Chobe Ihaha to Linyanti campsite 21 July

After a noisy night of animals, elephants walking through the campsite, baboons arguing and zebras stampeding it was quite astounding to get up in the morning and find after approx 500 animals at our campsite in the evening, only a few baboons remained. After a disappointing discovery that the showers were cold, we had breakfast around the fire, packed up and headed off. We went back via the bush for half the way. Animals aren't nearly as easy to see, but it was beautiful countryside. Once back on the river, we found the animals starting to come down to the plains as the sun got higher. We left the park, and headed towards the next entry gate 70km away. The Botswanan government is making it more and more difficult for independent travelers to travel through the park. They are only allowed in if they have campsites or accommodation booked of which there are only 3 public campsites with 5 to 6 camps each. Most lodges are not used by independent travellers due to their excessive fees. We were not allowed to go across the middle of the park, the excuse being we would get lost, so had to go around the western border. Where we entered again is very remote, and 70kms of Sandy track before we got to the official gate for Linyanti our next stop. There had only been one other set of people through in the last 4 days. It was like driving through a war zone as we passed through the bush. Elephants had broken the trees all over the place and trashed the bush. It didn't take long to get into camp but it was slow going. We were the only foreigners there when we arrived. The public camps are run by private companies and this one is also in the process of having a lodge put up. They are expecting their first guests in 3 weeks so we are lucky to have the place to ourselves. The rangers told us there is a pride of lions in the area that came through camp that morning. As they are essentially lazy they thought we might find them a bit further up from the camp. We went searching, taking tracks by the river but couldn't find them. Our search kept getting hindered by elephants blocking the road which we couldn't get around. One particularly difficult elephant actually took a branch and put it across the road. Back at camp, the promise of hot showers was very short lived, but it couldn't be put off any longer. We are camped in front of a lagoon full of hippos who are very noisy. It's another special spot. Another group turned up later. We went for a final search for the lions, but no luck. Vervet monkeys are terrorizing our campsite and got away with a banana. Lion prints this morning show they passed through camp last night. We are heading into the heart of Chobe to Savuti today, lion country, and then into the Okavanga delta for 3 nights so we will be offline for a while. The boys are enjoying playing with the monkeys as we have breakfast and pack up.

Location:Chobe, Linyanti