I wake up and get to the Thobolos lounge patio. Deon, Jamie and Mark are there already just taking in the view over the watering hole. It’s great during the day time. What a spot.

Some hyenas exiting to the right. Deon says they were trying to catch the storks over there. There are hundreds of water buffalo coming in now. Leaving a trail of dust like a fog in the morning light. One giant bull out in the front leading the herd.

“You can smell the water buffalo coming.” Deon says. “Hear some of them coughing? They’re the main carriers of bovine tuberculosis. They’re also susceptible to pneumonia.” He shakes his head, “Nine hundred kilos. Pure muscle.” He points out to the end of the line, “In the back are three Lieutenants.” “Oh yeah.” “They arrange in the back and make sure they’re not followed.”

Alrighty, time to get ready for our Chobe River run. This could potentially be the best animal viewing of the trip so far.

Jamie is boiling up some coffee on Belinda’s side stove, “Almost ready!” I go to the ablutions to wash off last night’s scotch. Looks like I’ll be sharing the shower with this whacky, neon, translucent green spider guy, hanging out on a beam above me. Ahhh kinda big and weird looking. Yeah sure, why not. Not like anything in Africa can hurt you. “You just stay put there buddy.” Spiders don’t like water, right?

Turn the water on and get in. That fucking spider beelines down a strand right at me, “Dah! Get outta here!” I give it a solid backhand and send it to the shower floor. Unphased, it quickly darts to the wall and crawls up right beside me. It’s eight-eyeing me up. I’m seriously not enjoying being naked with this crazy looking spider in attack position beside me. It’s reaching out with it’s front legs. What? You like water? You washing your legs, you weirdo?

Yaaaa I’m good. Clean enough. Turn the shower off. All yours pal. I slink out, never taking my eyes off the lil neon bugger. Fun times. Towel off and take another quick peak back in there. It’s gone. Pfffft I’m out.

Get suited up and grab a cup of coffee. Oh yum, nice work Drisdelle. Back to the Thobolos balcony. Peter’s all ready to go too.

Zebras and kudu at the watering hole now. Tons of hornbills in the trees nearby too. I like these birds. They’re beefy and spunky with dark eyes and menacing beaks. I especially like the annoyed-sounding drawn out call that sounds like, “aaaarrrrrn!” 

We start making fun of it, like the hornbill is talking to Mark. “Maaaaaark how’s the coffee, Maaaaaaark?” Sounds like it has a Mid-Atlantic accent. “Maaaaaark what do you see out thar?” Sometimes it’s a little longer Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark. 

The cook comes up and is wondering what the plan is for the day. We find out his name is Yonku. “Off to Chobe River then.. ya, not sure where we’ll end up tonight.” “We might as well pay up now in case we don’t come back here though.” Yonku goes downstairs to get the machine.

Deon really wants us to come back. We had a fun time last night telling stories and watching animals at the watering hole. Drinking and laughing and crying. “If you do come back we can do a game drive. Go out and see if the lions are there by the dead giraffe.” Mark’s pumped about it, “Yeah, that’d be great.”

Yonku has the card machine on the patio held high in his hand. Willing the machine to somehow get better reception. He’s waving it around like a wizard to no avail. Jamie says, “We could leave something as collateral.” I pile on, “Ya we can just leave Peter.” “Oh no, I’m not worth anything.” Mark jumps in, “Plus he’ll drink all your booze and wreck the lodge.” “Like a drunk honey badger!” “Haha double whammy. Oh here we go!”

The card runs through and we’re off. Love those guys and this spot. We usually keep the trip momentum moving forward to the next place day after day, but coming back here tonight would definitely not be a bad option. Spend some more time with the most interesting man in the world.

We hit the transit road out of the lodge North East towards the Ngoma Gate into Chobe. We’re getting away later than expected due to our late night scotchnanigans but it’s still before noon and we should get there in about an hour.

The diesel gauge is worryingly low. Jamie gives the glass a couple flicks, “We’ll get through the park to Kasane and fill up there.” “I like that optimism.”

It’s the usual brush by the sand road and not many animals around. Splashes of water here and there and some majestic and massive Baobab trees every once in a while. We sometimes spot the Chobe River squiggling it’s way off to our left, marking the border of Botswana and Namibia.

We come to a small town called Kachikau and unleash a flurry of terrible cow catching ‘jokes’. Definitely some hungover brains in this truck. We spot a gas joint called Puma Jethro and pull Belinda up to the pumps. A guy runs over. Jamie rolls down the window, “Diesel?” He shakes his head no but washes the windshield anyways. Jamie tries to tell him no but it’s too late, “Ahh yep… ok. Thanks man.” He smiles and waves and we press on.

We roll through an even smaller town called Kavimba. Not much here either. Looks like maybe a school. Handful of other buildings. The next town has signs for Safari camps and Elephants. Getting close now.

