Wild and Wonderful

Its hard to believe we have crossed an entire country since our last blog entry... ha! Quite a bit has happened. Including, a trip to Botswana to Chobe National Park. What a wild and wonderful place. We (Marty, Scott, Emily and I) rented a 4WD and drove through the park, along the riverfront and through the sandy plains where we spotted a massive range of wild creatures. Driving was super fun, for me it brang back landfill memories without the stink, but we all had a turn (dont tell the rental car company!) and got a bit muddy :) Elephants rule this park, literally tens of thousands live here, if you dont see one, something is seriously wrong. We saw HEAPS! The best sightings were next to the river, where they bathed and drank and were seemingly merry and not too disturbed by the diesel fumes. phew. We got really close.

We camped out in the park that night, which was really serene and calm and magic, see pic below. The warnings given when we entered the camp were, "you MUST sleep in a car or a tent or you will be eaten by a lion or a hyeena. You MUST not walk around or leave your tent/car at night or you will be eaten by a lion or a hyeena." great. So we obeyed the rules !

Marty and I liked this place a lot, and we stayed in Kasane (Closest town to the park) for a few extra nights at a luxury resort, which had camping, and meant we got to use the pool and all the clean fancy facilities, we love Africa for this set up!. Here we went on a river safari to spot many wildlife from the shore. It was fruitful indeed, with many animals (impala, kudu, elephants, crocodiles, water monitors, baboons, buffalo) all drinking and washing in the river. Hippos and birdlife were also plentiful and spectacular. Marty had a once in a lifetime opportunity to use some professional camera equipment on a specially built Nikon boat and take pics of wildlife with a guide. wow. He got some great shots, but they are too big to post here. His smile reached from ear to ear. Here is one from the not so fancy camera ..


We pulled ourselves away from Botswana, missing the Okavango Delta, (deciding to save it for next time when we have more money and do it in luxury and really see it...) and headed back home, to Katima Mulilo. We continued with helping out volunteering where possible and having some really fun and energising Ultimate Frisbee games!!!!!!!!! yep, we played with the frisbees that the Sydney crew (aka 'The Bee' played at the aka 'Frisbee Park' Annandale) fundraised to send to Scott in Namibia. The local kids had a blast and waited for us in the afternoons hoping we would play more,,,, and of course we did! Here is a pic of us all. Since then, we have played in many little villages when our form of transport decides to either take too long to show up or has a break in between, or breakes down. Its a great way to interact with the local kiddies.