Days 9 & 10 - Caprivi and onto Botswana

The drive from central Namibia to the start of the Caprivi strip was once again long and straight.  We were at least back onto tarmac.  The surrounds changed significantly: it was far greener which allowed for some agriculture and therefore many settlements along the way.  We arrived at our camp for the night shortly after lunch.  Our “room” was a hut on stilts overlooking the Okavango river.  It had wicker walls which rolled up – a little like blinds.  From our bed we could see birds and hippos in and around the river.  We were one with nature, which was nice... until we tried to sleep!!

The following morning we drove along the Caprivi strip to the most westerly outpost of Namibia.  Here we spent the remainder of our Namibian dollars on petrol before heading into Botswana.  It had been a long absence... I was last in Botswana in 1982... almost 30 years ago.  After the border formalities, which went very smoothly, we were immediately in the Chobe National Park.  We had a short drive to our lodge and within 5 minutes we encountered our first elephant.  It was huge and stood by the road side.  We got a flavour of what was in store... Botswana is the country with the greatest number of elephants in Africa.  In the Chobe park alone there are some 90,000!  We stayed in the Chobe Safari Lodge, which was a lovely and rather luxurious lodge on the banks of the Chobe River.  There was a bar perched on the river bank were Kit and I enjoyed a hot chocolate!  It had been raining all afternoon and we felt the need for a little warmth.  After dinner out, we returned to our rooms and tucked ourselves under the mosquito nets excited by the prospects of lots of elephants!