Blog Archive

Sunday, January 26, 2025

20250126 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 62/96 - Chobe Game Lodge, Botswana

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 62/96 - Day #2 at Chobe - Game Drives and Boat Rides

 

ZeroDark Thirty - that's what time we started this morning. OK, the clock said 5:30, but it was dark. We did put laundry out as the lodge provides free laundry services. Nice!

No sun yet, no problem - we started looking

There are so many impalas here that you almost can't look anywhere without seeing one, or fifty

Red-billed spurfowl


We always saw helmeted guineafowl in pairs until today

We saw a pair of jackals - the first of this trip





This one was favoring its left rear leg






Ah...sunrise

A different variety of flame lily than we saw in Zimbabwe

This lilac-breasted roller was stunning- note the tail extensions



A beautiful southern red-billed hornbill

Hippos - at least a dozen




Egyptian goose

Baboons blocking the road.


We saw some Cape Buffalo, also known as African Buffalo, across the Chobe River in Namibia

We saw a small group of vervet monkeys hanging around in a large tree







I wonder what it was pondering


A less-colorful variety of bee-eater than we saw yesterday


They really blend in with the trees

Your daily dose of baboon sex - he climbed right on her legs

A goose and a dove, sharing the top of a dead tree

We found this lion, hidden in the shrubs - check out that eye

Another lion was flopped on its side, swishing its tail with its head hidden

Of course we saw giraffes



Grey lourie, also known as the grey go-away-bird

They are known for their distinctive call that sounds like "G'way", hence the nickname


Blacksmith lapwing

We drove past some trees and found a huge herd of African buffalo







They have nearly 45,000 elephants here



Another beautiful lilac-breasted roller, but this time, no extended tail


We arrived back at the lodge around 8:45 and got breakfast

With almost zero downtime, we were back at it at 11:00 for another boat tour on the Chobe River.

African darter - in the U.S., we call them anhingas


A stunning giant kingfisher - the largest of the kingfishers





A mating pair of African fish eagles

A couple of warthogs were out for a morning stroll


How African is that - a hippo looking at an elephant

There are so many hippos here - we see them in the water all the time







The Chobe River and the big African sky

These swallows followed us and were darting all around the boat


They were so fast, I was lucky to capture them



We returned to the lodge around 12:45 and went to lunch. As we were receiving our food, this group of entertainers performed for several minutes.


It was a definite positive for today.

We had about 90 minutes until our next activity. I got this morning's photos processed and Arlona took a nap. She said, "Five minutes" but that was a lie. :-)

At 3:30, we met the group for our afternoon game drive. I planned to be more selective about my photos as you only need so many images of impala, elephant, hippo, etcetera. Well, that was the plan.

Our mission today was big cats, but unfortunately, the big cats didn't coordinate. That doesn't mean today was a disappointment. We saw some incredible things, including seeing nursing impalas, nursing elephants, nursing baboons, and being challenged by two elephants simultaneously. Let's get into it.

Right out of the gate, we came across a nursing impala and its baby.



Then, we came across a quintessentially African setting - a wide-open area populated with elephants and giraffes.




We enjoyed watching the young giraffes figure out how to widen their stance to be able to bend and drink




We spotted a hippo out of the water on the Namibia side

So many elephants


Two young ones, play-fighting


If you're into elephants, check this out. Warning: it's around ten minutes long.


Giraffes were all over the place today too


More drinking practice

A crocodile

That's not a yawn - it opens its mouth to help regulate temperature

Hippos were playing today


It wasn't aggressive - it truly looked like play




A parent with a baby


We saw lots of hippos out of the water - this time on the Botswana side




Nearly everywhere we went today, elephants were there - typically with little ones






This giraffe has both red-billed and yellow-billed oxpeckers working on it







We found a group of lazy, exhibitionist baboons. There was also a baby baboon - the first we've seen this young.

Letting it all hang out

Family photo

A very young baby baboon



Grabbing a little milk from Mama


A post from BQ - Baboon Quarterly


Ladies - anyone...




A kori bustard - Botswana's national bird

We struck out on finding a leopard. We returned to where the lions were this morning and they were still there with cubs. Unfortunately, the trucks there ahead of us kept their position, keeping us from getting a look until the cubs were back in the brush.

At one point, they were right by the trail

The females went back to snoozing



We encountered a kudu who didn't seem to like the oxpeckers like the giraffes do


Sun was setting 

Our rag-tag group 

We returned to the lodge as the sun disappeared. We enjoyed another nice dinner. I tried gembock, a beef-like meat from a type of antelope local to this area. It was lean and tasted good. We returned to the room for an early evening. Our laundry was on the bed, clean and nicely folded.

Tomorrow's schedule is the same as today's. 

0530 - game drive
0900 - breakfast
1100 - boat ride
1300 - lunch
1530 - game drive
1900 - dinner

So, we'll be running again from before sunrise until after sunset. Tomorrow is our last full day here in Chobe so we plan to make the most of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

20250127 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 63/96 - Chobe Game Lodge, Botswana

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 63/96 - Day #3 at Chobe - More Drives and Rides, and Cats It was another early morning for us with the phone ri...