26 Oct 2022
We did this one day tour and it was fantastic from start to finish. Chobe is a magical area full to the brim with wildlife. The day started with a taxi journey to the border from our hotel setting off around 8am where we met our local guide Phil. Phil was awesome. Getting over the Botswana border is straightforward enough. From here we travelled (just the three of us) in the open sided safari vehicle and it's not far to the entrance to the national park. On the way we stopped at a supermarket to add to the contents of our cool box.
Phil seemed to know everyone and another guide stopped to tell him about the location of a male lion so off we went. We arrived upon a scene with several other vehicles near this lion. At first Phil put us near the middle of the cars, and quickly some instinct caused him top reverse the vehicle to the back. At that moment the lion stood up and pranced right past us! Well done Phil!
Chobe is very full of wildlife, but there are also a lot of other safari vehicles. So it felt a bit like a circus at times. But the elephants were so massive in number we just had an amazing experience alongside them frolicking in the mud and the water. At one point Phil helped an Austrian couple get their vehicle unstuck from the sand. Cheers all round!
We also spotted a few giraffes and hippos as well as some beautiful birds. Phil knew about them all of course and answered all our questions.
After a couple of hours of driving around the park we were taken to lunch at a nearby lodge with a decent buffet of hot food and deserts.
for the afternoon we took a boat trip. We were united with a group of 6 others but with Phil again at the helm. Here were took a small motorboat along the watery border with Namibia stopping to see crocodiles, birds and spotting hippos. It was a beautiful scene with elephants dotting the landscape both near and far. This was also a two hour trip and very beautiful.
Then it was back to the border and the taxi laid on by Maano for our return to Livingstone. An absolutely unforgettable day. Bring your camera.