Chobe Game Lodge

Day 1

As we boarded the five-seat plane we were flooded with goodbyes and small gifts from the Xugana Lodge staff.  The pilot of the plane was a lady whose name was Elan and was actually a Kiwi!  She was really nice and talked to us throughout the flight about what Chobe game lodge was like (the place we were staying at), about the Chobe River and Kasane the city that it was near.  I found out on the way to The Chobe Lodge the river that it looks over (the Chobe River) is the boarder of Botswana and Namibia, which I thought was pretty cool.  I later found out that Namibia is a completely different way of life for the people living there and that Botswana has friendlier people and cares a lot more for their environment and their animals.  One of the reasons Botswana is a better place for Rhinos to live because they made their anti-poaching laws stronger.  All of the White Rhinos that lived in Botswana before the rules were changed were hunted for their horns.  They were luckily reintroduced back into Botswana after the rules had been made stronger.  To give you an idea of how much one kilogram of Rhino Horn is, is $US 50,000 and the price of gold per kilogram is $US 46,000.  Which makes Rhino Horns are more expensive than the price of gold at the moment.  The horns go to Asia to be changed into different solutions; they use them for medicine to make people recover from headaches or the flu.  They also think if you smell it in tea it can make you live-forever.  All of these beliefs I think are fake and if they’re not feeling well why don’t they just go to the pharmacy and buy some Panadol instead of killing a Rhino?

Back to the Flight

In mid flight on the way to Kasane I was asked by Elan if I wanted to have a go flying the plane.  My first impression was “are you serious?” then I finally said, “It looks a bit bumpy, I think I’ll pass.”  My mum and dad kept going on and on saying “John give it a go, it’s actually not that hard!” I still refused, so instead she showed me how the knobs of the plane worked and by that time I knew a flight simulator was entirely different to the real thing.

We arrived in Kasane airport after almost running out of fuel on one tank on the runway and were warmly greeted by some representatives of the Chobe Lodge.  We were ushered to the off-roading truck and we all jumped inside all excited!  It took 50 minutes to reach the lodge and by the time we got drove inside the front gate I was dumbstruck!  The place was absolutely magnificent and we were greeted once again by more friendly staff.  We were given a run down on what was happening in the one night we were staying there and I think I memorised the schedule.

Day 1 Schedule

12:30pm:  Lunch starts on viewing platform 1

2:30pm:  Lunch ends

3:00pm:  Afternoon Tea starts on far viewing platform

3:30pm:  Sunset Cruise along the Chobe River

6:30pm:  Return from Sunset Cruise

7:30pm:  Dinner starts on far viewing platform

Day 2 Schedule

5:00am:  Wake up call for rooms on Morning Safari

5:30am:  Early Morning Tea and Coffee

6:00am:  Leave at Front Gate for Morning Safari

9:00am:  Return for Breakfast from Morning Safari

9:45am:  Depart for Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

I had it all under control.

The Sunset Cruise

After enjoying a 3 course meal for lunch, which included for starters a small chicken dish, for mains I had a delicious Cheese and Tomato Pizza and for dessert a mouth watering (literally) Ice Cream Sundae.  I was told by my parents to enjoy one of the last “fancy” meals we were going to have for a long time, so I tried my hardest.  We were on the boat at 3:30pm on the dot and left on an exciting journey, down the Chobe River.  Our guide and Captain was a lovely lady named Judy who was really helpful all the time.  On the way down elephants, lots and lots of elephant instantly greeted us.  There were at least 30-40 and they were all females and some of them even had little babies beside them who were only 1-2 months old.  They all ventured down into the river to have a drink, they drunk for about 20 minutes because every day they have to drink at least 110 litres of water, which is a huge amount!  We continued down the river and continuously ran into different types of very beautiful birdlife, some of which I hadn’t encountered before.  Near the end of the trip we ran into some very noisy Hippos that seemed to be having a good old chat.  Some of them were huge and looked as if they could deal quite a bit of damage even to boat 4x the size of itself.  We were even lucky enough to see some Buffalo , which completed our viewing of all the big five.  We returned that night feeling refreshed and elephanted out knowing that the next morning we would all be up at the crack of dawn going on our last safari for the trip.

Our last Morning Safari

Beep!  Beep!  I only just managed to reach my arm out of bed the next morning to turn off the alarm that sat just next to my ear.  Once it was off I slowly crawled out of bed and pulled clothes on that I found on the floor.  Once that was completed I managed to wake up the rest of the household and shoo them down to a morning tea and coffee.  Once we were down there and we all had drinks we, were warmed up and all awake.  When it reached 6:00am we all hopped into the specially modified Land Cruiser put on the blankets provided and set off on our last safari of the trip.  Nothing greeted us at first; only a morning rumpus of Chacma Baboons parading through the trees near the road when the radio sounded and our other vehicle spotted a pair of female lions.  We speedily raced over the bumps in the tracks and over a few piles of elephant dung and pulled up right next to two female lions stalking out a herd of Impalas that were grazing 100 metres in front of them.  A bird gave away the two female lion positions with a warning call, which made the Impalas find cover quickly.  They had given up on the hunt obviously and started walking near the road towards the river, which wasn’t that far up ahead.  We followed them for some of the time and watching what they were trying to do and what they wanted to achieve.  When we arrived near the river with the lion still close to the vehicle they started play fighting, which looked sort of real and a bit cute at the same time.  Once they had finished they went over the edge of the road and down towards the still water edge of the Chobe River and started to drink.  It was beautiful to watch and it was as if they didn’t even know we were there, practically 10 metres away from them.  We stopped looking at them for a bit and then they disappeared, they had sprinted off away from us, which was pretty stealthy considering they were just there.  On the back to camp we ran into a male lion with a fully grown mane sitting in the shad of a tree, that was completely amazing and finished off our Safari adventures perfectly.  We returned back to camp with smiles on our faces and happy that we had had an excellent last safari.  We enjoyed our breakfast, packed up our room and were escorted to another off-roading truck to be taken to our next destination, which was Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Sable Antelope

Female Lions Drinking

Male Lion

Female Lion Walking to Water

Chacma Baboon Baby on Mothers Back

Female Lion Looking at Impala

Huge Hippo!

Giraffe Drinking

Elephants Resting

Water Buffalo

Elephants Drinking

Baby Elephant Following it's Mother

Elephants Crossing the Chobe River from Botswana to Namibia