Chobe National Park, Botswana June 18

June 18

My bungalow, one of 12, is approximately 30 ft wide and 15ft deep, facing several water holes only 20 ft away, where elephants, impalas, and other animals often come to drink. At 6:30am my guide comes to escort me to breakfast. At 7am we leave for a game drive. The rising sun creates a sky of light blue and orange (picture 6).
Botswana is 80% sand. The roads we use for the game drives are deep sand, slow, and bumpy, with bush branches swating the canvas on top of the jeep and sometimes us. It is illegal to drive off the road so it is frustrating when we can't get closer to or follow the animals. I see an elephant foot print in the sand with a leopard paw print in the middle of it, many birds, gnus, and impalas. We see elephants, and when one of them comes very close to the road in front of us and gives us the threatening flap of the ears, our guide turns the jeep around so we can be ready to flee.

From the porch where we eat lunch at the lodge, I watch a herd of male impalas and family of elephants at the water holes in front of us (picture 1,2). While we are on our afternoon game drive, a leopard was seen at the water hole at my lodge. Our guide points out a 1200 year old Baobab tree which is pollinated by bats.

Looking for a change from the game drives, I get permission to leave tomorrow, a day early, to visit another lodge for one night, owned by the same company, on a river near the border of Zambia. I will then continue on as originally planned the following day to Zambia (at an additional cost of only $30 to cover extra transfers).

Sitting around the fire with one of the camp managers, I discuss the idea of working at one of the remote lodges I have visited around the world.