We started our day with an early morning game drive, our last for the Savuti area.  We saw impala, kudu, elephants, tsessebe, steenbok, ostrich, mongoose, black backed jackals and a host of birds.  It was a pleasant and relaxing drive and a nice way to end our stay in Savuti.

After the drive, Bonnie took us out to the airport to meet our Mack Air flight to Kasane.  Typical game drive attire is hat, sunglasses, scarf and long sleeves.  Don’t wear white for game drives, but this was on our way to the airport so it was ok.

In Kasane we stayed at the River Front Lodge on the Chobe River.  From this area you can stand in Botswana and see both Namibia and Zambia.  Kasane is a small town close to the Sedudu Gate to the Chobe National Park.

The Chobe National Park is a large area with diverse wildlife and distinct ecosystems.  We just came from Savuti, known for its game and large number of lions.  In Kasane, we are still in the national park, but this area is known as the Chobe River Front and is home to a huge number of elephants who congregate along the river.

But we were no longer “camping.”  No more tents and we had electricity 24 hours a day.

Our launch site:

Our first outing was an evening river cruise along the Chobe River.  The river is the border between Botswana and Namibia.  The elephants are protected on the Botswana side, but are subject to harassment and shooting on the Namibia side.  They cross the river at times, and raid the crops of farmers.  We saw elephants swimming the river between the Sedudu Island (very small and still Botswana) and the shore of the river inside the park.

We saw many crocodiles, a water monitor, lots of water buffalo and several hippos.

Our guide Mathews told us that the bachelor buffalo are called Daka Boys, meaning Mud Boys.

Daka Boys:

But the truly amazing site was when we came to the river front area where the elephants gather.  It was something to see, over one hundred elephants all together along the river front.  My sister counted them and stopped when she reached 100.  We saw a family with a little one that Mathews estimated to be just a few days old.

Tiny Baby Elephant:

We cruised back to the dock as the sun set.