Zambezi River to Chobe River

It's not as cold when we get up this morning. We think we are early, but now find out that we have been operating an hour behind Daniel and it is in fact 7:45 not 6:45. We rush breakfast and pack up to be gone in 1/2 hour as I suspect we need to make up time from yesterday. With the wind on the water it is pretty cold and we are wrapped up in blankets for the first couple of hours. The odd hippo pops up every now and then, but otherwise the scenery is primarily heavily grassed river banks, temporary fisherman's houses, permanent villages and lots of cattle. Here, as in so much of Africa, your status is determined by the number of cows you have. Marriage dowries are arranged by the transfer of cattle from the grooms village to the brides village. Daniel had to provide 15 cows for his wife, which is quite a lot. Each cow is worth around 1,000 rand A$120 which for some people would be a months salary. Lots of fisherman are out in their mokoros, or on the river bank fixing their nets. Women are washing their clothes in the river. The villages on both sides of the river look very similar despite being from different countries, but it is more densely populated on the Zambian side. Daniel says the Zambians steal the Namibians cattle.

It's like this for most of the day, we stop briefly for lunch by the river bank, but not for long as we are trying to make it to Chobe for the afternoon. We cross to the Chobe via a channel off the Zambezi, the bird life is prolific here and we see up close some fish eagles, cranes and kingfishers. More crocs start appearing on the river banks. At the end of the channel we reach the Chobe and moor briefly at an Island to go through departure immigration for Namibia. Although we are still going to be camping on Namibian land at night we are now in Botswana territory, the Switzerland of Africa. We are entering the waters of the famous Chobe park. It is immediately obvious, the amount of traffic on the Chobe is huge. Massive houseboat are cruising up and down, and similar flat bottom boats to ours but full of seats and tourists. Lots of speed boats with white fisherman are also around. It makes us appreciate more the last 2 days of seeing only locals. We pass by Kasane the hub for tourists going to Chobe and Victoria falls with massive lodges on the banks of the river. Immediately after passing it we start seeing huge amounts of game. The plains of the river abound with elephants, Steenbok, Buffalo and hippos. Crocs are on the banks of the river. Over the next hour we must pass at least a couple of hundred elephant some swimming and a hundred hippo and water buffalo. We see a herd of giraffe in the distance. The river moves away from the park, where lots of 4wds are cruising up and down and the banks become home to hundreds of birds including ducks, egrets, cranes and cormorants. We camp further up river on the banks of the Chobe with some villages nearby and the lights of the lodges in the distance. We hear a lion roaring as we eat dinner by the campfire. The boys try there luck at fishing again as another spectacular sunset takes place. It's warmer tonight and the wind has dropped making it a lovely evening. Luke fires off questions to Daniel about the Togalosh, an evil person that Africans believe can turn people into animals and vice versa. The boys then feel a bit nervous as we head off to our tents.

Location:Zambezi River