African Roadtrip Part 3

 After our day drive through Chobe we had dinner and then went back into Chobe to watch the sunset on the river.  We were only expecting to see a beautiful African sunset and maybe some lions.  What we found at the river was delightful surprise to all of us.  Hundreds of elephants were there, in the river eating and washing.  Great big ones with long tusks and little babies following their mothers.  It was amazing!  We also saw hippos, water buffalo, and a crocodile, but the main attraction was the elephants.

 We turned around and there was a full moon behind us.

As we were watching the elephants suddenly a small herd of sable run out of the woods and lined up to drink at the river.  They were magnificent.  All lined up with their long scimitar like horns, they looked like a line of soldiers at attention.

They were very quick, drank and run off back into the woods.  Seeing these rare animals 

was very special.

African sunsets truly are beautiful. 

This is why we loved Chobe!

African Roadtrip Part 2

 Sunrise in Chobe. 

Sam had the brilliant idea to stay another day in Kasane and go to Chobe national park.  It was amazing!  The park is pretty primitive, no maps, no paved roads, very few signposts.

But that just made for less people and more animals so we were happy.  Most of the roads were very sandy, we had fun almost getting stuck.  We saw many different animals.  Kudu, elephant, many types of antelope, Cape buffalo, zebra, mongoose, monkeys, many different songbirds, cranes, storks, and eagles,warthogs, crocodiles, hippos and of course hundreds of impala. : )  We just barely missed seeing a lion kill, though we looked and looked we couldn't find them.  They must have gotten tired of being a "tourist attraction" and "got it to go".

 Oh, yeah and giraffe.  I knew I was forgetting someone.   We saw lots of giraffe.  I love these tall classy gentlemen. I always feel like they should be wearing bow ties. : )

 We mostly drove next to the Chobe river, which is where most of the animals congregate, but at one point we went down this long, sandy, bumpy road which lead to this tree.  Kinda creepy, huh?   From the  Botswana side of the Chobe you could see across to the Zim side.  You could see elephants in the water on the far bank and hippos and Cape buffalo and right down the bank from these wild animals would be a whole herd of cows. Domestic cows! With all the lions, leopards and crocodiles.  Yeah, I'm not sure how that works but it is Africa.

 This is an elephant skull. 

At one point along the river we saw a jackal stalking an impala.  I do not have a picture, but I think Sam does so we will try to share picture sometime so you can see more of what we saw.

 

 This man was fishing with this little canoe type boat in the Chobe which was obviously full of crocodiles, hippos and who knows what else. Very brave or very hungry.

African Road Trip - Part 1

We had an amazing week here in Botswana!  Last Tuesday Sam and Rachel, Nat and Anne, and us three Humphreys piled into the Hammett's Prado and drove 6 hours north to Kasane.   Kasane is a border town close to where Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe all meet. You can see on this map at the top there is a little strip of Namibia above Botswana.  Zambia is not included on this map, but it would be at the very top.


On the drive there we saw Elephants, Ostrich, and a wild cat called a Serval.  Seeing a cat in the wild was special but the most beautiful sighting was the herd of elephant far out in a field of yellow African grass.  Of course no one got a picture, but I will always remember it as one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.








This is the place we stayed in Kasane.  Kasane is right on the Chobe river and is overrun by elephants and warthogs. : ) The warthogs are literally running around the town.  There is a profusion of birds also and I am discovering that I'm sort of a birdwatcher and Africa has beautiful birds in all colors, shapes and sizes.  The lodge we stayed at was not completely finished, they were still landscaping so there was a lot of dust and debris but the tents we stayed in were very clean and spider proof, : ) and the beds were more comfortable than the one I have at home.  The managers were wonderful and let us use there kettle to make coffee every morning.  They had showers with warm water and toilets, so it really couldn't be considered camping.  Rachel and Sam used the grill one night for dinner and almost every night we had a fire to roast marshmallow over or just stare into as we drank our coffee under the starry African sky.

The next day we crossed into Zimbabwe, which in and of itself was an adventure. Let's just say no one is losing sleep over the security at the border between Zim and Botswana.  Zim's economy seems totally non existent.  We paid for everything with U.S. currency or Botswana Pula.  The Zim dollar is worthless.  I traded a U.S. dollar bill for a Zim 10billion dollar bill and I got the worse end of the deal.  It is sad so see people having to go through the collapse of their country, but I am also impressed with their will to survive.  At Vitoria Falls they are definitely trying to cash in on the whole tourist thing.  There is a huge market of homemade souvenirs in the town.   Stone and wood carvings and bowls, metal work, baskets, colorful clothe and jewelry.  I, of course, wanted to buy all the clothe and could imagine a skirt or shirt or bag out of every piece.  I made myself only buy a few things, though.  A small elephant carving, a piece of green clothe and an elephant necklace, which I absolutely love and everyone will probably get really tired of seeing me wearing. : )  This market is where the guys had a group Bible study while us girls shopped. : ) Sounds like a good arrangement, huh? : )

My wonderful camera from ACNM has a panoramic setting.  This is us at Vic Falls. 

The little yellow ghost is Anne. : )  Because of the mist we all had to wear huge rain jackets and we still got pretty much soaked. There was just so much mist. 

Victoria Falls is huge.  It is hard to describe it in any other words.  There is so much water, falling so far that the mist is generates obscures most of the view.

Here is a picture I found of Victoria Falls from the air.  It is over a mile long and 360 feet deep.  Truly amazing! We were able to walk from the far left, the Devil's Cataract to were the river comes out and that big rock is sticking out above the bridge.  The rest is on the Zambia side. 

Here is us after walking the falls, waiting for our
taxi driver and trying to dry off.  The mist made Krista and my hair decide it wanted to be wild and curly. : ) After the falls we went to the market.  They were crazy there, everyone wanting you to look at their stuff and telling you they will give you a good price.  Rachel brought some old clothes that she traded.  They loved that!  After the market we drove back over the border,well we drove too the border and walked back over.  While we were waiting for our taxi back to the lodge we saw more elephants on the road. : ) I don't think I would ever get used to that, amazing.