Tuesday, December 17th – Wednesday, December 18th 2024
World Tour Days 45- 46
We arrived in Botswana in the afternoon and went straight into an activity. We had a river cruise in Chobe National Park on the Chobe River. We saw hippos, fish eagles, crocodiles, and enjoyed the scenic landscapes. We learned hippos can run up to 60km per hour on land, but we also have heard other statistics on that from other activities so hard to know which is true. It was only a 2.5 hour drive day and we spent the night in Kasane, Botswana. That evening there was a powerful thunder and lightning storm. We all swore we could feel lightning strike the earth as our campsite shook from the force.
The next day was a 4.5 hour drive day to Nata. On the way we saw elephants and sable on the side of the highway. Sable are a rare type of antelope that are black with unique horns. Nata is where there are the salt plains, known as the Makgadikgadi Pans. In wet season they can be 1.5 meters under water. Luckily for us we were there when it was dry and we could drive on them.
We got in 4 x 4 vehicles and did a sunset game drive. We saw hyenas which were the most beautiful we had seen yet. They had very distinct spots and colors. There were wildebeest fighting, an ostrich, and an abandoned ostrich egg. Our guide allowed us to get out of the truck to feel how heavy the egg was. It was very heavy and we could feel the dead fetus inside move when we tilted the egg.
A highlight of the evening was going to the salt plains where we had fun playing around with the optical illusions of the depth perception. We spent the night in Nata, resting before our big game drives in the upcoming days.
