Park is a large swath of land that runs along the northern border of Botswana. The Chobe River is the dividing line between Botswana in the south and Namibia’s panhandle to the north.

We drove into Chobe hoping to see some animals. My God, we saw animals. And more animals. And even more.

Chobe is famous for its high concentration of elephants. Over the course of our six hour game drive, we saw hundreds of elephants. As elephants are my favorite animal, I was in heaven. These beautiful creatures were in groups of 10 to 30 – eating, drinking from the Chobe River, rolling around in the mud. The adolescents were playing with each other.

Other members of the animal kingdom we saw were:

Giraffe

Lion

Baboon

Fish Eagle

Hippo

Crocodile

Water Buffalo

Impala

Kudu

Leopard Tortoise 

Warthogs

Monkeys

And finally a 2 for 1:

We ended the day at a campground in the park, with the still darkness all around us (save the buzz of the insects and the chirps of the frogs).

A friend who came here last week said she could hear lions roaring in the night. Would we be so lucky?