Chapter 14: Chobe Boat



On Friday, our last full day in Botswana, we did a very early-morning game drive and in the afternoon, went into Kasane for awhile to do a bit of shopping. By this time, we found that we would have a little time to do more shopping in Victoria Falls on our way out of Zimbabwe. A few of us tried to book one of the flights over the falls, but found they were all booked up.


A pride of lions gets the scent of breakfast, and the hunt is on.
These two are fitted with radio-tracking collars

Target in sight...

Concentrating fully on the prey, oblivious to our presence.

CHARGE!

But no luck this time, so it's back to the barn.

That evening, instead of a drive, we boarded a double-decker boat and cruised along the Chobe River. Once in awhile, we'd pull up along the banks for a close look at some animals, and got fairly close to some vervet monkeys, crocs, a flock of bright green birds called bee eaters, cape buffalo, the usual lineup. The sunset was again spectacular, but this time, we didn't have quite as good a background as we'd had at Moremi, we were cruising past a line of condos and private boats on the Namibia side of the river at the time, and it just wasn't as scenic.

Scenes from the Chobe River cruise:


A monitor lizard

A cormorant dries its wings

Hippos

Vervet monkeys

A fish eagle



Cape buffalo

A large crocodile



Bee-eater birds

As close as you want to get to a croc this size



An impala sports a fashionable radio-tracking collar

Remains of the day: the carcass of a kudu, killed four days earlier.

All-natural lawnmowers: a pair of warthogs help trim the grass on the Mowana golf course. They have to get down on their knees to get their heads this low.

A slender mongoose...no, that's not a comment on its diet, it's what they're called. I wonder, are there fat slender mongooses? Or is it mongeese?

A lion's eyes glow in the pre-dawn darkness
Photo by Kathy Lindquist

Fresh leopard tracks...but no leopard



The morning commute on the baboon highway


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