August 2019 [by Bill]
Botswana is the 124th country I’ve visited.
This morning I took a full day safari trip, getting picked up at 7:00 AM, for an 1-hour drive to the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. On the drive to the border crossing, I saw some elephants, cape buffalo, and lots of birds.
From there, you get off the small mini bus to walk across both borders and clear customs. Crossing the Zimbabwe border took less than a minute. On the Botswana border crossing, the line was very long, and took about 45-minutes. Once I was through the Botswana border check point, It took a few minutes from the Botswana border to get to the Chobe National Park.
We started off our day with a 2 1/2 Chobe River Cruise(about $36), which connects Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana. During the cruise we saw a wide variety of birds and land based animals: Fish Eagles, hippos, egrets, spare red geese, Cape buffalo, elephants, impalas, spoon bill storks, otters, water monitor lizards, nile crocodiles, darta, boba trees, baboons, and water bucks.
We had lunch at a lodge at 12:30 PM, and headed back out on a land safari, where I boarded a safari truck (open air, no side panels and no roof, which is really great for taking photos of animals, plants, and other interesting sights).
In Africa, tourists are always on the lookout for “the big 5”. After safaris in several countries, I’ve seen 4 of the big 5, with leopards being quite hard to spot (haven’t seen one in nature yet).
The total cost for this very full day was USD $179, which I think is a good value.
Safaris are normally scheduled for the early mornings and late afternoons, as that’s when most of the wildlife is moving around. Almost all of the animals shelter in shady areas during the midday heat, plus tourists don’t want to be outside either when temperatures can range from 85 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
The weather in Botswana was 90 degrees, no clouds, with a nice breeze during the river cruise. On the land, no breeze, so it was hot.
Botswana factoids:
The main industries are diamond mining, agriculture, and tourism.
Chobe National Park is the second largest park in Botswana.
Small Wide World 