Chobe National Park

This post is about 2 months late…

In late October, we went to Chobe National Park in the north-eastern tip of Botswana. I had gone to the park when I was shadowing another volunteer and wanted to see it again with Matt. The fastest way for us to get to that part of the country is to go through the Caprivi Strip in Namibia. If we had a car, this journey would take less than half a day. However, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we are not allowed to have a car and renting one takes a lot of money and effort. So, we decided to hitch-hike. We got relatively lucky with rides - a government water truck to the border (which is free) and then we only waited an hour at the border for a ride that would take us to the eastern side of the Caprivi Strip. We got a ride with a truck driver delivering toilets, tiles and bathtubs to a furniture store in Katima Mulilo. He was nice enough, but he drove maddeningly slow. The Caprivi Strip is beautiful – it was much greener than Shakawe at the time and there are lots of animals. We saw kudu on the drive and lots of signs warning of elephants and wild dogs. Once we got to Katima Mulilo, we hopped on a combi to the Botswana/Namibia border. The combi driver was trying to get us to the border before it closed. We arrived 5:59, one minute before the border closed. We thought “Yes! We made it!” However we were told that the Botswana border would be closed for sure and if we crossed and tried to get back into Namibia they would have to arrest us. Hmm…what do we do? Do we cross and get stuck in between countries or do we stay the night in Namibia. Luckily, the Namibians were very nice to us. We were just going to pitch a tent somewhere, but they had us stay the night at the police station. It wasn’t a restful night – there was a prisoner who was really loud so they decided to let him out so he can join their conversation. Strange, but we figured one guy couldn’t fight off 7 police officers. The next morning we successfully crossed the border. We walked across a bridge that goes over the Zambezi River and it was breathtaking. We saw a herd of kudu and lots of signs of elephants. We were glad we didn’t end up camping on the bridge or near the Botswana gate because we would have been in the thick of wildlife habitat.

Once we got back into Botswana, we got a ride to Kasane. Along the way we saw sable antelope, zebras and an elephant! That day we set up our tent at Chobe Safari Lodge and explored Kasane. We also booked a game drive for that afternoon. The game drive was very nice – we saw tons of elephants, lots of birds, impala, warthogs, hippos and buffalo. We would have loved to see more of the park, but that will have to wait until we rent a vehicle when friends and family visit. That night, we had a lovely dinner of cheese, meat, bread, crackers and wine next to the river. The next day we went to Pandamatenga to visit another Peace Corps Volunteer’s garden project. It was interesting to hear how she went about planning the garden and the techniques she used. We had lunch at a cute little lodge then had a drink at an exclusive camp. The camp has a watering hole for the elephants, which was fun. There were so many elephants! Of course, elephants do a lot of damage, so the trees in the surrounding area looked sad. On our last full day, we treated ourselves to a nice breakfast at the lodge. It was so delicious and we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore. It was so good I even put some dried mango in my pocket for a later occasion. Unfortunately, the wait staff saw me do this and they got a good laugh out of it. We then relaxed by the pool and waited for our boat ride. We booked it with an acquaintance of mine, which meant that we scored a private boat ride! It was so nice to be able to take our time with the animals and especially the birds. We could totally nerd out with our binoculars and bird book. We got back in time to watch the sunset over the river from the dock. 

We really enjoyed our vacation to Chobe National Park. It is definitely a destination that we will take visitors. Next time we would like to have our own vehicle so we can explore the park and head to Victoria Falls which is only two hours away from Kasane.