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23rd april - 9th may

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Botswana

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 15:19:02

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of the frustrating things about prolonged travel is that every now and then you can feel a bit fed up. and without having work, or a commute or bad weather to blame it on you really have no excuse for it. and that makes you feel even more fed up. chobe safari lodge was pretty close to paradise, but for whatever reason it was a low point of the trip for one of us.

chobe national park - 26th april

there's nothing like a change of scenery to restore moral. so we did what we always do; we kept on moving. up before sunrise, we drove to the park gate. there wasn't anybody to check our reservation so we drove straight in. hyenas were visible beside the tarmac road, still active in the grey before dawn.

we drove on a bit, but were uncomfortable that we hadn't encountered anyone at the gate, hadn't had our reservation confirmed and hadn't paid any entry fees. so we turned around and drove back. in the light we found another, poorly signposted entrance. this one was manned, actually, womanned. as we feared, she had no record of our reservation, and couldn't contact anyone about it until eight thirty. this was quite annoying having gone to the trouble of booking, then getting up so early to be in the park at dawn. thankfully the warden agreed to sort everything out for us, and radio the details through to our destination.

so we were off again, this time on the right road, with a permit and a reservation - kind of. beside the chobe river the hippos were active, sparring jaw to jaw or plodding through the mist on banks of reeds. others were more typically shy, exposing little more than eyes and nostrils but close enough that we could see their bristly whiskers poking up through the still waters.

after a couple of hours following the path of the river, serondella picnic spot offered a good opportunity to stop for breakfast. it was another one of those curiousities of park regulations that ...