From the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, we traveled by bus to Chobe Safari Lodge in nearby Botswana. It was another large hotel with a bar, a big dining area and pool. It was older and not quite as nice as Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, but here again we were greeted with warm, wet towels. It was right on the Chobe River, which flows into the Zambezi River upstream from Victoria Falls.
After a big buffet lunch, we piled into two big Land Rovers for a tour of the Chobe National Park. There was no shortage of game. The park is bordered by the Chobe River, so we saw land animals as well as hippos, and we saw them up close. They seemed accustomed to the Land Rovers, and never threatened us.
We were headed back toward the park entrance late in the afternoon when our driver got a call on his 2-way radio, did a U-turn, and raced back along the ridge road above the river. Our other Land Rover, which was following us, did the same. Nothing was said, but we knew it had to be something special. What more was there to see? We turned down toward the river and then back on the road along the river's edge. It was lions, the mother (we were told) on the river side of the road and big sister with 2 cubs on the other side.
One of the activities offered at hotel was a guided trip to a Namibian village. Namibia is across the Chobe River from Botswana. Cindy and I signed up. We were picked up at the dock by Emmet in a little boat with an outboard motor. We headed downriver, stopped at a crude dock on the Botswana side, and went through Immigration to check out of Bostwana. Then we got back in the boat, went downstream a little further and across to the other side. This time there was no dock at all, just a few boats - including a couple of abandoned dugout canoes - and a couple dozen people sitting around under the trees. (Old dugout canoes were used as decoration at the hotel, but we also saw one in use on the river the next day.) We walked up a muddy road a couple hundred yards and stopped at Namibia Immigration, a small cement block building with a muddy floor. For about 10 minutes, no one appeared, then Emmet went around in back and found someone to stamp our passports. Then on up the road to the village. The village was high and dry above the river. It was Saturday, so the village kids were not in school. They were hanging out by a big baobab tree.
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