Safari Adventure Days 10 and 11, Chobe National Park!
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006After the Delta we crossed back into Namibia. We drove about 400 Kilometers on the top panhandle part of Namibia to a place called Kutino Mulilo. There we got our first glimpse of the mighty Zambezi River. From our campsite right on the river we could see Hippos not too far away, what fat bastards they are.That day after crossing back into Namibia we crossed back into Botswana to go to Chobe National Park. Upon arriving at our campsite just outside of Chobe we were picked up by a park ranger to do a game drive. On the drive we went down next to the river where we saw lots of Hippos, monkeys, kudu, and elephants. The park ranger told us that there were over 200,000 Elephants in the park. He said they were destroying the park as they kill alot of trees. In the next few years he said the park was implimenting a plan to start killing off as many as 50,000 of them. He told us that efforts to relocate them to other parks was futile as they kept returning.We drove further along the river and we think we spotted a leopard or a lion. A group of the Kudu crossed the path in front of our truck only to stop dead in their tracks and then quickly run in the opposite direction and start making noises which our guide told us was a warning sign to the others that there was something in the bush. We couldn’t quite spot what it was but there was definitely something there. It’s quite a rush when you see animals act instinctively like that. Not as much of a rush when you see a trainer give an elephant a carrot to stick one of it’s legs up on a tree stump but nontheless it’s still pretty cool.After the game drive we hoped on board a boat to do a sunset cruise. There on the cruise we would see our 4th animal of the big 5, the Buffalo. The Leopard has eluded me but I will find him if it’s the last thing I do on earth. I’m hoping that Sony will come out with a safari game on playstation so that next time I won’t have to waste all my money, time and energy going to the ends of the earth to see these damn animals. I will be able to sit in the comfort of my own parent’s basement with a bag of chex mix going on safari til the wee hours of the morning, that’s my american dream.
Gagnonius