Chobe National Park Botswana

We have left Zambia behind and crossed into Botswana. The border crossing consisted of a ferry ride across the Zambezi River which was flowing at about 8knots.... after we ploughed through a reed bed full of local fishermen sleeping in their canoes, we hit the landing ramp and rolled on into Botswana.

I must say I am glad to be out of the reach of the Zambian Police.... they add a whole new chapter to the book of corruption and extortion. A shop owner told us that an officer came into buy some shoes, but didn't have enough money, so he set a road block up outside, and shortly there after came in and paid for his new shoes!

We visited Chobe National Park in what is called the 'low season' as there is too much rain... which causes the grass to be high and means the animals don't have to come to the river for water (making them hard to find). All I can say is, if this is Chobe on a bad day...... it must be insane in the high season!

This friendly little chap was very interested in the fruit roll I was eating at the time.... which was pretty cool, except his mum (who was huge) did not approve of junior consorting witht the muzungus.

We didn't expect to see cats, let alone a pride of four cruising along the river bank. We stalked them for half an hour and they put on a pretty good show. I was surprised that they did not not look as well fed as the cats we saw in the Serengetti... but they didn't look skinny either! They were also a little bigger than the ones we played with in Zambia.

I saw this lion licking a thorn in her foot, and recalled there was some bible story about a chap pulling a thorn out of a lions foot... and living happily ever after. Whilst I was tempted to have a crack at it, our last mash with jesus at the helm ended in disaster (when we followed the landcruiser full of nuns in Tanzania)... so I left her alone.

We keep on being told that the buffalo here are real killers, and they are seriously dangerous... there may be some truth to it, but they really do just look like nice cows with trendy horns.

This is a shot of one of many giraffes that were taking it in turns to lick the dirt at that spot. Apparently it's rich in salt.