Chobe National Park

Just south of the point where four countries meet (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia), there’s another national park, this one along the Chobe River which meanders over a flat plain at the bottom of a range of hills. Islands are thereby cut off; Botswana/Namibia disputed the ownership of one of them, which was resolved by Dutchmen from the international court in The Hague.

Our hotel had a huge, lofty roof – look at the sheer length of the cross-beams in this structure; they must be 20 metres. I’ve marked a couple of them.

Professional-looking photographers went out onto the river in a special boat with fixed camera mounts, and some serious photo gear.

The park had the usual bird and animal life, here’s two birds, the first one fluorescent blue (and standing on a scattered elephant turd) –

We did several trips, turning out early (before dawn) for the first one. A pride of 7 or 8 lions wandered by, passing about a metre behind our 4WD car.

Our 4WD’s front bullbar included a handy tray that hinged up, so we could place cups of tea on it.

Later we did a boat trip to visit a dead hippopotamus in the water, with many crocodiles hanging around to feast on it. More crocs were on the river bank … I’ve shown crocs already, so I will just show the dentition of this one.

That tired old croc had its eyes shut, but it opened them and gazed upon me with a weary, baleful stare. I stayed on the boat. Rare two-tone elephants from Botswana crossed the river, thereby becoming Namibian elephants –

– and proceeded to cavort in a mud hole that they visit every day. Elephants have very long eyelashes to protect their eyes, as you can see in this close-up of one that was about 5 metres away.

The park, having water from the Chobe river, has comparatively lush vegetation and trees, which showed some magnificent hues at sunset. I swear that I have not photoshopped these pictures.