Livingstone, Zambia to Kasane, Botswana 19 - 22 Oct 07

Game watching on the Chobe river

After more unsuccessful calls to the King’s Den, he found out through a friend working next door to the lodge that it was closed for repairs. Apparently it had been badly flooded out during the rainy season. Strange that the agents for the lodge in Jo’burg had confirmed that there was room for us!
Mugethi then drove us to various lodges in Kasane but they were all fully booked. He finally drove us about 10 kilometers north of Kasane to the Toro Safari Lodge in Kazungula where they had room. It was more mid range than top end, but we were happy to ‘slum’ it a bit for a few nights. We would appreciate the luxury of the expensive Okavango Delta lodges all the more after that.
October is the end of the dry season in Botswana and Namibia, and an excellent time to see game by the Chobe river. We were supposed to be picked up the next morning at 5.30 a.m. for an early morning game drive in the park, but no one came for us. The receptionist didn’t arrive till 06:30 when we asked her to call the tour company. There had been a ‘misunderstanding’ but the guide finally came for us at 7 a.m. It was a half hour drive to the park, but the game viewing was good and we were able to stop off in Kasane on our way back to the lodge to buy an adapter to the unusually shaped plugs used, as we discovered, in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

The highlight, though, was the sunset boat cruise on the Chobe river. The wild life was abundant there as all the animals were thirsty in the dry weather.
Seen on the game drive:
Birds: the beautiful coloured lilac-breasted roller, pied kingfisher that dives vertically into the water, red-billed hornbill, African jacana, grey heron, helmeted guinea fowl, Egyptian geese, hammerkop, bee eaters, eagle, little white egret, yellow-billed stork, maribu stork,
Animals: buffalos, lions, elephants, kudus, impalas, waterbuck, warthogs, mongoose, and just one giraffe.
We saw most of the above on the boat cruise, except for lions and giraffe. In addition, we saw:
Birds: African darter, cormorants, open-billed stork, greater egret, cattle egret, ox-peckers, long-toed plover, white-fronted bee eaters, carmine bee eaters, squacco heron, black crowned night heron, fish eagle, African skimmers,
Animals: monitor lizards, crocodiles, hippos, red letchwe (antelope), vervet monkeys, baboons, elephants swimming across the river just in front of our boat.