Botswana

Safaris are fun no matter how you choose to do them but I will admit that the self drive safaris we have done have been the best for many reasons, being able to sit at a water hole and just observe the many animals that come and go for as long as you want to is just one bonus. However, when we visited Chobe in Botswana we decided to go with a tour company as they offered a land safari and a river safari.

The morning safari was great fun, we saw many animals, elephants, buffalo, giraffe, springbok, Impala, baboons, kudu, and banded mongoose.

One advantage of taking an organised safari is that the rangers all have radios so if one of big cats or perhaps a pack of wild dogs is located everyone gets to know quite quickly.

We weren't lucky enough to see any on this trip but for a mornings safari drive we saw quite a lot, at almost every turn there was something else to see and I would highly recommend a Chobe safari especially if you have limited time. 

The land safari was fun but we were really excited about going on the river safari in the afternoon as this was something we hadn't done before and it proved to be amazing. We saw herds of elephants playing on the banks and some so submerged in the water that just their trunks stood out like snorkels. 

Many crocodiles lazed around and slept in the afternoon sun.

Springbok locked horns and fought, while monitor lizards crept along the banks. 

Baboons lined the waters edge chomping on grasses while buffalo lay submerged in the cool river eating reeds.

There were birds of many kinds almost everywhere we looked but the highlight of this trip has to be the 'bloats' of hippo that seemed to be everywhere. 

Our guide was nervous as we navigated past these semi aquatic beautiful mammals, hippos are one of Africa's most dangerous  and are responsible for approximately 3000 deaths a year, that's about 8 people a day!

They are the second biggest killer here, the first being mosquitos. Hippos are extremely moody, they are aggressive and territorial and they attack without provocation. Its so hard to believe that these huge, lumbering, rather clumsy looking water horses are responsible for so many deaths. 

I'm pleased to say we managed to pass several bloats without incident, we would have liked to stay a little longer to observe them, its just so fascinating watching them but unfortunately it was far too dangerous to hang around for long. 

Our cruise along the Chobe river was a fascinating and unique way to observe wildlife, I would highly recommend this trip.

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