Our last Botswana camping adventure was a three-day trip to Chobe National Park, the country’s first national park and third largest. Tapiwa, our guide, left Botswana for a few of her teen years to live with her aunt and attend high school in Canada. We had a great time talking with her about her safari experiences and travels. Our two other camp staff included BK, chef, and KT, camp assistant. We were the only tourists on this adventure, which included many hours of game drives to see lots of animals. This post focuses on commonly seen Chobe critters. A separate post will feature our extra special animal sightings. 

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Elephants – These Botswana elephants seemed much calmer and curious around vehicles than the elephants in Moremi, Khwai, and Savuti. Several of them even backed up when our safari truck approached. One adolescent male, however, was a bit cranky. He was about 5 meters from the side of the road and decided to loudly trumpet at us just after we had passed him. He didn’t move towards us, but just wanted us to know that he was there and could express his toughness.

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We watched quite a few very energetic baby elephants. One little guy struggled to climb up the muddy river bank and fortunately got a little boost from Mom.

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Baboons – The baby baboons were extremely entertaining with their jumping, running, somersaults, and games with sticks.  And they had many clever ways of not falling off while carried by the adults. In addition to the photos below, the babies held onto the large tail while sitting on the adult’s back, hung upside down from the adult’s stomach with their little heads almost touching the ground, and one skilled baby calmly played with a stick with its hands while holding onto the large baboon’s back with its feet as the adult ran along the road.

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Hippos – All of the large and small hippos we observed during our Chobe camping trip were happily chomping on grass, sunbathing in the mud, or peacefully enjoying the Chobe River. Our campsite was quite a few kilometers from the river so we did not hear any early morning or late evening hippo “talk.”

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Giraffes – We found only a few giraffes, usually with oxpecker guests, during our very early morning game drives. Many more of these tall creatures were probably enjoying the sunshine in other areas of the 11,700 square kilometer park.

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Kudu – During our exploration of Chobe, we came across just a handful of these spiral-horned antelopes. But some of the ones we saw were quite playful. Two adult males locked horns to practice battle maneuvers while we watched.

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Cape Buffalo – During the first two days of our game drives we only came across large solitary bulls or in groups of three or four.  When not with a herd, Cape buffalo bulls can be extremely dangerous, so Tapiwa carefully kept our safari truck a safe distance away from them as we took numerous photos. One sizable herd with quite a few calves crossed the road in front of us to drink from the river late one morning. It’s surprising how much dust a group of Cape buffalo can produce when just walking slowly. 

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Banded Mongoose – During our final few minutes in Chobe National Park we found a small group of banded mongeese. This one furiously searched for lunch.

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