Chobe National Park- Boat Game Drive

This is part 1 of Chobe National Park. We were able to go over to Botswana for the day while in Victoria Falls. It was a long ride to the border, but after that things were great! Spencer watched Sonny With a Chance on my iPod while we were traveling. I was REALLY glad that I thought to bring it with us so he could watch it.

We arrived at a hotel there to start the boat cruise, and they had all of these small African animals around the open area. Here is Spencer riding on the rhino, he also made me take a picture of him getting eaten by the rhino.

Being Vanna White showing off the Baobob Tree.

Our first outing for the day was a boat game cruise. We saw lots of birds while on the boat cruise, it was really interesting to see so many varieties of birds, and so many in different vibrant colors (you'll see more in later posts).

Here we saw a Cape Buffalo. These things are HUGE!

I thought it was funny that he had a bird pecking in his ear, he kept flapping his ear to get it to move away.

I like this close up picture because you can see the horns so well, and also look at his teeth, they seem so small.

The next animal we saw was a big ol' crocodile. And of course our driver pulled right up to the edge of the grass so we were in dangers way.

Here we were sitting right in front of it. I was okay with this because I was in the back of the boat, and there were four others ahead of me that he could chew on. But also, by the looks of things, it looked like he just ate, his tummy is really big.

Do you see what I see?? Guess! Guess!!

Did you get it right? Right on the edge of the water all of those gray shapes are HIPPOS!!!! There were at least 30 of them, with babies in the middle. They put their heads on top of each other's bodies to be able to rest/sleep and breathe.

I thought this warthog looked funny being down on what would be his elbows. But because he has such a short neck he has to bend down like this and scoot along on his elbows eating.

Here is the HIGHLIGHT of our trip to Chobe...watching herds of elephants crossing the river!!! It was amazing to see so many elephants and watch how they did this.

I wasn't sure if this little baby would make it, and it's so cute!

But they all made it across. The little baby elephant swam hard and held it's little trunk up to breathe, plus mommy was right in front of him so he would no lose his way.

Don't want to get the tail wet! Kinda reminds me of "pinkies up!"

This poor elephant got tired of his trunk hanging around so he propped it up on his tusk.

More elephants crossing over.

Pretty close, huh?

Have you ever looked at the tail of an elephant?? It looks weird! Those hairs are so bristly and who knew they just came around the edge of the tail.

I caught a moment with the hippos mouth open.

We came across the croc at the end of the cruise, but it was unbelievable how much it blended in!

Then he spotted us!! Start the engine and GO!!!!

Then he disappeared so we had no idea where he went. This is why I will never put my finger over the edge of the boat or ever want to swim anywhere in these waters.

Halloween 2010

Had to put in our Halloween pictures. Even though it's only of Spencer before we went to the Halloween party here.

Spencer wanted to be Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender (no not Avatar the blue people). But all of the costumes were sold out, even at the beginning of September! So, we thought about it, and I asked him if he would want to go as a surfer so then he'd be able to wear his swimming suit and we could make a surfboard. Spencer was ALL for it!

He had a week off of school so after getting back from our vacation we started on painting his surfboard. Here is Spencer showing off his "Surfer Dude" look.

Yep we painted both sides of the surfboard. It was fun.

Showing the back of his shirt, or walking out the door to go to the party.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

African Sunsets

One thing that I simply LOVE about Africa are these AMAZING sunsets we get to see. They are beautiful, and I will miss them dearly when we leave. Last November when we took our trip to Lake Kariba, we saw some great sunsets as well.

These I took looking out of our window at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. Beautiful, huh?

Here Birdie Birdie...

One of the advantages of staying at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge was seeing this spectacle at 1 o'clock everyday! That spectacle was feeding the vultures!!! Well, we didn't feed them, but we watched them feed. The first day we watched from the restaurant, and the second time we watched right where the action was!!

The vultures totally knew what happened at 1 o'clock. They would start gathering, and by the time the guy was hauling the stuff out there was over 100 vultures flying above us!

Here they are flying, getting ready to swoop down.

Kinda up close.

Waiting patiently.

The guy getting the beef out for them. It was frozen, which is smart because it was H-O-T-T out there! We asked him if they would start coming at the food with him down there, and he said they wouldn't. As long as he was down there they wouldn't come, they are afraid of humans. It was true too, because none of them got on the ground until he was up on the steps with us.

Looking up at the waiting birds. CRAZY, right?!!? Every one of those black spots is a bird.

One in a tree. They are also ugly little suckers too.

The fight is on!! Do you see the one down front with the beef hanging out of his mouth. It was an incredible sight to see. Also, very dusty.

This one was trying to look big, so then no one else would get his stuff.

Also, again, I could not get the videos to upload...one day it will happen. :)

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge

I've tried to upload our videos from Victoria Falls, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I'll think of a way to get it up here so you guys can see the beauty of it all. :)

So onto our next hotel we stayed at. After going to Victoria Falls we went over to check into our next hotel/lodge. Victoria Falls Safari Lodge! It was beautiful! It was a two-level place, or well, it had the first level and then like a loft with the master bedroom and master bath upstairs. It was nice though.

Here is the look down the stairs. Spencer slept downstairs on one of the couch/bed things, and we slept upstairs.

This was looking straight out at the wall from the top of the stairs. Yes it had vaulted ceilings.

Here is the vaulted ceiling with the thatched roofing/ceiling. Most places here have that, which is kinda nice. Keeps things a tad cool I think. BUT even though we had A/C units in the place (two, one for downstairs and one for upstairs) we also had two places where there was just wire covering the open areas that were in the crest of the roof. So the hot air still got in. It was warm, but not as bad as it could have been without the A/C units, plus it gets cold at night here, so that helped.

Looking downstairs from the top of the stairs.

The mural on our wall. Cute, huh? Spencer thought it was some kind of alien with a weird body. :) It's really a giraffe.

The first level with Spencer's red couch/bed, and also the balcony that overlooked the watering hole. Tyler sat out there for a little bit one afternoon.

Our view from the second story. I couldn't believe how dry it was. We also had a view of the watering hole.

An impala that came to drink.

An elephant coming for an afternoon drink.

You can kinda see some baboons right above the water on the left side. Also that little hideout is exactly that!! A hide!! It's a place where people can go sit and watch the animals, and the animals think it's just a hill or something so then they come really close. Oh, and do you see the water buffalos coming in on the right side?? There is a line of them.

Impala, guinea fowl, and a stork.

Spencer smiling when we went to go eat lunch at the hotel. Most restaurants here have a lot of openness to them. It's actually really nice. This day there was a bird that came in, but it went and sat at a different table, and didn't bother our food at all.

We really enjoyed our stay at this lodge. They were all very nice, and it was in a good location. I think we'll stay here again when Tyler's parents and little sister fly out.