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The Chobe river is in northeastern Botswana. Unlike the watering pans, the river never dries up and the animals know it. Therefore, it is a great place to see wildlife. President Clinton came here on safari earlier in '98. As usual, since he always needs a sure thing (ba boom bing:-) |
| We stayed in Bungalows near the river just outside the national park.
One fun way to see the park is by water, cruising up and down the river.
They told us that poachers cross the river regularly at night from their northern neighbor of Tanzania. There they've already lost control of the situation and there is no more wildlife - all lost to poaching. |
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Mongoose would come by quite often in packs of hundreds and scour everything looking for rodents and insects to eat. Here they even search the lower deck compartments of a small boat - perhaps thinking it is an exotic cave. |
| "shoooo", here Tiffany is playing and sometimes protecting our humble little home from the varmints. Between the mongoose and the monkeys she was kept busy. |  |
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There are also bands of monkeys, monkeying around. Three way wrestling on our doorstep was not uncommon. At one point they even wanted to involve Tiffany - she was not interested, especially when she saw how rough they played. |
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It was fascinating watching them jump from the trees to the bungalows
and vice versa. They are very acrobatic or might we say gymnastic - the
next Olympians perhaps?
Don't think so - they are still wild animals that bite! Tiff tried to get too close to some of them and they became annoyed with her intrusion and started attacking her. It seems - the locals tell us - that they can tell the difference between women and men and only attack the women because they know that women are afraid of them. Well, Tiff was - she ran screaming as fast as she could. AAAAAHHHHHH!! |
| Chobe has one of the the highest satisfaction rates when it comes to
seeing animals. All animals must drink water and what better place to come
than a permanent water source - the river. It is always there even when
its dry everywhere else.
Here is one of our favorites which is sometimes difficult to spot. It's a beautiful and powerful brown Sable Antelope with enormous sloping horns. Nice Rack! |
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Hans picking up parts of some of the less fortunate animals in the par - A Cape Buffalo. "Hope that doesn't happen to me - we'll not soon anyway" |
| The classical spread leg Giraffes getting a drink. Their necks are so long that this is the only way they can reach the water. But they have to be careful because the lions attack them when they are all awkardly bent over like this. The tough life of a wild animal. |  |
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It's hard to see, but this hawk was eating a snake it just caught. The guide spotted it and we spent several minutes watching the predator devour its prey. |
| Even the little, but tough guys -like this warthog are interesting when viewing them live. See how it has to kneel down to use its tusks to dig up roots. These guys were usually described as only an "appetizer" for the big cats, albeit a hard fought one when they do catch them. |  |