Chobe Park

I reached Botswana together with a travel companion as a stop on a Tour in Southern Africa that also included Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa. Having bought the "Chobe One Day Trip" directly from the owner of our accommodation in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, we were picked up from "Villa Victoria" around 7 in the morning by an elegant minibus that, after about an hour, took us to the border with Botswana. Here, once the exit formalities were completed, we changed vehicle, getting into another minibus that took us to the Botswana border post to fill in the entry form and receive the visa free of charge. We then continued to Kasane, the northernmost town in Botswana, where we were welcomed at the premises of Kalahari Tour. Here we had breakfast, included in the package, consisting of tea and pastries.

Having walked to the nearby bank of the Chobe we boarded the ferry to do the two-hour cruise on the river. At this point the Chobe flows gently, separating the neighbouring banks of Botswana and Namibia. The placid waters are a vital source for the abundant wildlife of the arid Chobe National Park. On the banks we spot green vervet monkeys, elephants, impala, hippos and crocodiles. Feeling as if we were inside a nature documentary, we admire in awe the hippos in single file entering the water, and watch with apprehension as a defenceless antelope breaks away from the group and approaches the bank just a few steps from a crocodile that fortunately ignores it. The river has long stretches covered with vegetation in which elephants and hippos wallow. There is also a great deal of birdlife flying over the area.

Heading back towards the lodge we set off from, we skim the banks of Namibia, which in this part of Africa has its own appendix in the Caprivi Strip, drawn up at the negotiating table by the European powers to give the then German colony an outlet to the Zambezi. Once the cruise is over and we are back at the lodge, we are offered a good buffet lunch. After the meal, in big elegant off-road vehicles, we do a game drive inside the Chobe National Park, covering in practice part of the Botswana bank of the river. We spot mongooses, elephants, antelopes, hippos, giraffes, warthogs, crocodiles and kudu. We make a short stop along the river where we are offered a drink, a kind gesture that we had also enjoyed during the cruise.

Back at the lodge we transfer to the minibus that takes us to the Kazungula border, a strategic point where the borders of four countries meet: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana. Among other things, the border line between Zambia and Botswana is the shortest in the world: 750 metres!! Once the usual customs formalities were done, both on the Botswana and the Zimbabwe side, we leave the Kalahari Tour minibus and get back into the one from Victoria Falls. In an hour we are back at our accommodation in Zimbabwe. It was an intense day; the Chobe is a really beautiful park. Having visited the parks of Kenya on a previous trip I feared I would be disappointed, but that wasn't the case, because the Chobe is different and, although I didn't see any big predators, it allowed me to see numerous animals up close in an environment different from the great savannahs of East Africa.

We avoided going to the Okavango Delta because it was too expensive and because, after watching numerous videos, we weren't convinced we would see much more than what we saw at Chobe. For the record, flying from Zimbabwe to the Republic of South Africa we flew over the salt flats of the Makgadikgadi Pans.