After leaving the Okavango delta region, we head north towards the border with Zambia. Before crossing we stay for two days close to Chobe National park, one of the most populated park in the area. It’s home to a large group of elephants, which we meet already along the road towards the camp site. We spend a couple of nights just close to the park to get the chance for an early morning game drive. For the first night the Italians have the duty of preparing dinner, which ended with bruschetta made with sweet bread! In some places anything goes!
The next day we leave before sunrise so we get the chance to see the beautiful landscape of the park with the colors of a powerful sun, coming up quickly behind the skinny trees. The first surprise of the day is a couple of hyenas still sleeping under a bush. The park is radically different from Etosha and it’s actually great to see the animals in a different landscape. Driving along the river we see some hippos and a solitary sable antelope with perfect horns. It’s peaceful and quiet along the edge of the water, but at the same time it’s easy to spot the few animals that are just starting their day.
The hippos are spending most of their time in the water, but we are lucky to see a group of three coming out of the water in order of size. Even if the last looks small it’s already huge! We shouldn’t get fooled by the babies as they can be already 45 Kg when the are born. Moving further we see a huge group of elephants, they are both in front and at the back of our vehicle, moving slowly and not caring much about us. But all of a sudden some meters in front of the elephants we spot a leopard! He was just crossing the street and went for some rest in the shade.
We have a beautiful morning immerse in the nature of Chobe, and go back to the campsite with a lot of excitement for the cruise we are going to take at sunset! The perfect way to kill the afternoon is to spend it around the small swimming pool all together trying not to burn too much!
In the middle of the afternoon we prepare for the cruise on the river which will last until the early evening. We slowly cruise while enjoying a cold cider, looking at the impressive amount of elephants all over the place! They are bunches of even 20 crossing the river, from the area full of trees to the the swampy part in the middle of the water. In order to cross they need to immerse themselves all the way to the eyes. It’s an amazing view, so natural and at the same time it feels so special to us at this moment.
An it is so also this time…
This was the perfect way to remember Botswana, with a song in our heads (“we shall never forget … beautiful Botswana, beautiful Africa”) and a sense of beauty in our memories. We are ready to continue our journey, but we acknowledge the richness of this land, and its people, something we didn’t know before, but we’ll bring with us. I’m just so glad I came here!