Today was the first day back on the road in the ATC truck. We have a full truck of fresh new faces.
It was an easy start with breakfast, a tent demonstration & pack up done by 8am. Thankfully for Tom who was suffering from his self inflicted lack of sleep.
There is a group of 6 Spanish speaking girls who appear to be a little bit out of their comfort zones & shocked that its camping & we are required to put our own tents up & down.
It feels like this must happen a lot, we watched the exact same thing happen 23 days ago with the Lithuanians. The rest of the people are from Germany, Poland, UK, Canada & 1 from Australia. There is 27 of us & the truck feels very full again.
The border crossing from Zimbabwe back into Botswana was easy & super quick.
We arrived at our campsite just outside Chobe National Park, Thebes Safari Camp, which is the same campsite we were at 3 days ago.
There is another overnight camping trip in Chobe planned for tonight with a 3 hour game drive in the afternoon & again in the morning. We are not the least bit reluctant or less excited to be going back. Chobe was absolutely amazing last time!
Because our tour group is now so big & Chobe has restrictions on how many people can be at one campsite, 8 of us have to split up & join another ATC group at their campsite. Tom & I don't mind & volunteer.
To our joy we are told that we will be with the ATC trip doing the exact route from Vic Falls to Nairobi that we just did..... This group has Jess & Ryan in it! Yayyyyy
1 more night together in Chobe will be amazing & I'm sure something we will remember.
The game drive is meant to be started at 3pm & we are told to be organised by 2.40pm & waiting where the safari jeep's will pick us up. This would allow plenty of time to drive to the park entrance & check in with the park authorities.
At 3pm the jeeps for both the ATC group are noticeably absent.
Finally after 40 minutes of waiting, 2 small, newer jeeps, different to the previous one we used, have arrived to take the 8 volunteers & one of the ATC groups into the park.
We are happier with this jeep which is smaller, newer & more luxurious with nice padded individual seats & newer suspension. The seats & the suspension will make it more comfortable on the sandy trails, in comparison to the bigger, older truck with the bench seats.
We're fingers crossed hoping for no breakdowns.
We have the same driver as last time, Rocky & he remembers a few familiar faces.
By the time we actually complete check in & enter the park at a different place, further down from the entrance gates its 4:26pm.
I'm slightly grumpy by this, our 3 hour game drive is now only 1.5 hours, we're seeing & physically driving through less national park & will be rushed to get to camp by 6pm as per park regulations. If we see something cool, we don't have the luxury of time to stop & appreciate it. Tom see's even less than me and nap's the whole way till we get into the park.
We start off by seeing 1 pale coloured female Giraffe after 20 minutes driving towards the river.
Next is a large troop of baboons with lots of young ones playing on a sign & the biggest male we've seen yet. There is a small herd of impala & 1 more pale giraffe in the distance.
Finally we see elephants! There are 7 in a group & are mostly females & adolescents. Their was one small calf half hidden by its mother.
We saw a small flock of Guinea fowl & a couple of really pretty pale pink & blue parrots which we haven't been able to find a name for.
We saw 1 very large solo male kudu sitting with a herd of impala & a solo buffalo in the distance.
A few meters down we saw a group of 4 buffalo bulls sitting in the evening sun.
There was some female kudu, 2 zebras, more buffaloes lying down & some giraffes in the distance.
We saw a small herd of elephants, approximately 5, it was hard to count or see them as they were bits & pieces of body parts sticking out from the cover of bushes .
We saw a much bigger herd a short distance away, they were also hidden behind bushes & a further distance away from the jeep.
We see White back vultures in a tree & finally some giraffe close to the road. The female is pale in colour & has a broken horn. The male is noticeably darker, bigger & his horns are thicker without the tufts of hair on top.
We continue to see large baboon troops & impala herds which are the flavour of the day.
At 6.02pm we see a flock of maribou stalks sitting in a tree, facing west which is a method of keeping cool. The sun is setting right behind them & is a huge flaming ball of red! Just behind the stalks is a boat with 2 Namibian fisherman. I don't envy being them & fishing in the crocodile & hippo infested water.
Although Chobe hasn't been bursting with spectacular wildlife sightings & this game drive has finished our lucky streak of seeing big cats at every drive. There was still lots to love & game driving is all about luck.
The sunset was absolutely stunning, of course! It's never a bad afternoon when you're on holiday in Africa, out in nature & looking at something as radiant as the sun setting.
We arrived at our camp by 6.31pm & sadly it was too dark to photograph the campsite.
We are deeper in the park this time & the camp is approximately 48kilometres from the entrance gate where we checked in.
Fingers crossed we will hear some animal noises overnight!
- Alli
It was an easy start with breakfast, a tent demonstration & pack up done by 8am. Thankfully for Tom who was suffering from his self inflicted lack of sleep.
