We travel through the Caprivi Strip, with its neat villages and colorful people walking down the road where war raged just a few years ago. The Chobe River Lodge had rough camping under a huge tree; we are alone the first night and then are invaded by six safari rigs pulling caravans the following day. Next stop, Chobe Safari Lodge (not to be confused with River Lodge) in  the town of Kasane. Chobe Safari Lodge boasts being in business since 1959 and I think that might be the last time the campground ablutions were updated. It has to be hard to keep up thatch roofs and camps that flood nearly every year, I imagine. On the upside our campsite is hidden right on the river and filled with singing birds, mongoose, monitor lizards, monkeys, and warthogs.

We stay two nights then move on to Senyati Camp, 10 kilometers away and much drier. They have an underground bunker at their waterhole and one can sit down there to film or watch animals at ground level. If you are not claustrophobic and don’t mind the odor, it is interesting. Check out the extra “trunk” in this photo!

We spend one night in Kubu camp, on the river again, but they are renovating the campground and we must move down the road to Big Five Safari Lodge – an excellent choice. Kasane and its sister town, Kazungula, has everything we need to prepare for Zimbabwe.

Jim has been concerned about tires and the SupaQuick tire shop is Kazangula has some choices that he likes. We ponder exactly what to do: buy all new tires, change brands, get only a spare, get two spares – if decisions burned calories we’d be hungry all the time. So we get one new tire, a different brand, one that Jim likes, on a rim, and he spends the better part of a day affixing it to the top of the Beagle.

Now armed with two spares we take off on an all day game drive, and guess what happens next. . .
We get a flat in the field. Good news, there are no lion – that we can see. And having that flat tire decides our next move, it is all new tires for the Beagle. Another day at the Big 5 Safari Lodge, then on to Pandamantenyo and the border crossing.

A very nice couple from Johannesburg are camping nearby and visit with us. They’d been in Zimbabwe a while back and are a good source of info. Another fellow that Jim spoke with at length back at the Chobe Lodge had good advice – it is all in the attitude at the traffic stops, he says. We enjoy speaking with the other travelers (for the most part) – a young British couple were really up on the state of the world, and a woman originally from the US was a kick to share swear words with. Nobody gets the American swear words here.

Chobe National Park has the animals and the specialty is elephants. Thousands of elephant. The major highway to the park, a  wide two lane road with an actual white line painted down the middle and actual yellow lines along the sides is lined with pachyderms. Self-driving through the park we are totally surrounded by herds of ellies. They don’t appear aggressive although you wouldn’t want to push them. So we move slowly through one herd only to be surrounded by the next herd. They are playing in the water, eating, standing around rumbling, mock fighting, and generally being entertaining.

Mixed species are another specialty of Chobe, and there are too many species to list. Look at this giraffe – she has a totally charming misshapen nose that makes her stand out in the herd. It could be an injury, but her teeth (if you look close) are still straight. I’m thinking birth defect, but who knows. The lioness we spotted two days in a row, and we had the sightings all to ourselves for nearly an hour. Birding here is extreme and the season hasn’t even started yet.

Parks are a respite from traveling – but I miss the funkiness of  people walking, children playing and general life going on that we see out on the road. It is 850 kilometers to the Gonarezhou Park on the Zim/Mozambique border. I’m sure there will be plenty to see.