All my photos on this page may be viewed either individually, sequentially, or as a slideshow, in the Flickr album; see link above.

2026: Into Africa (Part 2)

Botswana, Chobe National Safari Park

Arriving at our hotel in Chobe, we were delighted to find that we again had an excellent room, with lovely views across the Chobe river. The extensive grounds were delightful to walk around, although some of the warning signs were a little disturbing

Looking out from our window  we saw no large animals, but instead there was a variety of bird-life to watch as they fished from a riverside tree 

Looking through our hotel window we saw ...	... some beautiful birds that afternoon ...		... and also during the evening	Later that evening there were fireflies

After a relaxing afternoon we joined the rest of our group at the riverside bar for a few drinks while we watched the glorious sunset across the waters.

After a feast of local food, we retired to bed early as we were to have a 5.30 am start for our safari adventure the next day. As we climbed into our jeep, I was lucky enough to get the seat of honour beside the driver as we joined a convoy of jeeps proceeding into the safari park. The trip was simply amazing: amongst the animals we saw were elephants, lionesses, impala, kudu, baboons, jackal, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, mongooses (yes, that is correct, they are NOT called mongeese!), and many beautiful birds including vultures  who were queuing in the trees for a snack of dead elephant! We also saw some enormous anthills, and the entire convoy stopped in a clearing for a coffee break which also gave people the opportunity to "go bushy-bushy" if they needed to.

If you like these pictures of the elephants that we saw, you can see a lot more of them in my Elephant Gallery on Flickr, where they may be viewed either individually, sequentially, or as a slideshow.

After a brief return to our hotel for lunch, we boarded a boat for an afternoon's water-safari. We saw many elephants enjoying the waters and the mud together with water bucks and water buffalo, as well as many beautiful birds including fish eagles and spoonbills; then from very close-up we saw crocodiles and hippos.

On our morning safari we also a lioness with her 2 little cubs, but I wasn't quick enough to snap a photo of them. One of our group however, Mr M Peters, was a really great photographer who was quick enough to take their picture. He also went on another safari tour and managed to capture photos of several creatures that we had not seen including a handsome male lion, a leopard, a hyena and a cheetah, as well as a great many different birds; I have posted just a few of his amazing pictures here:

The above 10 photos are all © M. Peters

After all the excitement of our safari trips, we were grateful for a relaxing, free day, during which we did very little. Debbie had a massage at the hotel, we wandered around the hotel grounds, and we sampled the hotel bars and restaurant quite extensively; by the next morning we were thoroughly refreshed and ready for our journey by coach back to Livingstone and then by plane onwards to Cape Town ...

All pictures on this site are © Allan Jones unless (such as in the last 10) otherwise stated.