There is a group of 6 Spanish speaking girls who appear to be a little bit out of their comfort zones & shocked that its camping & we are required to put our own tents up & down.
It feels like this must happen a lot, we watched the exact same thing happen 23 days ago with the Lithuanians. The rest of the people are from Germany, Poland, UK, Canada & 1 from Australia. There is 27 of us & the truck feels very full again.
The border crossing from Zimbabwe back into Botswana was easy & super quick.
We arrived at our campsite just outside Chobe National Park, Thebes Safari Camp, which is the same campsite we were at 3 days ago.
There is another overnight camping trip in Chobe planned for tonight with a 3 hour game drive in the afternoon & again in the morning. We are not the least bit reluctant or less excited to be going back. Chobe was absolutely amazing last time!
Because our tour group is now so big & Chobe has restrictions on how many people can be at one campsite, 8 of us have to split up & join another ATC group at their campsite. Tom & I don't mind & volunteer.
To our joy we are told that we will be with the ATC trip doing the exact route from Vic Falls to Nairobi that we just did..... This group has Jess & Ryan in it! Yayyyyy
1 more night together in Chobe will be amazing & I'm sure something we will remember.
The game drive is meant to be started at 3pm & we are told to be organised by 2.40pm & waiting where the safari jeep's will pick us up. This would allow plenty of time to drive to the park entrance & check in with the park authorities.
At 3pm the jeeps for both the ATC group are noticeably absent.
Finally after 40 minutes of waiting, 2 small, newer jeeps, different to the previous one we used, have arrived to take the 8 volunteers & one of the ATC groups into the park.
We are happier with this jeep which is smaller, newer & more luxurious with nice padded individual seats & newer suspension. The seats & the suspension will make it more comfortable on the sandy trails, in comparison to the bigger, older truck with the bench seats.
We're fingers crossed hoping for no breakdowns.
We have the same driver as last time, Rocky & he remembers a few familiar faces.
By the time we actually complete check in & enter the park at a different place, further down from the entrance gates its 4:26pm.
I'm slightly grumpy by this, our 3 hour game drive is now only 1.5 hours, we're seeing & physically driving through less national park & will be rushed to get to camp by 6pm as per park regulations. If we see something cool, we don't have the luxury of time to stop & appreciate it. Tom see's even less than me and nap's the whole way till we get into the park.
We start off by seeing 1 pale coloured female Giraffe after 20 minutes driving towards the river.
Next is a large troop of baboons with lots of young ones playing on a sign & the biggest male we've seen yet. There is a small herd of impala & 1 more pale giraffe in the distance.
Finally we see elephants! There are 7 in a group & are mostly females & adolescents. Their was one small calf half hidden by its mother.
We saw a small flock of Guinea fowl & a couple of really pretty pale pink & blue parrots which we haven't been able to find a name for.
We saw 1 very large solo male kudu sitting with a herd of impala & a solo buffalo in the distance.
A few meters down we saw a group of 4 buffalo bulls sitting in the evening sun.
There was some female kudu, 2 zebras, more buffaloes lying down & some giraffes in the distance.
We saw a small herd of elephants, approximately 5, it was hard to count or see them as they were bits & pieces of body parts sticking out from the cover of bushes .
We saw a much bigger herd a short distance away, they were also hidden behind bushes & a further distance away from the jeep.
We finally reach the river & see hundreds of baboons strolling along the sand. There is a small flock of yellow bill stalks & directly behind them is 4 crocodiles lying on an island of mud. Up ahead is 6 giraffe having a drink in the last of the sun light.
Further along we can see heaps of paw prints, our guide told us they were from lions & he has estimated they were done this morning.
We see White back vultures in a tree & finally some giraffe close to the road. The female is pale in colour & has a broken horn. The male is noticeably darker, bigger & his horns are thicker without the tufts of hair on top.
We continue to see large baboon troops & impala herds which are the flavour of the day.
At 6.02pm we see a flock of maribou stalks sitting in a tree, facing west which is a method of keeping cool. The sun is setting right behind them & is a huge flaming ball of red! Just behind the stalks is a boat with 2 Namibian fisherman. I don't envy being them & fishing in the crocodile & hippo infested water.
Although Chobe hasn't been bursting with spectacular wildlife sightings & this game drive has finished our lucky streak of seeing big cats at every drive. There was still lots to love & game driving is all about luck.
The sunset was absolutely stunning, of course! It's never a bad afternoon when you're on holiday in Africa, out in nature & looking at something as radiant as the sun setting.
We arrived at our camp by 6.31pm & sadly it was too dark to photograph the campsite.
We are deeper in the park this time & the camp is approximately 48kilometres from the entrance gate where we checked in.
Fingers crossed we will hear some animal noises overnight!
- Alli
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