Spring Break- Chobe

Thursday morning, we met two taxis at the gate at 5:45.  Because our group was filled with awesomeness, Sergio joined us on our journey to Nata. The 8 of us caught a bus to Nata and then took a bigger than normal combi thing to Kasane.  That was probably the worst day of travel.  On the first three hour bus ride the bus was so full that people were standing.  I had one lady with a very large rear end stand near me and lean against my seat.  Except that she ended up pretty much sitting on my shoulder the whole ride.  Phew, was I ready to get off that bus.  In Nata, we waited for about 20 minutes and then jumped on a combi/bus thing.  There was no room for our luggage so we had it in our laps, in the aisle, and Nora and I sat on one of the bags.  This was the moment I was so glad to have only a 40L bag.  Four of the people in our group had 70/80 Liter bags.  EKE!  It was a very hot, cramped ride.  There was also construction along the way and we must have gone over at least 25 speed bumps.  He he.  This is Africa.

We arrived at our hostel just a few minutes late.  We quickly threw all of our stuff behind the counter and jumped on the safari vehicle that took us to our Sunset cruise.  The cruise was AMAZING.  I can’t even explain how unreal it was.   There were at least a hundred elephants, tons of hippos in and out of the water, crocodiles, buffalo, warthogs, some kind of gazelle thing, and all types of birds.  It was beautiful!!!!!!  I highly suggest this to EVERYONE! It was really what I had imagined Africa to be.  All we needed was pride rock and simba sitting on top.  From the river we were on, we could see Botswana and Namibia.

That night at the hostel we were out of food and decided to eat at the restaurant.  I wasn’t too hungry and just had a sandwich.  I was exhausted and went to bed pretty early.  Although the Thebe river lodge was a great place to stay, it didn't have the same atmosphere as our previous hostel. 

Friday, we were up early (are you recognizing a trend?) for a game drive.  It was three hours through Chobe national park.  We finally saw lions!  Although it was great, I think we should have done the safari first, because after the cruise everything seemed a bit duller.  On the safari, we met several other really interesting people.  (That was one really great thing about our trip, we met so many awesome people.  It is refreshing to meet people who have traveled to so many places and have experienced so many different things.  It is inspiring.)   After the safari, we tried to get breakfast but the restaurant wanted to charge 70pula.  Pshhhhhh.  We packed up our tents and the resort transferred us to the Zimbabwe border.  We spent more than an hour at the border crossing waiting in line.  Finally, we made it to the other side and caught two taxis into Victoria Falls.