Onward to Botswana

After breakfast and fond farewells to all the Kafue Camp staff, a short jeep ride took us to the grass airstrip of “Lufupa International Airport,” as they call it.

From there, we boarded a bus to take us to our next camp at Chobe National Park in Botswana. While still in Zambia, we stopped at a market for locals, to see the vast array of items on sale, including: bars of soap (you break off what you want from a long waxy-looking green bar), fresh vegetables, dried fish, spices, junky plastic Chinese items, and loads of used clothing. They’d rather have used clothes from the U.S. than the new items they get from China, because they are more durable. We talked to a vegetable seller about the small white eggplant she was selling and to a miscellany seller who asked us about our current and past president. Everyone speaks English here, along with their local dialect.

Further along the way to camp, still in Zambia, we stopped at Mosi-oa-tunya National Park to see some white rhinos. Poaching is such a problem for white rhinos that in this small park, each rhino is assigned two rangers to guard them, each in 12-hour shifts to monitor and protect them.

Crossing the border, we were at the junction of four countries—Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Baobab Safari Camp, our home for the next three nights, is located along the river that divides northern Botswana from Namibia. In a couple of months this river will dry up and it will be tough times for the animals (food and water-wise). In six months, it may be flooded and the animals will have plenty of food and water and will not cluster around the river like they do now.

The afternoon game drive featured baboons with babies on their backs, giraffes browsing in the trees and a sunset happy hour at the river.Read more