Life in Africa: Botswana (Chobe Game Lodge)

We spent just two nights at the most amazing Lodge - in the middle of the Chobe National Park. Chobe is known for its large population of elephants, with over 45,000. No chance you would not see one. In our short stay, we did a sunset cruise on the river, one super long game drive, and two early morning game drives. I feel so lucky that we saw everything the park offered except for the leopard (Chase was most hoping to see this). I just picked a very small sampling of some of my favorite photos. We literally could have reached out to touch most of these animals. But our HIGHLIGHT of the trip were the lions. I had told myself the chances of seeing any were very slim ( I was actually most obsessed with the hippos). Anyway, we got the call from a fellow tour guide that a female lion had been spotted walking down one of the roads and sure enough, when we got there, she was literally walking right towards us. We followed her as long as we could, watched her drink, in hopes that she'd lead us to the pride. Eventually we lost her but awhile later, another call, saying she'd been spotted again. We got there in time to view her and several cubs heading towards the river. By this point, I feel like we've hit the jackpot. The day was almost done and we got yet another call saying the entire pride of 9 lions (2 females, 7 cubs) had been spotted. We almost didn't turn around because I thought there was no way we'd get there in time. Wouldn't you know the entire pride was lounging by the river with not a care in the world? That's when I cried because I just couldn't even believe how perfect the day ended! Wow! So looking forward to more safari experiences! It was the perfect 'test' safari for us with two small kids - they were great and it was such an amazing family trip! Something about being in nature trying to 'look' for things was super relaxing and exciting all at the same time!

One final note: I almost wanted to become a bird watcher - we saw the most amazing birds as well. Spring Break trip = better than imagined!

Chase took this photo - he was super proud of it!

lots of warthogs - look how they eat on their knees

enormous croc

elephant digging for food

sweet baby

hippos - they're huge

Saw a herd of 200 cape buffalos

The elephants were always in large groups

one buck for all these females - what?

Sighting no. 1 - she was hot and thirsty

look how the giraffe bends down to drink

hundreds of baboons came running from every direction (this was our first clue they were nervous) and sure enough, lions came into view not much later