Overnight Tom & I didn't wake up to any of the noises. It was a real shame because people heard elephants very close by, lions roaring & hyenas cackling.
We were back in the safari jeep by 6.30am & starting our game drive,
Slightly concerned about the jeep as no one had seen any sign of it being fixed overnight. It took 2 attempts for the jeep to turn over & start.
Surprisingly, it only stalled about 4 times following this. The wildlife was less abundant at this time of day driving along the river. Overnight, a lot of the animals go into the dense bush of Chobe. During the hot afternoon & evening seem's to be the best time to see wildlife at the river, based on what we saw yesterday.
We were back in the safari jeep by 6.30am & starting our game drive,
Slightly concerned about the jeep as no one had seen any sign of it being fixed overnight. It took 2 attempts for the jeep to turn over & start.
Surprisingly, it only stalled about 4 times following this. The wildlife was less abundant at this time of day driving along the river. Overnight, a lot of the animals go into the dense bush of Chobe. During the hot afternoon & evening seem's to be the best time to see wildlife at the river, based on what we saw yesterday.
We did see 1 Giraffe, a Large Baboon troop running along the road & playing in a Baobab tree that had vulture nests in it.
We saw the Impala & Kudu herds & 1 solitary zebra looking very lost.
We were again very lucky to see a large pride of 9 lions. There was 7 females & 2 males all with beautiful coats & thick dark manes. The 2 males were very comfortable together & were grooming each other when we first saw them. They were provoked into a small fight by one of the females who came over & got between them.
We saw Maribo stalks by the river, a pelican in the tree, 3 Corey busted's standing in the morning light & a really large flock of Guinea fowl.
We saw 2 x hippo's lying in the mud & 9 giraffe in a herd. A constant sighting jumping through the grass, sitting in bushes & flying next to the jeep was the Hornbill birds. We still haven't got a good picture! Birds are very very hard to photograph.
We arrived back in the Thebes Safari camp by 10am & were straight into the truck & on our way to the border crossing for Zimbabwe.
Going through the border crossing between Botswana & Zimbabwe took over 2 hours. Unfortunately one of our group, Sari was very sick with abdominal issues & required me to hold her up incase she fainted at the Visa window & walk her to the truck.
1 hour and 40 minutes of that was just lining up to get the Visa on the Zimbabwe side, that had only 1 window open.
Getting stamped out of Botswana was easy & very quick.
Getting stamped out of Botswana was easy & very quick.
while walking through no man's land at the border we saw some pumba's or warthog running down the road & when lining up at the Zimbabwe border, we could hear elephants trumpeting.
Jurumba gave us a brief history on our new country of travel.
Zimbabwe was known as the shopping basket of Africa within the first 10 years of Robert Margawbe.
The economy crashed after the white people were kicked out. Zim dollars was worth next to nothing & the country adopted US dollars.
2018 Margawbe stepped down & has been replaced by his vice president.
The country has 13 million people with a declining population due to people leaving the country.
The economy crashed after the white people were kicked out. Zim dollars was worth next to nothing & the country adopted US dollars.
2018 Margawbe stepped down & has been replaced by his vice president.
The country has 13 million people with a declining population due to people leaving the country.
Once through the border it took us 2 hours to drive to our next campsite in the town of Victoria falls.
Tourism is obviously a booming industry in Africa & places like the Town of Victoria Falls have rapidly changed in the 5 years since I was last here.
Last time we stayed in a basic campsite, I think it was called The Vic Falls Rest Camp. This time we stayed in the Sheerwater resort & although in tents we had great shower facilities, a pool, bar & restaurant. There was a local craft market just outside the camp site & the town of Victoria falls just up the road.
Victoria falls was only about 2km's down the road.
We set up our tents & had a briefing in the reception area with our late lunch. Tom & I were super excited to have a few days of relaxing & catch up. After lunch we relaxed by the pool & soaked up the sun. A late dinner was organized to say goodbye to the 12 people leaving the tour.
Tom & I were still stuffed from our late lunch & just shared a salad, plus ate other peoples side salads that would of otherwise been wasted.
After dinner a large game of Uno was organized with Sarah, Simon, Leah, Noria, Jess & Ryan, (our friends from Aus) Tom & myself. The game slowly dwindled down to just Sarah, Simon & myself.
When this finished Tom went to the pub down the road with a big group of people from our tour & I stayed to chat with Jess & Ryan.
Time can really fly when you're having fun & we completely forgot our exhaustion & the passage of time.
All of a sudden Tom appeared looking dishevelled from sleep & relieved that I hadn't been eaten by a hippo.
It was 4.30am !! He had been to the pub, arrived back & slept a few hours, only to awake & find me still not in the tent.
I quickly said my good night's, tried not digest my shock, acknowledged the 3 empty bottles of wine & scampered off to bed.
- Alli
Tourism is obviously a booming industry in Africa & places like the Town of Victoria Falls have rapidly changed in the 5 years since I was last here.
Last time we stayed in a basic campsite, I think it was called The Vic Falls Rest Camp. This time we stayed in the Sheerwater resort & although in tents we had great shower facilities, a pool, bar & restaurant. There was a local craft market just outside the camp site & the town of Victoria falls just up the road.
Victoria falls was only about 2km's down the road.
We set up our tents & had a briefing in the reception area with our late lunch. Tom & I were super excited to have a few days of relaxing & catch up. After lunch we relaxed by the pool & soaked up the sun. A late dinner was organized to say goodbye to the 12 people leaving the tour.
Tom & I were still stuffed from our late lunch & just shared a salad, plus ate other peoples side salads that would of otherwise been wasted.
After dinner a large game of Uno was organized with Sarah, Simon, Leah, Noria, Jess & Ryan, (our friends from Aus) Tom & myself. The game slowly dwindled down to just Sarah, Simon & myself.
When this finished Tom went to the pub down the road with a big group of people from our tour & I stayed to chat with Jess & Ryan.
Time can really fly when you're having fun & we completely forgot our exhaustion & the passage of time.
All of a sudden Tom appeared looking dishevelled from sleep & relieved that I hadn't been eaten by a hippo.
It was 4.30am !! He had been to the pub, arrived back & slept a few hours, only to awake & find me still not in the tent.
I quickly said my good night's, tried not digest my shock, acknowledged the 3 empty bottles of wine & scampered off to bed.
- Alli
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