Zina in Botswana: It’s been a long time…

To say the least I haven’t felt much like sitting in front of my laptop typing away the details of my African adventures which is sad because I’m sure I’m going to wish I had at some point but some parts you just have to enjoy in the moment.

But I will do my best to recap a little. Last time I blogged I had just finished my first month in Manyana and was spending a few days in the capital city Gaborone before embarking on an AMAZING study trip to Northeastern Botswana which is bordered by Namibia, Zimbabwe, and, Zambia and the waters of Chobe River which brings about the one of the largest concentrations of wildlife in Southern Africa.

We left my victory and rundown bed and breakfast on Friday morning and headed to the airport. I was unsure of what to expect but I knew that we would be arriving stopping off for lunch then heading out to for a sunset boat safari on the Chobe then heading out to our bush camp. The plane ride was only two hours but it was like entering a whole new realm when we arrived in Kasane. It is a big tourist town and there were Lekoga everywhere. Batsi’s statement that we would be staying in a bush camp left all of us under the impression that we would be “roughing it” yet, when we arrived at The Water Lilly Lodge that idea went out the window. Although we wouldn’t be staying at the lodge until Wednesday it was clear that we were going to be doing some luxury camping.

After a quick and DEILCIOUS lunch (this trip is going to call for some serious gymming when I get back to the states) we heading to the boat. It was a beautiful time of day and the Chobe keeps the basin lush and green. And with in five minutes of complementary drinks and pulling out from the dock it happened!!! I SAW MY FIRST ELEPHANT! Although it was hard to capture a picture of this single Elephant on the shore of the river chowing down on some leaves was amazing. Yet, the Elephant was completely un-phased by the gathering of tourist boats. After a few minutes of watching we pulled away and that’s when she moved from her hiding place and began to stroll across the beach. As our three hour tour continued there was no shortage of wildlife, I saw dozens of herds of elephants, hippopotamuses (a baby one too!), herds of antelopes, crocodiles, water buffalos and a wild arrange of birds. Floating down the river as the sunset with Botswana on one side and Zambia on the other was so unreal and if the trip hadn’t already proved to be amazing just as we were turning around we came across a huge dead male hippo with a swarm of crocs feasting, the hippo had ended up upside down keeping the softest meat just out of the reach of the crocs but they were working hard to flip the huge hippo and we got an awesome view of the crocodiles jumping and leaping out of the water sinking there razor sharp teeth into the limbs of the dead hippo. As we moved some that amazing yet gruesome site we were met by the beauty of a waterfront sunset. I have pictures of most of this following, I can try to describe and I can show you the pictures but being feet away from these amazing sights and creatures is pretty indescribable.

Pictures from day one in Kasane