We’re in the first resort that was booked by Discover Africa, as part of our Botswana package. There are three sister resorts we stay at, two are out in the Okavango Delta, and this one is in the town of Kasane, which is where we started five days ago when we first came to Botswana. It’s an all inclusive resort, the type where we have our own Guest Relations Coordinator who spends her days making sure we have everything we need. Literally at this moment she is booking a pedicure for me, after briefing us on how the transfer of our luggage is going to work (we flew into Kasane and will fly out of Maun, so our luggage has to travel 7 hours by land without us because we can only bring 40 lbs into camp on the bush flights).
Rob and I have never stayed at an all inclusive resort, and may never again, so we’re definitely enjoying this. The package came with two river cruises, one sunset cruise with a group and one private cruise today for just the two of us. Both of those cruises were with a woman captain, so I appreciated that.
The package also included a morning game drive, which we took this morning at 6am. We’ve been going non stop since we arrived, and spending a few minutes between activities sitting outside working on photos and blogs and video editing.
What makes Botswana so amazing and rich with wildlife are the fresh water sources. Here in Kasane there is the Chobe River, which flows year round. It definitely has different heights between the rainy season and the dry season, but there is still water all year. The Chobe River originates in Angola, becomes the border between the Capivi Strip of Namibia and Botswana, and empties into the Zambezi River, which flows east through Mozambique into the Indian Ocean. Right now we are entering the dry season, so the weather is cool for them but perfect for us. The locals have on jackets and we’re in short sleeves. Our next stop is out in the Okavango Delta, which is also a source of fresh water. This is best explained by Wikipedia, which I’ll do in the next blog.
There are a few interesting and unusual things that happened here. First, when we checked in we were told very clearly that we cannot leave any of our doors to our room open. Before we know it, a baboon will be in and out and take all the sugar and coffee creamer. It was really hard to not want to see that actually happen!
Second, on the coffee stop for our morning game drive I was accosted by a monkey for my biscuit. It was in my hand with my coffee cup and he literally jumped straight up from the ground and grabbed my arm. I very willingly gave him the biscuit, even though the guide said not to.
Third, on our private river cruise we had a hippo surface right behind the boat. Like barely 10 feet behind. Which was actually quite terrifying, not at all like having an Orca pop up while we’re out sailing. Going into this river with hippos and crocs and lions and elephants, all way bigger than us would not be good.
And fourth, while we were sitting in the bar last night before dinner, a trio of wart hogs decided to wander through. Never ever have I watched wart hogs meander through a bar, but there has to be a very good joke about that. “Three wart hogs walked into a bar…..”. What looks like those same wart hogs came for my pedi this afternoon.
What’s interesting about them feeding is that they actually get down on their forelegs and get their snout closer to the grass and graze along like that. It’s all very efficient.
One other event that was part of this package was a day trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It was fantastic. The falls are one of those wonders that you just can’t capture in one photo, they literally go on for 1.5 kilometers. We walked with a group and a guide and it took us 3 hours to walk the distance and stop at all the viewpoints and get pictures. We were soaking wet from the spray by the time we finished, but the falls were spectacular.
Pictures for this week are here:
