We had an early morning on Thursday so that we could catch the first bus from the city center back to the airport in Cape Town. Turns out that we arrived at the airport too early to check in our bags for the flight though, so we had time for breakfast before dropping off our bags and heading to the gate for our 2.5 hour nonstop flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. This was the one leg where we really didn’t want to have any flight disruptions…and, of course, we did. After boarding the small plane, the captain informed us that the engineers were checking on a mechanical issue with the A/C. Fast forward a couple of hours and a change of aircraft later before we were finally on our way to Vic Falls. Thankfully, despite our flight delay, we were met at the airport by our Bio Bio trip guide, Diego, and the Wild Horizons staff who provided our transportation and assisted with the various border crossings throughout the trip. We were the last guests to arrive, and we still had a longer bus journey ahead since we had opted for the nonstop Airlink flight into Vic Falls from Cape Town rather than the connection through Joburg into Kasane, Botswana.
After arriving by air in Zimbabwe, we were transferred via private bus to Kasane, Botswana. We were greeted at the river border there by Jacques, the owner of the Chobe Savanna Lodge, who had been waiting to transport us by boat across yet another border into Namibia and on to the lodge. This is where we learned that not all passports are created equal in terms of easy access into various countries, as our Peruvian guide was already all too familiar with.
The boat ride to the lodge offered us a preview of some of the wildlife that we would be seeing over the next few days: crocodiles, elephants, cape buffalo, and eland.
Chobe Savanna Lodge is located in the Eastern Zambezi Region of Namibia on the banks of the Chobe River with spectacular views of Botswana’s Chobe National Park on the other side of the river. Their sister property, Chobe Game Lodge, is located across the river in Botswana (and, it offers both game drives and boat safaris whereas we would be spending our time exclusively viewing animals from the river – this worked out well for us since the animals come down to the riverbank to drink and swim in the Fall at the end of the dry season). We enjoyed a more private and secluded safari experience, as our group were the main guests at Chobe Savanna Lodge which accommodates only twenty four guests.
Upon arrival, we settled into our thatched chalet, with a private deck overlooking the bush. And, we quickly learned a few things that would be unique to our African safari lodgings: we had an air horn in our room in case of an animal emergency, our bed was covered with a mosquito netting that the staff would put down at night, and we had to have a safety escort by a staff member back to our room after dinner.
We took in our first sunset on the Chobe River, as we met the rest of our group over drinks and dinner: Marc (co-owner of BioBio) & Emily, from Truckee, CA and Driggs, ID, respectively; Greg & Angie + Dave & Debra from Evergreen, CO; Karen from FL; Mike & Gail from Truckee, CA; Matt & Leanne from San Francisco, CA; Monica from Tahoe; and Ralph & Terry from Michigan.
Given the adventurous nature of the trip, we were surprised to find that we were the youngest guests amongst our group (other than the guides). But, having the time and means for this kind of trip may not come until later for most people. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone!
Adventure awaits!
Wow! You lodging looks so beautiful. Was it noisy at night?