Today we started the day with a morning game drive, which was the quietest drive we have had so far but we saw our biggest crocodile and had a lovely experience with a family of elephants, where the baby just wanted to play with his cousin, while the cousin just wanted to sleep. When we arrived in Kasane we enjoyed some good coffee, before having Chobe Bream for lunch, quite a contrast from the last few days in the wilderness! In the afternoon we did a sunset river cruise which was wonderful with elephants playing in the river, and more importantly, hippos in great light on the ground and a hippo yawning in great light in the river.
- Start: Ihaha Campsite
- Destination: Senyati Safari Camp
- Distance: 75km
- Planned Duration: 1h30min
- Actual Duration: 11 hours (with a game drive, an afternoon in kasane and sunset boat cruise)
- Animals Seen: Jackal, Giraffe, Zebra, Elephant, Impala, Hippo, Baboon, Springbok, Crocodile, African Fish Eagle, Marabou Stork, Kori Bustard, Lilac-breasted Roller, Yellow-billed Egret, Helmeted Guinnea Fowl, African Openbill, Other Antelope, Nile Monitor Lizard, Pied Kingfisher, African Darter, Warthog, Goliath Heron, Red-billed Oxpecker, Water Buffalo, Red Lechwe
Morning Game Drive
After watching elephants moving around literally just outside our roof tent as we went to sleep, we were a bit disappointed to wake up with no elephants, one of our thoughts was to have breakfast watching the sunrise from our campsite over the elephants. It is safe to say the drive this morning started off fairly slowly, the elephants had all vanished to wherever they were sleeping, and it seemed like most of the wildlife was still in bed. This meant I wasn’t able to take advantage of the beautiful golden hour light, however we still saw some giraffe, just not in a suitable place to photograph.
On our drive around we saw multiple Jackal, some impala and some other antelope, before catching sight of a hippo bathing, at the aptly named “Hippo Pool”. While searching for more Hippos, we noticed that there were a number of crocodile as well, some of them doing a pretty good hippo impression in the water. It was great to finally see a large crocodile, as so far we have only seen pretty small ones. On the drive out of the park we saw a number of giraffe, still in some fairly nice light, and found lots of elephants.
A particular highlight was a family of elephants with one very small baby, who just wanted to play with another larger, but still small, young elephant. However the other elephant just wanted to sleep, but the scene that played out between them was beautiful. On the rest of the drive we saw some more hippos, but they were too far away to take decent photos of really, hopefully we see a lot more later on the boat cruise.
As we drove out of the park, there was a hint of sadness as this is the last self-drive we will be doing, as we give our truck back tomorrow morning.
Drive
The drive was very small today, with most of it being in the park. After a short drive we arrived in Kasane, where we stopped at the wonderful Coffee Buzz for a morning coffee to undo the impacts of yet another pre-sunrise start. The food menu also looked great, so we enjoyed a fantastic Chobe Bream for lunch, which was really delicious.
Sunset Boat Cruise
One of the highly recommended activities todo from Kasane was a boat cruise, as our campsite was not on the river we decided to book a cruise directly from Kasane, and head to the campsite afterwards. We booked the cruise with Chobe Safari Lodge, as they allowed non-residents to book if there was space. This turned out to be a great decision as we met up with a group who we had met a few days before, who were cycling to Victoria Falls which was nice, the guide was very knowledgeable and the pilot generally put the boat in a great position to take advantage of the nice evening light.
At the start of the cruise we spent a lot of time with elephants, which was lovely, especially when they were bathing, as we were able to get angles which just were not possible from the ground. Here it was also different, as the water was very clean, so the elephants emerged completely clean from the bathing. The male elephants also spent a lot of time playing in the water, before doing some mock fighting on the shore.
Having spent two full days in Chobe National Park, I was starting to get some elephant fatigue, so I was glad when we moved on. This was especially the case as I had two hopes for the cruise, a hippo in nice light on the ground, who was also close, and a hippo yawning with nice light. Shortly after leaving the elephants I managed to achieve both of these aims, with the additional benefit of the hippo on the land having a baby. After I had achieved both of these, I proclaimed that I was done, although clearly this didn’t last and I was quickly taking photos again.
On our way back on the cruise I was also lucky enough to catch an elephant on the island in lovely light, a male hippo re-entering the water and a large crocodile, who was very docile on the river bank. Slightly later than planned we got back to Kasane, so we had to head to the car quickly and drive to the campsite to ensure we arrived before dark.
As I sit here at Senyati Safari Camp, we are watching an elephant drinking from the waterhole from the restaurant and their underground hide, which feels like a suitable way to end our day. Tomorrow we give the truck back to Bushlore, which has been brilliant, so this was, unfortunately, our last time in Chobe National Park.
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