Friday, March 14, 2008

Chobe National Park, Botswana (March 9-10, 2008)

Chobe National Park in northeastern Botswana (near the border with Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe) encompasses 11,000 square km of riverside, woodland and marshland. Unlike Etosha NP in Namibia, Chobe NP is not fenced, and we began to see elephants on the side of the road hundreds of kilometers from the official park entrance.

We went for a morning game drive through the park, as well as a late afternoon river cruise, and we saw some spectacular wildlife: hippos, elephants, crocodiles, baboons, kudus, fish eagles, hornbills, vultures and the ever-present impalas. We also saw plenty of lion paw prints, but no lions...yet.

Sinister looking vultures keep an eye out for their next meal. Our guide told us that the eight-lion pride in Chobe has taken to killing elephants for food, and we drove by a week-old carcass that was surrounded by vultures!
Young impalas play-fight while another watches
A red-billed hornbill

A crocodile relaxes in the dirt beside a water hole

An African fish eagle

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