While in Livingstone we stayed in this quaint African bed and breakfast. It was quaint indeed! The bathroom was across the hall, we didn't have power for an entire day and the mosquitoes were horrendous when we first arrived!! The people there were very nice, however and they served us a good breakfast cooked on a gas stove since there was no power and they sprayed for mosquitoes while we went to dinner the first night so we were not bothered by them while we slept.
We actually went to the park three times. Once in the late morning, once in the afternoon and evening (this was when we went on the boat ride) and once early in the morning. The morning we got up before dawn to get to the park before daylight we wanted to watch all the animals roaming about. We saw a hyena crossing the road and these elephants! Otherwise we were a little disappointed. Most of the animal sightings were in the afternoon and not in the early morning hours like we thought they would be. We should have driven directly to the river. I think we would have seen much more.
Chobe National Park is where there are huge herds of elephants (some 50,000), giraffes, hippos, kudus and many more.
Elephants are huge! And we quickly learned that when an elephant starts flapping it's ears it is a warning to get out of the way At one point there was a car in front of us, a car in back of us and we were stuck in the middle on a sandy road next to a few elephants. (Making a quick get-a-way very difficult!). I guess the mama elephant thought were were too close, she started to flap her ears, I kept telling Hal to move and then she let out a bellow that nearly scared me to death!! We moved and everything was fine but we kept our distance after that! I wish I could post the video clips here.
We were very happy to allow this herd of elephants cross the road in front of us. No hurry!!!! Very fun to watch!
Look really close and you can see the lion. There were actually two lions. They didn’t really seem to care that we were watching them. Of course we stayed in the truck but we sure were not very far away!!
We got pretty close to this crocodile while we were in the boat. We could see his eyes staring at us!
Elder Phelps thinks the giraffes were the most impressive of all the animals that we saw. There was a baby giraffe that was especially cute. It seemed all alone. We thought maybe it had lost it's momma, but as we drove just a little bit further we discovered it's momma eating behind the next big bunch of bushes. We just didn't have the right view.
Can you see the Water Monitor?
Did you know that hippos can travel under the water faster than they can on land? We were told they can go as fast as a horse under the water. So when we were on the boat ride our guide watched the hippos closely and if the started moving toward you, it was time to move on.
Impala. There were also kudus but I guess I didn't get a good picture of the most majestic one. He was really a trophy!
50,000 elephants and a million baboons🥴 Zoom into the picture and you can see a kudu behind the baboons.
These are squirrel monkeys. Very fast, not afraid of you and they want any food you might have! Here, Elder Pease placed a potato chip on his shoulder and the monkeys could grab it faster than you can blink your eyes!! We also learned not to leave your windows open or the monkeys will climb inside and take anything that smells yummy!
We had a great time! Mission life is not always work...just most of the time!! We were especially grateful to the Pease for inviting us to join them. They had their daughter, Delon and her husband Shad, visiting them. We will really miss Elder and Sister Pease when they go home later this month. They have become great friends!!
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