Today we started the morning with a river cruise at Camp Kwando before making the drive to Chobe River Camp, right on the border with Botswana. Confusingly we started the day with Botswana 50m to our west, and finished with it 50m to our east. The drive was very easy with tarmac, not all of which was good, all the way to the turn off for the camp. We stopped en route to do a bit of shopping and to try and get some Botswanan currency, we succeeded with the shopping, but again failed with the Botswanan currency. As we arrived into Chobe River Camp, the look of the chalets overlooking the river was too much, so we paid more money than was probably sensible to upgrade. This was however well worth it for the wonderful view from our bedroom, as the sun was setting we were watching a memory of 70 elephants in the setting sun over the river, wonderful.

  • Start: Camp Kwando
  • Destination: Chobe River Camp
  • Distance: 210km
  • Planned Duration: 2h30min
  • Actual Duration: 3h30min
  • Animals Seen: Malachite Kingfisher, Ibis, Woodland Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee Eater, Little Bee Eater, African Grey Hornbill, Black Crake, African Jacana, Wettled Lapwing, African Darter, Bateleur, African Hawk-Eagle, Hippo, Water Snake, Crocodile, Elephants, Giraffe, Zebra, Nyala

Morning River Cruise

We started the day with another river cruise, this time it was just us and the guide on the boat, which made for a very peaceful trip down the river. We saw so much birdlife it was really incredible, with really bright and beautiful birds. Unfortunately with a mixture of my poor birding photography ability and my lens which isn’t long enough, most of the birds do not have a photo, however they were nonetheless lovely to see. We also saw a number of bloats of hippos, in lovely light, however they were all in the water and did not want to play ball and yawn for the camera. Hopefully this wasn’t my last opportunity to get a good hippo yawning photo. 

Drive

The drive was entirely on tarmac, not always good, but still much faster than most of the gravel roads. After getting stopped by the police for forgetting to turn our headlights on, like most of the other cars, we were soon in Katima Mulilo to buy a few supplies for our upcoming trip into Chobe National Park, and to attempt to get some Botswanan Pula for the national park fees. Unfortunately we were again unsuccessful (despite going to 3 banks and 2 currency exchanges), so let’s see how that plays out tomorrow!

Chobe River Camp

As we got to the turn off for Chobe River Camp, a member of staff informed us that the road was shut due to flooding and that there was an alternative road. With the desire not to wait for a vehicle to come and escort us, he gave us some rudimentary directions and we set off, hoping we understood correctly when we ignored the first sign telling us to go right and we went left! After a twisty winding way, with some mud, we arrived at camp and were looking longingly at the beautiful chalets overlooking the river.

At check in we enquired as to if we could upgrade, and thankfully it was possible, for a reasonable amount of money. However this turned out to be a great decision as we had a delightful view from our room over the river. At one point we could see 70 elephants on the other side of the river from our room, as the sun was setting with beautiful light. It also means that we can have an easy quick start tomorrow morning, having had a restful night in a cool room, good preparation to head deep into Chobe National Park tomorrow.