Africa - Day 6

We had to book months and months in advance to get accommodation at the lodges we wanted. Even then we were still not early enough to find a room at this lodge that we could stay in the whole 5 nights. So we booked 2 nights in a rondavel (the cheapest rooms), followed by 3 in a safari room (the most expensive). So today we needed to change rooms.

At 11 we checked out of the first room, and since there were a few hours until our new room was ready we left our bags in reception. We thought a visit to Julius in the Activities office would fill in some time, but we were served by an extremely efficient lady instead. We were back out the door again within a couple of minutes, scratching our heads as to what to do next. With the weather way too hot to contemplate anything else, we went and grabbed a shady seat next to the water. After a while I went for a walk to the bathroom, and as I was crossing a bridge some alarmed sqeaking and scurrying came from the leaves below. I'd found a group of banded mongoose! On my short walk I also came across the resident troop of baboons jumping onto the roofs of the lodges. When I got back to Shanon I sent him off to check out the mongoose, and afterwards we both watched for a while as baboons climbed all over the lodge balconies. We could see why we were advised to keep our doors closed at all time. It wouldn't be nice to have baboons running off with our belongings! We spent the rest of our wait sitting under a small group of trees which was alive with literally hundreds of birds. It was lovely! At least it was until we got pooped on.

Our new room was a big step up from the rondavel. Most importantly, there was air-conditioning! Besides that it was huge, and very nice. We had a lovely big balcony with stairs which led down to the lawn. We were greeted by some great animal activity almost immediately after checking into the room. From our deck we could see a troop of vervet monkeys playing in front of us, and 4 warthogs running around the lawn like maniacs. They run with their tails up in the air, and look rather silly.

At 3:30 we went on a wonderful sunset cruise on the Chobe River, looking at wildlife on the banks, and on an island in the middle of the river. It was magnificent. The highlight was the hippos - we must of passed hundreds in the river, and we also saw about 30 of them grazing on land. It was quite the sight. We also saw elephants, lions, crocodiles, baboons, vervet monkeys, buffalo, sable, puku, waterbuck, a warthog with babies, giraffe, and many other antelopes and birds. As the sun was beginning to fade, large groups of birds began to settle down for the night in trees lining the river bank. At 6:30 the boat stopped near the lodge so we could watch the sunset, before returning to the jetty.