From land to water – July 9 | Tales of our Travels

This morning we got the early wake up call (5.15am) for the morning safari. After coffee and toast, it was into the open trucks again. They think of everything at our lodge, and sent us out with hot water bottles and issued lined capes with hoods to keep us toasty while we ventured out in the freezing morning. Unfortunately, we were still frozen to the bone when we got back, but I’m sure it would have been worse without the capes and hotties. Being out and about in the park as the sun came up was beautiful. We saw more groups of elephants, zebra and giraffes. Our mission was to find some lions, and our guide (we had Nick this morning) was good at tracking. He spotted lion tracks across the sandy road, and we searched for ages for the lions, but all to no avail.
We departed from Muchenje Lodge after breakfast, and I regret not spending a few more days here to sit on the deck and take in the view and the animals, looking over the Chobe River valley to Namibia.
First we visited the village of Muchenje, where we went to the home of a ‘local’. One of her 10 children is a laundry maid at the lodge. It was a great visit, and humbling to see up close the difference in our circumstances.
We then drove in to Kasane, which is quite a crowded tourist spot, with heaps of lodges lining the river. We boarded a houseboat which will be our home for the next two nights. It travels up and down the Chobe River, and usually the Zambezi when the water level is higher. The border between Namibia and Botswana is a line down the middle of the river, so we did the passport stamping thing twice again – that’s out of Botswana and into Namibia.
The boat has 4 double rooms, and we were joined by four ladies from Sydney (a bit like Sex in the City on tour) who were great company. They seemed to cope well with sharing their peaceful boat cruise with two children. They were all grandmothers, and enjoyed having our boys teach them how to use their cameras.
We cruised up the river and moored opposite a popular spot for elephants to drink in the evenings. John and the boys went fishing in one of the speedboats, and the ladies went cruising too. So I sat on the deck in the silence of Africa, and watched as up to 100 elephants came and went at the river’s edge, drinking and bathing, playing and shoving each other, licking the ground for mineral salts, and then flicking dust all over themselves. It was different to a safari drive where you move on after a short time. Here, I watched for at least an hour and a half.