"You could touch the elephants but they will turn over the truck"

I need to stop pretending that I will sleep to the time that I decide every evening I am. Again I was up as the sun rose at 530. My big plans and thus excitement for the day might have contributed this time. I was at breakfast right as it opened because the shuttle was coming to pick me up at 710. Breakfast at this place is so wonderful that it is hard for me to rush. This is a nice change from almost every other breakfast in my life. Today at breakfast I was joined by a small bird who wanted me to share. I am a self-described food sharer but I thought this was inappropriate in this context plus my plate was completely devoid of bread. He eventually moved on to find someone who would do his bidding. 

The shuttle came early and the only other passenger was a German man named Sven. He introduced himself and said he had been at a congress in Cape Town. As it turns out he is a urologist. We talked about our different health care systems and he told me that he only pre-stents his stone patients almost never leaving a post procedure stent (99.9% of the people who might be reading this who are not me #dontcare, however I thought this was cool.).

As we approached the Zimbabwe part of the Botswana border our driver warned us that there were no pictures and that the police are very corrupt. We got stamped and moved on to the Botswana portion where we were given to our guide for the day. He told us how to answer the questions they asked us very specifically. That we were only coming for a day safari, etc.  I also learned "dumela" (followed by ma (women) or ra (man)) as a greeting. After passing immigration we each had to clean our shoes in a shoe wash. He explained this is because of their beef trade. 

Back in the safari truck we drove through town to the river dock were we were to do our Chobe River cruise. On the way we passed a Baobab tree!! And it had leaves!! And I was so in awe that I don't have a picture!! Baobab trees are also called the "tree of life" and "the upside down tree." They can grow up to 98 ft tall and have up to 36 foot diameters. Their huge trunks hold up to 120,000 gallons of water and they are leafless for most of the year. It is called the "tree of life" for a variety of reasons. It has been known to provide food (their fruit called monkey bread is high in vitamin C), Shelter (somewhere in South Africa there is a bar inside the trunk of one) and clothing (the cork-like bark is fire retardant so people actually make clothing and rope out of it).

We signed in at the dock and they offered us muffins and tea while we waited for the rest of our party. There would be 9 of us in all:  7 Americans (one with no inside voice who kept talk-shouting and scaring some of the animals even though she was repeatedly asked to lower her voice. She meant well, but geez. She also didn't listen because one of the themes of her very loud rhetoric was to ask a question that had just been answered followed by "WELLLLLL OK"), 1 German, and one Swiss woman. As we pulled into the river our guide immediately pointed out Namibia (the other bank).

We cruised the river for several hours seeing a variety of birds and animals all coming to drink or from the river.  We spent time with each animal as our guide taught us about them.

This is the low season here, therefore there is a central island that all of the animals that can swim come to.  It is called Sidudu Island and has caused stress between the two countries in the past. So much that they took it to International Court of Justice who ruled that the island was Botswana's because of river depth. On this island animals are almost completely safe. Found here among other things were the older male buffalo referred to as the daga boys because of their affinity for the mud (they also very much like the soft grass because of their age). 

The river its island and banks is a place where hippos get out and graze on land during the day. This is not seen a lot because hippos usually feed at night. I was very excited to see so many hippos and at such close range. One particular male let us know maybe that we were a bit too close for his liking. 

Initially the guide had asked us what we wanted to see while on the tour. I had answered without hesitation: Baby elephants and elephants. Elephants are what the park is known for. They have over 120,000. Then on the tour when he asked us if we would like to see elephants I actually hesitated because there was a baby hippo right in front of us. I thankfully was overruled and we sped ahead where we came upon a family of around 40 elephants and some were only a few weeks old (Squeal!! But only on the inside). They were of all ages. The younger ones were playing in the water. I was fascinated. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I could have stayed there forever, but alas after a while our guide told us it was time for lunch. 

We had lunch at a beautiful hotel. It was buffet style serving African food.

Following lunch we were ready for our game drive. This began with some brief history. There are two native people from this part of Botswana that our guide spoke about: the Subia and the bush people. We learned a few Subia words including: sedudu: the dust that animals kick up when they walk (although he also said it is also a plant and several other things depending on who you ask for the translation). pula: water (it is also the name of Botswana's money. This was named because water is vital and you can't live without it. The other word for water sounded like Mayati). kalaybua (at least that is how it sounded) thank you. 

During our game drive we saw 3 women guides. Our guide explained that this was a man's job until 3 years ago when Chobe began allowing women to drive as well. He said "How do you think a drive with a woman would be?" I replied for the whole truck immediately, "Excellent. Possibly the best." My crush on him lessened significantly.

We were very lucky to see the Sable Antelope sparring. Our guide said he had never seen it before (and he has been a driver for 11 years). He determined that they were being ridiculous because they were both "losers" with no herd. These encounters can lead to fight to the death or one walking away. We watched until the smaller one walked away shaking his head. The sound of the clash was shockingly loud and had to hurt. 

On our drive elephants were everywhere. The driver at one point asked us all not to move or talk because the elephants had decided to move towards us. He then said, "They will come close enough for you to touch them, but I hope you don't because then they will turn over the truck." Elephants walk around 60 miles a day and eat 150 kg of food.

They raise their babies until 13 or so when the boys are kicked out because they do not support inbreeding within the family. We sat and watched this particular family of 50 or so for the better part of an hour eating and wandering.

We learned that Botswana government has ended free hunting. Hunting is now only by season, certain animals, and certain amounts. Anything else carries both jail time and a fine that varies depending on what you have done. He said that this was a huge deal in Botswana that many people were unhappy with. 

Our safari drive ended getting up close and personal with some giraffe who like many of the other animals had birds riding on them. The birds assist the animals by removing bugs but can damage them if they get infected by repeatedly probing the wound searching for bugs. 

I did not want to leave Botswana but I know I will return again, maybe soon. There is so much more to explore and experience.

I arrived at the lodge just in time to watch the sunset and the elephants come to the watering hole for their nightly drink. Tonight the bartender brought all of us "complimentary sunset snacks" that were a combination of veggies and meat. After that I wasn't really hungry for dinner so I only had pickled crocodile and called it a night while I watched the super moon rise over the lodge. I feel redundant but what a magical great day!