This was the all-encompassing centerpiece of the day, with us being picked up at 7:10 am, joining a group of seven others in a mini-bus for the one hour drive down to the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana. On the ride itself, we saw a couple impala (which would become a very much welcome, amazingly frequent site), and a few giraffe poking their head above fairly tall trees. It was a nice little amouse bouche. The logistics from reaching the border to actually getting the safari proper started were jumbled at best. The border crossing was in two stages, which was fine enough. We were then loaded into an caravan-jeep which took us through a 20-minute stretch of Zimbabwe up to the "Chobe Safari Lodge". Chobe National Park is a huge expanse of land - we saw areas that were generally in the "Chobe River Flood Plain" part of the park, which was good enough to say the least.
The first part of the tour was a river boat cruise through the low-lying Zambezi River, which despite us being in the rainy season (had a pristine, blue-sky day, thankfully!), was at most 9 feet deep. The boat captain / safari guide kept saying early on that during the dry season, when water is far less plentiful and the River bed only a few feet, this is a much more common gathering place. That blunt honesty was, honestly, not needed as we would soon find out. The tour was genearlly us going in the boat betwee4n river bank on one side, and rows or reeds and grass on the other end, slowing down to either a crawl or ashore when nature gave reason. The first few stops were generally to see birds - all resplendent, beautiful and sharp on their own, from kingfishers to African Jacana, to Egrets and the like. But about 20 minutes in, we saw a couple kudu on the river bank, befitted with giant, twisting horns. We parked on the shore literally five feet from them, and they just stood there gracefully. Now we were off.
The rest of the roughly two hours asea were spent just traipsing back and forth seeing various incredible game. First came roughly 50 impala of all ages together in a pack grazing by the bank, again not the least surprised nor annoyed by our camera-wielding presence. From there we turned more to the reed side of the river, which gave us ample opportunity to see hippos barely peeking their bodies and faces out of the river, and a couple creepy crocodiles, and a whole slew of birds of various sizes and species. Finally about an hour in, we saw the first of many elephant encounters. Of course, we didn't know at the time elephants would become a common occurrence, but this was maybe the best set of them all. It was a herd of about 20 elephants, including one just absolutely adorable little guy that the guide said was probably roughly 2-3 months old. The shore had a bunch of grass, but no real trees, so we got a fully unblocked view of these majestic, lovely creatures, out for a mid-day mud bath and graze. We probably stayed there roughly 20 minutes, but left not a second too soon.
That was probably the highlight of the first half of the safari day, and it was followed by a reasonably good buffet lunch at the Chobe Safari Lodge, which had a great wood and ratan covered giant open area which people sat and ate. They had quite good chicken legs, beef salad and an interesting African take on a samosa. It was quite good food to just keep the day going for the main event, the game drive.
A couple things to get out of the way before going into all the brilliance of the game drive. First, there is a difference between this and a proper multi-day safari. Most actual safaris would plan their game drive for either dawn, dusk or night. As this was a rush job to get us into Chobe, see a bunch of stuff, and out all in one day, this was not the best time. Spoiler alert, but it didn't matter in teh slightest. Second, about 20 minutes in, our jeep got a fully punctured tire. Luckily the jeep had a spare and a jack and we were setup for a quick fix, before the driver found out that the jeep was missing its tire wrench. We were stuck. No service, no signal, just waiting for the next jeep to come along. It took 20 minutes, but in that time, we did have a solitary elephant amble across the way, about maybe 200 feet away in an open clearing. A little bit of fun in an otherwise scary time. As the next jeep did come, we got it fixed - all in all it was a 30 minute pause that felt like longer, and I commend the jeep driver / safari guide for not letting it upset the way the tour was held.
Anyway, back to the real stuff. About 20 feet into the safari, we saw a bunch of impala. They truly are everywhere, in herds, alone, with big horns, with little knubs for horns. I would estimate we saw roughly 400 impala over the course of the 2.5 hour game drive, and this was all mostly within 15 feet of the jeep. God knows how many are truly in the park. About five minutes later, we came upon a little watering hole, with a family of warthogs, including 3-4 babies that were just adorable. Admittedly baby animals of any species generally are cute, but you wouldn't have thought that way about warthogs I guess.
After the punctured tire dalliance, we continued on our way, driving close to the riverbank to observe 4-5 mainly solo elephants, many splashing themselves with water to cool down. After driving back up the hill, we drove for about 10 minutes with an elevated view of the riverbank and saw quite a lot of elephants, and more improtantly hippos now fully out of the water just grazing. We weren't really close enough to get a good view, but seeing their lumbering bodies was cool enough.
To be honest, I don't know how to properly describe the rest of it, so I'll just go with a few hits. First was all the elephant encounters, particularly one where we saw a herd of 15 or so, full with maybe 7 adults, 4-5 youths and 2-3 babies, grazing and then decide to cross over the dirt road right in front of us. Unsure why, but they were quite nice to give us that good of a show. Second, was probably the only real multi-species viewing of the day, where we saw the umpteenth set of 20+ impala grazing, but this time with 2-3 giraffes right behind them. Giraffes are just an astonishing creature up close. Obviously we all kind of know what a giraffe is, and similarly its defining feature, but truly that neck is something else.
Third, of course, were the Lions. They happened in the last quarter of the drive, about the time we had seen ample of every other creature (save for giraffe, more on them later), but we all were itching to see some lion. Suddenly, the jeep veered off the dirt path into the grass. There was an unfamiliar smell in the air. The driver told us to keep quiet and just don't do anything sudden, if you act normal, they won't care. We all knew at that point. The three lions, two male and one female, with lazing (if not outright napping in teh case of the supine female) under low trees, but we got close and they did not startle. They just were awesome. The series of branches and leaves obscured their faces at times, but at one point one of the males got up and wandered out of the tree directly at us. It was not eight feet away from my face. I was scared - teh driver told us it won't do anything. The driver was right, and I got out of my catatonic state just quick enough to get one good photo of a lion in profile. The day was made.
The final bit of good luck was actually on the drive back from teh border to Victoria Falls, when we came across a series of 5-6 giraffe, this time with only a couple thinned out trees among them. We finally got our group giraffe photo spot. The mini-bus driver obligingly pulled over and we got some great photos of these incredible animals, a perfect little unexpected cherry to a wonderful day at safari.
Dinner back in Victoria Falls was at Marula Cafe, which is a really nicely decorated indoor/outdoor spot on the main drag. We split two starters, one a lightly fried local anchovy-like fish with a nice aoili, and an ostrich satay, both presented great and quite tasty. We then split two mains (still a bit full from the buffet lunch) of a peri-peri half chicken (good, but far spicier than Nando's), and a springbok shank with polenta and veggies, which was great. The food here is western inspired, but really, really tasty and a great last meal in Victoria Falls. The night ended with us still so giddy from the safari that we replayed all the photos we took (some would say too many, I would say not enough) and star-gazed the cloudless, bright sky. A day that from start to finish wowed.
