The final stop of my 3-country safari tour
with my parents, after Zambia and Zimbabwe
Our journey in Botswana began with the immigration worker looking at my passport and saying, "How old are you? Younger than 16?" The adventure got better from there.
We arrived at Bakwena Lodge, which has a beautiful view of the Chobe River. Our first excursion was a boat cruise over the river with the other couples staying at the lodge. It was quite a different experience than our walking safari in Zimbabwe, with many boats full of other tourists. The safari was wonderful, though, with us seeing crocodiles, hippos, elephants and cape buffalo.
We woke up at 5am for a chilly game drive in Chobe National Park. We darted around the park in our safari van in search of lions before they hid from the sun. In the meantime, we saw an amazing parade of giraffes, as if they were giving us a fashion show on a catwalk. Thankfully our guide got a tip on where the lions were hiding that day, so at one point we drove a bit off the road and came across a pride of 8 lions napping in the shade. We were a bit too close for comfort at times, especially after having a stare down with one and her getting up to walk towards the van... We were very excited to get to finally see some lions, though.
After a nice brunch we took out some bikes to ride to the Kazungula border, the only place in the world where 4 countries meet - the junction of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. Our guide told us all about the ferry that transports trucks back and forth between Zambia and Botswana. The line of trucks can get to be 10km long, with drivers waiting a month or more sometimes just to cross. Korea is building a bridge, to be completed as soon as possible because it's not very safe for the drivers to be staying there (think: one was eaten by a lion). As a map lover, it was very cool to see the junction of four countries.
After a siesta, we went back out on the boat for another sunset cruise, this time seeing a baby elephant and finally seeing an elephant use its trunk as a snorkel to swim out to an island - both amazing sights.
It was a long next day, taking a safari van to the ferry, crossing the border into Zambia, driving to the Livingstone airport and flying to Lusaka before finally returning to Lilongwe.
We arrived at Bakwena Lodge, which has a beautiful view of the Chobe River. Our first excursion was a boat cruise over the river with the other couples staying at the lodge. It was quite a different experience than our walking safari in Zimbabwe, with many boats full of other tourists. The safari was wonderful, though, with us seeing crocodiles, hippos, elephants and cape buffalo.
We woke up at 5am for a chilly game drive in Chobe National Park. We darted around the park in our safari van in search of lions before they hid from the sun. In the meantime, we saw an amazing parade of giraffes, as if they were giving us a fashion show on a catwalk. Thankfully our guide got a tip on where the lions were hiding that day, so at one point we drove a bit off the road and came across a pride of 8 lions napping in the shade. We were a bit too close for comfort at times, especially after having a stare down with one and her getting up to walk towards the van... We were very excited to get to finally see some lions, though.
After a nice brunch we took out some bikes to ride to the Kazungula border, the only place in the world where 4 countries meet - the junction of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. Our guide told us all about the ferry that transports trucks back and forth between Zambia and Botswana. The line of trucks can get to be 10km long, with drivers waiting a month or more sometimes just to cross. Korea is building a bridge, to be completed as soon as possible because it's not very safe for the drivers to be staying there (think: one was eaten by a lion). As a map lover, it was very cool to see the junction of four countries.
After a siesta, we went back out on the boat for another sunset cruise, this time seeing a baby elephant and finally seeing an elephant use its trunk as a snorkel to swim out to an island - both amazing sights.
It was a long next day, taking a safari van to the ferry, crossing the border into Zambia, driving to the Livingstone airport and flying to Lusaka before finally returning to Lilongwe.