Botswana 'survival' September 2002
The parks (part 2, Chobe)

On day 3 we have again a long journey. It rains and it is necessay to put the windows down. After a few hours we encounter two male lions and one lionnes at about 10 metres. At such moments you forget everything about seeing nothing for hours. 


It is cosmic to see these animals so close . Before we leave Moremi on the north-side we see a "giant eagle owl"  some waterbuck , impala (offcourse) , elephant and a lot of unspecified birds. 
We go to the Savuticamp (part of the Chobe). Campsitenumber 21. On the way there almost everybody falls asleep. There are some sightings of wildebeast  and elephant  . We get at the camp somewhere in the afternoon. We set up our small tents and a large tent for the lunch (it is still raining). After that we leave for just another gamedrive. 
Just before we think we will encounter nothing special (again), Ger shouts 'STOP'. Adrenaline is flooding. A Leopard! And very close.  He or she is watching some impala. The long-drive is forgotten. Everybody is happy. The leopard isn't interested in us at all. He leaves when the impale leave. It is almost dark when we get back to the camp. In the evening everybody goes to bed very soon.
Day 4 starts again with an early wake-up. We encounter a group of 5 lions at a water pool . It is the only waterpool filled with water in the neighbourhood, so there are some other cars around it . They allow only a restricted number of visitors in the sanctuaries, but sometimes you will meet them.
This day we drive to campsite number 10. This side is near the Chobe-river. They tell us it is a beautiful location. We drive to the eastern entrance and after that we drive back alongside the river bank. Some elephants , impala , hippo's , croc's , a stork , elephants with babies , an impala with black leg  (lionmeat by now?). 
At sunset we encounter a larger herd of elephants  (around 30 animals; we diddn't see the large groups which were there just a week before us) , giraffe, buffalo, vultures eating from an elephant carcasse . Around 50 meter from the camp there are some lions and a cub. It is almost dark and we can't see them very well. 
When we enter the campsite it is totally dark. We don't see much of the side. In the morning it appears to be a perfect spot but we leave far to early  !
Just after leaving we see the lionnes with cub egain . Very nice!. We drive back near the river and encounter some buffalo  and some lions. The hippo's are still lying in the water, they have a really good life! We leave the park and are transformed to real bushpeople .