Today was an easy start, no morning game drive, but an afternoon drive followed by a River Chobe dinner cruise.  We had a relaxed breakfast, these are generally very good with freshly fried eggs and lovely sausages. The morning and early afternoon were spent reading, internet access, drinking and looking at the hotel’s tourist shops.

Afternoon Chobe Game Drive

The afternoon game drive was with Roy and a group of South Africans.  There were a couple on their honeymoon accompanied by her parents.  They were excellent spotters and she saw a leopard some distance away which Roy missed.

Again we heard of a pack of Lion, and drove that way.  We saw a couple of Jackals in the bush, which I photographed, but have thrown away.  We drove around them and down to the river where the lion were sleeping off their meal.  One of the Lion still had blood on her face.The Jackal were around to pick up the left over pieces.  There was a stench of rotten meat in the air.

Snapped a Kori Bustard in the grass.  The Kori Bustard are the largest flying bird in Africa. These birds are mainly ground dwelling opportunistic omnivores.   They try not to fly, and will run if alarmed, moving into flight only if they really have to.  They are a rare bird, we did seem to see them most days though. There was talk about how they were the National bird of Botswana.

Some Giraffe were on display, one Giraffe put on a display by bending down, and splaying her legs wide to get down low.  Afterwards a good sighting of a White Backed Vulture.  The pictures I took of the vulture show flies around and above its head.  Very Disneyish.

On the drive back we spotted the Marabou Storks going to roost.  I have pictures of the roosting storks, but not of them taking off and nor flying.

Evening River Chobe Dinner Cruise

Back at the the lodge we waited for our evening dinner cruise.  There were just ten of us on the cruise, with a huge buffet.  Sitting on the top deck the stars were absolutely fantastic.  The buffet was a three course meal with many choices.

The trip was down stream passing many other lodges on the way down.  We drifted and motored very slowly down steam.  The way is blocked by some rapids, where we turned around and made our way back. One motor failed to re-start, but no problem.

On the way down I thought there was a rock band playing locally.  It was in fact a Christian crusade complete with African drums.