Namibia-Botswana-Namibia-Botswana

Over the past week, it has felt like we've been doing a lot of driving...but when I look back at all we've done, it amazes me!

After my last update in Rundu, we crossed over to Botswana.  We drove through flooded road (Botswana is flooded)and waited hours for the ferry that only takes 4 cars at a time or our truck and 2 cars.  Our only intention of this trip was to spend a few days on the Okavango Delta.  We left the truck at the panhandle and took a Makoro (a dug out canoe that are now made from fiberglass to save the trees) to a small island.  A makoro is steered by a poler.  For an hour and a half of going through a river of tall grass and water lilies Pat (mine and Dawn's poler), got us safely to our destination.  When I asked Pat if there was anything that we should worry about in the water other than hippos and crocodiles, he said  "Only snakes.  We have the green and black mambas."  YIKES!!!  I  tried steering/paddling the next day...Pat laughed at me, but I did for! (for about 10 min).

The next morning, we were taken on a tour of the island.  We only saw a warthog and some impala, but we saw lots of hippo footprints and elephant dung.  Although we did not see any animals, we knew they were near our campsite.  We weren't 100% sure if there were elephants around, but the hippos like to talk a lot at night!  We heard them again at the next few campsites.  Hippos sound like Tim Allan grunting on Home Improvement, but much louder!

From there we drove back to Namibia for the night.  Our detour was to visit the Delta in a less touristy location.  We went back across the ferry, the flooded road and the boarder, just to take a different route in to Botswana the following morning, which would take us further north to Chobe.

Chobe is known for it's National Park and it's many many many elephants. As we were driving to our campsite, we spotted some on the side of the road.  They are SO BIG!!!  They are just amazing creatures...I'll come back to that in soon.

The next morning we woke up for a 6 am game drive.  (Cassie get ready) We saw:

• Buffalo (now I'm just missing the leopard to complete the big 5)
• Impala (soooo many)
• Baboons (they were play, fighting, grooming, eating, protecting their young and even mating!)
• Crocodile
• Vultures
• Fish eagle
• Tawny eagles
• Storks
• Kudu (another kind of antelope) 
• Jackles
• Hornbill (aka Zazu)
• Warthogs (aka Pumbas, who would also roam freely around our campsite)

...all before 9 am.

In the afternoon, we went on a boat cruise along the Chobe River.  There were even more amazing animal sightings there:

• Another crocodile
• LOTS of hippos.  They were in the water and out of the water.  They are HUGE and just as cute as I thought they'd be.  They have ears like Shrek, that they rotate when when come out of the water.
• More elephants.  One was in the water.  This was one of the most amazing sites that I have seen!  It would stick it's head in the water and collect mud on it's tusks.  It would then take it's trunk and eat the mud.   Stunning!

I'm already in Zambia but will wait a few days to write about Livingston...it will include the Mighty Zambezi, lion encounter, a helicopter ride and possibly some other stuff...but that's all I know of so far.  I know, I know, it's a hard life!  :)