Chobe, Botswana 9/16 -- 9/19/2026 [Chobe Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

Chobe National Park is Botswana's first national park, covering approximately 11,700 square kilometers (4,517 square miles) of pristine African wilderness in the northern part of the country. Established in 1967, it is world-renowned for harboring the highest concentration of African elephants on Earth—with an estimated population exceeding 120,000 to 130,000 elephants roaming its vast ecosystems.  The park sits at a strategic geographic crossroads near the town of Kasane, bordering Namibia and touching just miles away from Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is highly celebrated for offering both traditional open-vehicle land safaris and exceptional river-boat safaris, allowing visitors to view majestic wildlife at eye level.

Getting there ...

We continued our African journey from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  We were picked up at 11AM and transferred across the border into Botswana and onwards to Chobe Game Lodge.   The border crossing was easy and fast.  After walking through a few disinfect mats to clean our shoes at the border, we were moved to another vehicle to continue to drive in Botswana.

[Victoria Falls] [Chobe, Botswana] [Xugana, Botswana] [South Africa]

Day 5 (9/16) ...

• Driving to Chobe Game Lodge
  After entering the national park, wild animals started to emerge.  Although the driver was not allowed to stop (it was a transportation drive, not a game drive), he was nice enough to do a brief stop whenever we saw something I wanted to take some pictures.  We arrived at the Chobe Game Lodge at about 1:30PM and had a late lunch at ~2PM after we finished our check-in process.
  Chobe Game Lodge is an iconic 5-star safari lodge elegantly designed with Moorish-inspired architecture, holding the crown as the only permanent luxury lodge located directly inside Botswana's Chobe National Park.   Since 2004 Chobe Game Lodge has been training women in the guiding fraternity and it has Africa's first entirely female safari guiding team—affectionately known as the Chobe Angels — who lead all land and water excursions.

• Chobe River Sunset Cruise
  At 4PM, we embarked our first excursion at Chobe, the Chobe River Sunset Cruise.  The lodge features Botswana’s very first fleet of completely electric solar-powered eco-boats. These significantly reduce carbon emissions and run virtually silent, allowing you to glide right up to hippos, crocodiles, and watering elephants without engine disruption.
  

Day 6 (9/17) ...

It's our first full day at the Chobe Game Lodge.  The routine was like:  Morning Game Drive (5AM morning call, 5:30AM escorted to coffee/tea, 6AM depart for 3-hour game drive), Mid-day River Cruise (11AM-1PM), lunch break, Afternoon Game Drive (3PM coffee/snack, 3:30PM depart for another 3-hour game drive), dinner.

• Morning Game Drive (6AM -- 9AM)
  Game driving along the banks of the Chobe River is one of the most incredible wildlife viewing experiences in Africa.    Because Chobe Game Lodge sits right inside the National Park, we can set off for early-morning game drives as soon as the park opens, giving us the best chance to track predators while they are most active.  It was sad to see a dead young elephant lying beside the road...

• Chobe River Cruise (11AM -- 1PM)
  The game viewing while on a river safari in Chobe is unsurpassed anywhere in Botswana.   The sight of hundreds of elephants lining the water's edge and crossing the Chobe Rover was as dramatic as it could be (video).

• Afternoon Game Drive (3:30PM -- 6:30PM)

Day 7 (9/18) ...

• Morning Game Drive (6AM -- 1 PM)
  Our guide decided to do an extended game drive this morning and skipped the river cruise so we could go further deep in the park to search for more animals.  We first came by the dead young elephant which was open by a male lion and then was worked on by a few jackals.  When we reached the riverfront, there was a pride of lions working on a freshly killed buffalo (video).  It was the best demonstration of the cruelty and reality of the nature.

• Afternoon Game Drive (3:30PM -- 6:30PM)
  The guide was trying to focus on finding some leopard for us because we missed a sighting opportunity of a leopard in the morning.  After an hour of unproductive search, our guide got some information that there was a sighting of cheetahs along the riverbed.  We were rushing to the cheetah site (it was the most bumpy ride in any safari game drive we've ever had) and saw 4 cheetahs lying behind the tall grass.  We were lucky that the cheetahs stood up and walked around to greet each other, and we had a few photo-perfect moments to be with them within a close distance.  Although we still did not see a leopard this time, we had cheetahs instead :-)

Day 8 (9/19) ...

• Chobe River Sunrise Cruise (6AM -- 8AM)
  Our last excursion at Chobe was the sunrise cruise along the Chobe River.  In addition to a small elephant family, the highlight was a group of hippos and seeing how they poo'ed on each other (video)  :-)

Next ...

After breakfast, we were picked up at about 10AM to Kasane Airport to prepare for the light aircraft flight to Xugana Island in Okavango Delta, Botswana.   We were ready to see more wildlife in more different ways!

[Victoria Falls] [Chobe, Botswana] [Xugana, Botswana] [South Africa]

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