A girl friend of mine from New York joined me in Johannesburg and also went with me on safari.
We flew to Botswana from Johannesburg on a small, one aisle plane. As we were landing, we could see it was a whole other type of landscape, very flat with lots of green and trees.
Chobe National Park, the first in Botswana, established in1967, has one of the largest concentrations of game in Africa, spanning over 11,000 square kilometers.
We stayed at the Chobe Safari Lodge, a large hotel complex and lodge with swimming pool, good sized, comfortable rooms and next to the park.
We arrived about 2PM and at 4PM we went on our first game drive. Usually the schedule for safari camps is you go on a morning game drive in an open sided jeep that seats up to six people from about 6AM to 10AM and in the afternoon you go on another drive from 4PM to 7PM or sunset.
Both my friend and I had never been on a safari before so we didn’t know what to expect. We climbed into the jeep and headed for the bush. The roads are unpaved, so it can be very bumpy at times. A few moments later we started to see some animals. The park has over 50,000 elephants, so we spotted herds of them frequently. The baby elephants were adorable and their mothers were very protective. In between we saw impalas, warthogs (in fact there was a warthog at our hotel room door with its babies), hippos, wild birds, and a giraffe from a distance.
The guide stopped at a picnic area and we saw the sweetest site: a mother baboon in a tree nestling her baby who had the most innocent face. One of the last sites we saw as the sun was setting was a treetop lined with vultures waiting for their next prey.
The lodge is on Lake Chobe, so the next day I took a river cruise. It was close to 90 degrees and quite humid, so the hippos were mostly submerged in water but I was lucky to get a great shot of one coming out of the water with its jaws open wide and its teeth smiling at me. We also spotted a yellow alligator.
Chobe Safari Lodge is close to Victoria Falls, so we took a day trip by bus. We had to go to Zimbabwe to see the falls and security between Botswana and Zimbabwe was arduous and time consuming.
The falls were an incredible feat of nature, thousands of gallons of water gushing down a long chasm of greenery and rocks, creating a beautiful and cool mist.
http://www.chobesafarilodge.com
I feel anorexic next to these guys
I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP!
vultures descending
OPEN WIDE!
Warthogs by my hotel room
Please don't make me in to a handbag
New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.
Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.
Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
Tours cost 210 euros for up to 3 people, and 70 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour
Beautiful, beautiful pictures. What an adventure you had. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Jean(ne) in MN | January 21, 2015 at 05:43 PM