Day 13 – Hunting for lions

It hurts this morning when the alarm sounds at 5 am. All for the good cause of course. At 6am we are off to the park to hunt for lions. As usual, you can find them only in the mornings and evenings. These hunters sleep for the rest of  the day. The impala’s are already awake. Whole troops of them are walking along the side of the road. They're so cute. I feel so sorry for them that they are a bite-sized snack for all predators. They are also a snack  for the lions. If only we can find them. In the distance on the sandy road, there is a huge traffic jam and then dozens of vehicles (I'm not exaggerating). We know  something is spotted. It seems to be lions. But my god, what a chaos. Countless vehicles trying to get the best view of the lions. It is almost a fight. Every conceivable car in Chobe is here at this time. What a contrast with the quiet safaris in Huange, Zimbabwe. We drove in Huange all by ourselves. Nostalgia. But it also reminds us of the special experience in that park. Huange was the exception, Chobe is how it is on most safaris.

A little further it gets even worse. Our leopard from yesterday has just completed  a successful hunt. The killed impala is still between his legs, but we can not see it due to the many cars in front of our view. Pity.

The buffalo’s graze the fresh grass this morning.

Only when the sun rises, it gets warmer. We see a second pride of  lions. Fortunately, it is here calmer and we can observe the animals more relaxed.

After three hours we call it a day and go back to the lodge for our breakfast. It is almost at 10 am. At 11 am, I book a massage. A relaxing moment after the stress this morning.

With African butter, the aching in my muscles is eliminated. I have stiff muscles  from climbing in and out of a high jeep dozens of times. Stiff muscles from our rhino walk, elephants walk, lion walk. Vivaldi gives the best of himself in the background. Each knot in my body is massaged away. It feels great.

This afternoon, we do the last activity of the program. It is a boat safari on the Chobe River. The Chobe is the river fromm which the park takes its name  and which forms the natural border between Botswana and Namibia. The river starts in Angola. The aim of this safari is spotting wildlife along the water. At 3 pm we leave. While the water glistens under the blazing sun,  a waterbuck is walking along the shore.

A little further we see a herd of kudu’s drinking. As we are approaching them via the water, they are much less skittish than before. They look at us curiously but are not afraid of us.

A little further a small crocodile is lying along the shore. The impalas nearby better be careful, but apparently the crocodile is not very hungry. We get a fantastic view of the elephants venturing into the water. They walk as deep as possible, only the head and upper back are still visible.

With these temperatures, water can be really cooling. Chobe also has a fantastic bird life of which we see a few examples.

But the hippos are the star of the afternoon. We discover a group of hippos including a baby of less than two weeks old. Mommy is watching after her like a lioness.

Other hippos are having a little quarrel. These are machos no doubt. Hippos can stay under water for five minutes with one breath. They are disappearing, but also coming back.

A buffalo is thirsty. A baboon observes the life along the river from a tree. Impalas walk around the dunes. The Kalahari desert stops officially where Chobe begins , but the first section of the park consists of vegetated red sand dunes of the Kalahari. Wonderful to see it from the water. We inhale one last time the smell of Africa.

As the sun sets quietly over Namibia, we realize that this is our last evening in Botswana and of this trip. We enjoy these last moments with a glass of wine and blink away a tear as the sky turns red during the sunset.