Soon we’re at the Ngoma Gate. They’ve collected the horns of some Kudu, Impala and Water Buffalo and strewn them about.

There’s a girl dressed in purple with purple highlights in her hair working the tired brown check-in counter. We go to pay entrance fees and get some info. Unfortunately Purple Girl is giving us a strangely heavy “I don’t give two fucking fucks” attitude. 

That’s ok grouchy, we’ve got all the info we need right here.

The Chobe River

Through the Ngoma Gate and we’re on a downhill incline to the river. “There she is, boys!’ A sandy road down to a sprawling wetlands with herds of zebras and elephants gathered in the distance by the water.

We follow the road down to the river. A cute black-backed jackal is trotting along through the scrub

There’s a safari truck with a full load of tourists coming towards us. “Must’ve done a sunrise safari and are already heading out of the park.” “Clearly they weren’t at the honor bar last night.” They flash their lights and motion for us to slow down.

The driver leans out, he’s already talking and his voice fades in as we get closer, “…lion got a buffalo. Just took it down right in front of us. Hurry, hurry. Straight ahead, you will see.” “Wow, thanks!” Drisdelle hits the gas.

Not long up the road and Peter’s spotted something, “Vultures in the trees.” “Must be the spot.”

“Oh yeah, here we go. Creep it up there Jamie.” “Fuck. Look at that.”

Between the brush, right down by the river is the lion and the buffalo it just killed. He’s still breathing heavy and hasn’t calmed down from the fight. His head is scanning everywhere knowing there are scavengers close by. Vultures in the trees above. Hyenas in close perimeter. The water buffalo is torn up at the haunch and the lion has chewed it down to the bone.

We watch it play out for a while. The lion is on guard and gathering back it’s energy. The other animals keep their distance. It’s too bad we missed the action of it all, but still super cool to catch this post-kill moment.

We start to move along and the lion gets up from the noise of the truck.

We drive by some campsites. They’re not far from the water and completely open to their surroundings. Trees offering some shade. Some folks are having lunch at a picnic table by their truck.

“Wow. Amazing camp sites.” “Well… I can see why these are booked out a year in advance.” “The evenings must be eventful down here.” “Ya, Xakanaxa was one thing…” “This is actually kind of crazy isn’t it? This close to the river?” “Potentially terrifying, yes.”

A little further along the river road there’s a long dead elephant carcass. Looks like a calf. “And that’s why they thought the world had cyclops in it.” “Yep.”

We leisurely drive along the river for the next few hours. There are tons of animals everywhere and they largely seem unbothered by our presence. Like Etosha and the Okavango Delta, again we’re just floored by the sheer amount and variety of animals. All just going about their business here down at the river water. It’s mesmerizing to watch.

I’ll just let the pictures tell the story for a bit.

It’s getting late in the day and the sunset is on it’s way. Drisdelle’s eyeing up the gas gauge again. It’s below the E line. “Should probably get outta here sooner than later.” “Yep, looks like we follow the river to a smaller river, cross that and leave through Sedudu Gate.” “Hopefully we’ll make it to Kasane.”

We’re near the exit gate and Mark sums things up nicely, “Ya sooooo… Chobe River absolutely rocks.” “Unreal dude.”

It’s a totally different experience than other trips where you’re exploring a city or the ruins of something, in a fancy cathedral, marveling at art or architecture, or going to some trendy bar/club/restaurant. Just driving along at our own pace and watching animals in their natural environment. It’s like Deon said last night, it’s always changing. Endlessly entertaining. Even if you close your eyes and just listen to it.

The long drawn out sunsets here never disappoint either.

We pull into Kasane and beeline directly to a gas station. “No idea how we made that, basically been on empty all day.” While it’s filling up we step out of the truck to stretch and figure out next steps.

“Crash here tonight, push on, or back to Thobolos?” “Up ahead is the border to Zambia. Livingstone is only about an hour from there.” “Do we really want to cross tonight?” “Probably not. Need to ferry across the Zambezi. So most likely a bullshit border crossing and we could get stuck there for a while.” “Ya, then we’re driving at night with animals everywhere or staying in some bullshit border town.” “Not ideal. Out.” “We could stay here, check Kasane out and get an early start into Zambia tomorrow.”

Mark is pretty clear, “No way dude. Back to Thobolos for sure. Game drive with Deon and more scotch by the watering hole.” “So drive back 2 hours to crash there and then all the way back here tomorrow again?” “Ya I think so. At least we know what we’re getting into. Could stay here and have it suck or go back to something we know is awesome.”

Can’t fight that logic. “Alright, if we’re gunning it back and racing the sun I want to drive.” Drisdelle throws me the keys, “The Kasane 500?” “Got anymore Lindstrom?” “Ha! I’ll take that Redbull, actually.”