Chobe National Park, Botswana

We traveled quickly through the parts of the road we'd traveled before as we headed to the east end of the park. We came upon a large herd of impalas with a few water bucks and lots of baboons, all facing one direction. We suspect they were aware of a predator on the ridge, though we never saw it. Most of our trip was along the shore of the river and we saw many birds. The bird that quickly became our favorite is the lilac-breasted roller, the national bird of Botswana. This has to be one of the most colorful birds we've ever seen.

Lilac-Breasted Rollers

The big surprise was coming upon a herd of about 30 sable antelope wandering through the bushes. We also saw kudu with their long twisted horns. They have a large hump of muscle at their back allowing them to jump 3 meters from a standstill.

Sable Antelope

In the afternoon, we did a river cruise. Here we found several crocodiles and a large water monitor. Then we came up close to a memorial (herd) of elephants drinking from the water and throwing dust on the backs to keep off the bugs. By the way, a moving herd of elephants is called a parade of elephants.

During the cruise we also saw many birds: egyptian geese, spur winged heron, yellow billed stork, pied kingfisher, and the most colorful, the white fronted bee-eater. We also saw puku , a large antelope that looks like a deer with short curved horns, which is only native to here and Zambia.

In the evening the staff entertained us with local songs and dancing. Then we had a traditional meal with beef, impala sausage, and polenta, a cornmeal, all eaten with our fingers. During the night, we heard many sounds: the snorting of warthogs, screeching of baboons, bellowing of cape buffalo, and what sounded like a fog horn, apparently made by the dominant male baboon. All of these animals plus impala were visible at the watering hole below us the next morning.