Zambezi Region

We slept very well in our upgraded room! We were up very early this morning for our 5.45am start. We were going on a 4 x 4 game drive through Chobe National Park.

Chobe National Park is Botswana's first national park, and also the most biologically diverse. It is Botswana's third largest park, and is noted for having a population of lions which prey on elephants, mostly calves or juveniles, but also subadults.

We had two vehicles for our fame drive – ten of us in each. Despite staying in a room very close to reception, we were the last to get to the jeeps, so I ended up in the front seat and Mark was in the middle of the front row. We were disappointed because neither position was ideal. In the event, though, it didn’t matter as we saw so much and got so close to the animals that we were able to see, no matter where we were sitting. When we got back to camp later, it turned out that we had seen so much more than the other half of our group. We were definitely in the best vehicle!

During the morning, we saw:

• A solo adult male lion on the shore of the river – the light wasn’t the best as it was still very early, but I got a good video of it roaring.
• Lots of impala
• A tawny eagle
• A group of elephants with their young
• A greater kudu – the second largest antelope in Africa after the eland. The collective noun for kudu is ‘a twist’ because of their spiral-shaped horns.
• A bachelor herd of young male impala
• Thousands of guinea fowl
• Some francolins – birds smaller than guinea fowl with red beaks
• A solo adult male lion sitting in a bush
• A dead crocodile – probably killed from the inside by fishing hooks
• A jackal
• A large bull elephant
• Hundreds of impala
• A mating pair of fish eagle
• A pair of kori bustard – the national bird of Botswana
• A magpie shrike – a black and white bird with a long tail
• White-backed vultures
• Red lechwe antelope
• A pied kingfisher
• Several yellow billed stork
• Some white egrets
• 2 juvenile male lions who had been chased out of the pride. They were probably around five years old.
• 3 lionesses hunting antelope
• A number of saddle billed stork
• A grey heron
• Several crocodiles
• Two hammerkopf
• A family of elephants
• A fork-tailed drongo
• Lots of giraffe
• A pod of hippos on land
• Three spoonbill
• Some water buffalo
• Egyptian geese
• A glimpse of a leopard
• A scorpion (the deadliest variety!)

Our driver/guide was brilliant! His name was KB. He was so knowledgeable and seemed to instinctively know the best places to spot the animals. He took care to position the vehicle so that we could all get good photos and videos. It was a fantastic way to spend the morning!Read more