Return to Chobe and Moremi

After Victoria Falls we crossed the border back into Botswana, got some lunch at Nando’s, then settled in at our old digs at Chobe Safari Lodge.

Chobe Safari Lodge is “town camping”, which can be nice as you have access to a restaurant and resupply. We took care of our grocery shopping, made sure we had a booking for the Chobe River sundown cruise from the lodge, setup camp, then went to the dock to board our boat.

Elephant toddler climbing out of mud hole

Despite a not-so-great guiding experience and some very annoying passengers, cruising on the Chobe remained a good idea for us. The birding plus opportunities for elephant and other big animal viewing are always outstanding. We parked the boat for a long time watching a large elephant family play around near the water and in the mud, with this little toddler sliding into a mud hole and taking several minutes to work its way out.

Baby Hippopotamus

At one point we had hippos, elephants, and African buffalo all within view at the same time. We see a lot of hippos but not always a young one up close.

Sable Antelope juvenile

Broke camp the next morning and hit the road for a fast track through Chobe National Park, with just one night stopover at Savuti camp. This was a new area for us as we had looped around via Linyati two years ago. The river channel there is dry and has been for at least 15 years, but we were hopeful for some big cats or other predators at the water holes that dot the area.

Dwarf mongoose in camp

Camp was fine but nothing special. The ablutions area was adjacent and it is nice having a place to walk to for dishes. At least two dwarf mongoose colonies close by - one in our camp and one by the ablutions.

Wild dog pups

Following a tip from another self-guided group we found some wild dogs (should I start calling them painted dogs?); a small pack with four pups. They were just lounging around in the late evening sun.

Lion and lioness reflected

Without much time to linger the next morning, we followed a tip and backtracked north to the closest waterfall and found a small pride of lions hanging around the water with some beautiful morning light. All but one lioness were content to chill, but this lioness kept laying down, getting back up, and looping back to the rest of the pride. Maybe trying to entice them to go out for a hunt? Or something else?

Tsessebe antelope

There are some infrequently found antelope that pop up from time to time, and we were thankful to see this Tsessebe while on the road heading from Chobe to Moremi.

Southern Ground-Hornbill family

We hit the road again for the Moremi North Gate camp along the Khwai River. We spent a few nights in this area before and loved roaming the small creeks along the north side of the river. Knowing how much rain has fallen in the last 9 months we were concerned about traveling here, and we were mostly shut out from our old routes. We did run into this family of ground hornbills, the first time we saw parents with a juvenile.

Moremi entrance at North Gate

Knowing we couldn’t wander the river channels, we bee-lined to the Moremi gate and our camp to figure out our next move. More intel there: possible lions to the “west in Moremi”. LOL - driving all the way west in the park could take us another 6 hours. Still, we set out along the east-west road at the north edge of the park, bordering the south bank of the Khwai.

Lion and lioness laying together

Another tip from another helpful self-guided group took us to another lion pride. This group took more time to get close to, partly because of their positioning and partly because of another vehicle that camped out longer than we thought was appropriate.

Lion that thinks she’s a leopard

The delay had a payoff as we saw one of the lionesses climb up a tree to survey the surroundings. Not something you see much in this part of Africa. Wish we’d had some better light and angles for the photo.

Greater Kudu male

Our final big game payoff was a greater kudu male in all his bearded glory.

Just one night at Moremi then we took the long exit path from our camp to Maun where we hung out with Karen at the Dusty Donkey before leaving her for her flight to Joberg then Cape Town. Now we are just two.