Thursday 25th December 2025
There was a rattle on our door at 0500hrs, but fortunately having had an early night, we didn’t have too much trouble getting up. Breakfast at 0530hrs and into the Safari Toyota and away for 0600hrs. Our companions didn’t seem to like the 0500hrs early start but thawed out later in the morning!!!!
So after the obligatory 20-minute drive we arrived at the reserve where there many Safari Vehicles milling around and waiting to enter but somehow our man “Dan” went straight through the gate!!! Today he informed us we were looking for lions; he “pacified” us by telling us we would do the “hippos and crocks”, later in a boat, but in the mean time, let’s hunt the “Lions”. We drove, we worked our way around bushes, we went along the waters edge, we went round in circles, we wound our way along muddy paths, Dan was frantically speaking on his “CB” with other rangers all looking for the lions; he was really getting anxious, he had paying passengers in his truck all hopeing to see lions. In this game reserve all vehicles “have” to stick to the tracks; no deviation. Our Man “Dan”, was getting so desperate he “bent” the rules and drove “cross country” and low and behold, he hit the “jackpot”, we found a pride of lions feeding on their very recent kill, a giraffe. Well done”Dan the Man”; another magical moment.
Back at camp, we had lunch and lounged around until 1530hrs when we met up with “Dan the Man” again, now we were off on our “boat” safari. Dan was under no illusions, Hippos and Crocodiles were what we all wanted to see as we set sail on the Chobe River.
Along with numerous boats all looking for wildlife we headed, (not sure if up-stream or down-stream) hunting these beasts in the wild. it wasn’t long before we found a crocodile lying along the bank, ignoring everybody and everything, just minding his own business. Further along we “clocked” another, but younger one also minding his own business but watching a herd of small antelopes, hopefully looking at his next dinner. OK, hippos is what we want now, and Dan got the message, well that is what we thought until he spotted another herd of elephants and turned the boat, stopped the engine and coasted to the shore-line. All very interesting but all of us said we wanted hippos, so possibly reluctantly, off we went again. This reminded us of our trip to the Galapagos where we saw iguanas for the first time and got excited but by the end of out 10-days it was ABI (another bloody iguana) and now we were thinking the same ABE!!!
After another reminder Dan “set sail” and eventually found a solitary hippo grazing, unfortunately too far to really appreciate his size, still he had fulfilled his mission!!!! At this point he broke out the refreshments we had booked before we left, wine for Christine, G&T for me and assorted drinks for the rest of the guests; a family of three with a friend and our two Americans. It was now time to head back and “wow”, we hit the jackpot again, a mother and calf in the water @
and a bonus, the mother opened her great mouth and yawned, another bonus.
Back at base it was dinner time and being Christmas, guess what, a rolled up slice (or two) of turkey and gammon with an assortment of extras including roasted vegetables, yum yum. We also had Xmas pudding with custard!!
Tonight was not only our last night but also the family we shared the boat with as well as the American Father and so, so with a bit of cajoling I persuaded the family to join us at the bar for some drinks and a bit of socialising and they did, which was great, the two Americans went to bed. A fun session followed before we all headed off but agreed to join up for breakfast in the morning. Tomorrow we head to Victoria Falls