Chobe Riverfront
The Chobe River forms part of the border between Namibia and Botswana as it meanders in twists and turns until it flows into the Zambezi. Our lodge is on the Namibian waterfront across from Botswana’s renowned Chobe National Park.
There is no road on the Namibian side (well, there is, but it’s a very rough dirt track, two ruts, for more than 30 miles at max 12 mph), so to get here, we exited Namibia, crossed into Botswana, drove 20 miles on good road through the national park to another border crossing to go back into Namibia. Fortunately, our driver, Travis, does this often, so he walked us through the process, and four passport stamps later, we were on a boat to take us to the lodge 10 miles back up the river.
Our game drives here have all been by boat. Smooth ride on the river, no dust and the perspective is quite different. Plus it’s much cooler on the water. In a land vehicle, you are sitting high up, on the boat you are low. Our boat driver, named Admire, is a good guide, knows all the birds and animals, their habits and life cycles and is very conscious about making sure everyone on the boat is ready to move on before he starts the engine.
The boat engine is much quieter than a land safari vehicle and he often coasts in to the shore with the engine off. Most of the animals don’t have predators that attack from the river, so they let us get quite close. We’ve been within 5 feet of baboons and elephants and impalas, at a level like we are sitting on the ground. The birds fly away because they’re birds. Hippos don’t let us get too close, probably because they lead water-centric lives and boats are always zipping along over their submerged heads. Crocodiles do let us get close, probably because no one messes with crocs.
Speaking of which, yesterday Admire took us for a sundowner cruise. He stopped where a pride of lions was basking in the late afternoon sun. They were intently watching a mob of crocs chomping on the carcass of a dead elephant in the water, just a few feet offshore. Admire told us that if the crocodiles didn’t drag the body farther out into the river, the lions would wait until dark and try to pull it up on land.
As we watched this little drama, Admire was mixing up gin and tonics for us and a very nice Swiss couple who were on the boat with us. Another boat from our lodge, with four Italian women was next to us also enjoying G&Ts. Two other boats (big cat sightings always draw a crowd, the guides radio or phone each other) were ridiculous affairs, photographer specialty boats, each with 5 swivel chairs, each chair with an attached big mount for their 3 foot long lenses. They had nice cameras but we had better drinks, we all had a good laugh at that, but we didn’t share.
Our lodge is only accessible by water, with 8 nice units and a very friendly staff. No A/C, they are on solar power, but sitting on the veranda as I write this, I am enjoying a beautiful view of the river with a herd of over 100 elephants across the water, in the shade with a cooling breeze. Best of all, this is the first place we have stayed that has no German guests. The closest was the Swiss couple and she is English. When we arrived, there were 6 Italians here in two groups, an older couple who we met at the previous place and 4 women, one of whom is related to the owner of the lodge.