Baobab Lodge, Chobe National Park, Botswana

We overnight at the Johannesburg hotel before we check out and head to the airport for an 11:15 am flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Once we land we must obtain a double-entry visa for Zimbabwe and then meet our Program Director, Champion who will be leading us for the remainder of the trip.  

We ride in a mini bus to the border of Botswana where we all had to walk through a pan with some insecticide or disinfectant in it before we were allowed to enter Botswana.

Then it is off to the Baobab Lodge in Chobe, Botswana.  We saw elephants on the way

....the car behind us stuck a head out of the window and the elephant charged it.  As long as one  remains within the confine of a vehicle, the animal sees it as one unit.  But, stand up or stick your head outside the perimeter of the vehicle and the animal sees you as a threat and may charge.

We were met at the lodge with a song sung by the employees of the lodge.  One of the ladies broke out into a dance.

The lodge is just outside the Chobe National Park and overlooks the Chobe River.  In the evening, the dining room and bar area are perfect spots to view the sun setting over the river.

We stay in a comfortable cabin.

After dinner, it's back to the cabin and lights out....tomorrow we will be our first game ride after breakfast.

Up early...the wake up call is a staff member standing outside each cabin playing a drum.

Breakfast at 6:30 and then we leave in 2 land rovers for the drive into Chobe National Park, just a few minutes away.  It's a cold ride so early in the morning.  We have hot water bottles and a heavy jacket provided for us.

Chobe National Park is the second-largest (and first established) national park in the country.  It is home to one of the world's largest elephant populations--the present herd is estimated at 50,000 animals.

We headed down to the river and caught sight of a dazzle (a herd) of zebras ready to cross it.  They were hesitant at seeing the vehicles but then all went for it.

We see many baobab trees.  Our lodge is named after this tree.  Elephants love to peel off the bark...it is like candy for them.  

We drove along and saw many birds..

Just when we were coming up to some baboons...

 ...Emax, our guide, heard a Guinea fowl screech out an alarm call.  We set off to find the predator.  No luck...thought it might have been a cat.

We saw lots of Cape buffalo and more zebras before stopping at a stretch point for coffee and tea and potty break behind the bushes or as it is referred to, "A Loo With a View".  

Champion, our Trip Leader and Dan and Linda

Back on the road we saw a Marshall eagle, Africa's largest eagle, with a Guinea kill.  The eagle must have been the subject of the alarm call.

 I caught the eagle just as he was flying away with the guinea hen and landed on the tree limb to eat his catch.

More zebras, Cape buffalo, giraffes and impalas as we head toward the exit of the park.  

Impalas...there are herds of them everywhere!

Road sign

All of a sudden Emax stops the vehicle and we see a 3-foot snout cobra scampering into the side bush. It was too quick for us to get a photo, so this is one from the internet.  It can raise up 2/3 of its body length and that's just what it did right next to our vehicle.  And yes, there were screams coming from our vehicle!

It was an amazing ride...we saw so much and in such large numbers.

We are greeted back at the lodge entrance with a shot glass of creamy onion soup.  That's different, but it was good.  

In the afternoon we visited Mabele Village and talked with Edna about her garden.  She put down palm reeds to keep the mice from chewing the plant leaves.  They think the reeds are snakes.

Then we stopped by the craft center of the village where we were greeted with a dance by the women and then watched a demonstration of basket weaving by Maria.  

And had a little hands-on experience...

I bought the one on the upper right of the photo below.   Maria said it took her 5 weeks to weave.

Then it was time for sundowner and we watched the sun set on the river as we drank wine.

The African sunsets are just spectacular!

After dinner Champion introduced us to our first Learning and Discovery moment.  He talked about the African custom of paying lobola when a bride and groom marry.

The paying of lobola is a token of gratitude on the part of the groom's family to those of the bride's family for their care over her and for allowing her to become his wife.


Lobola is a demonstration of how much the girl is valued by both sides. It denotes respectability, worthiness and appreciation.  Payment is made with cows--the number of cows is determined by what the bride's family determines is the value of her.  We were fascinated by this custom and learned more about lobola through discussions in the following days.

The next morning we were up early and out on our game drive by 7 am for a full day driving around Chobe National Park.

We switched drivers today so we have Timmy and Champion leading the way in our landrover.  Timmy asks each of us what we hope to see today.  Answers were cats, hippos, elephants.

He said we would travel quite a distance to another area of the park.  He chatted with a friend of his on the walkie talkie, who is also a guide and learned that female lions were spotted this morning in the area we were headed.

First game we come up to is a kudu.

Then we come to several elephants....very close to the road.  We watch them for several minutes and Timmy explains the behavior.  

The alpha female gave us an alarm call.  Get out of here!  She is the one who would initiate a charge. 

And so we did...

Then Terry caught glimpse of a cat's tail about 100 yards off the road and alerted Timmy to stop.

It's Leopard #2 for us!! And this one we can see much better.

Timmy stopped and backed up the vehicle and we proceeded to follow the leopard for the next hour.  It was making its way toward a group of impala.  The impala kept a close eye on the leopard and we also heard birds giving the alarm call that the leopard was near.

Next we were near the area where the lions were seen.  Timmy headed toward them.  Sure enough the lions were laying under a tree just off the road. 

 As we parked within 10 feet of the lions, a nearby elephant saw us and headed right toward the vehicle.  He then saw the lions at the same time the lions saw the elephant.  They startled each other.

The elephant pondered the situation and decided to turn away...not wanting to take on both us in the vehicle and the lions.

We stopped for lunch and actually had picnic tables in this spot.  Champion, Timmy and Emax set up a nice buffet lunch.

Other animals we saw were..hyaena, crocodiles, mongoose, wart hogs, giraffes, a Cape buffalo herd, a starling bird, open billed stork, and more hippos and more crocs.

A giraffe doing the splits...

A lazy hippo

We returned to camp at 2:30...what an amazing drive.

For our last dinner at this camp we had a traditional African dinner, followed by some songs and dances by the lodge staff.

We leave in the morning and fly to the Okavango Delta where we will stay in the Wilderness Tented Camp....yes, a tent with animals roaming around outside!

To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled:  Wilderness Tented Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana