Southern Africa - Day 22 (Part 1)

Monday, 3 February 2020 - Botswana to Zimbabwe

The second last day of the tour and then I’m on my own! 😱😱😱

Today was really an early day, we had to leave our hotel at 6 a.m. for a game drive; it is our last chance to see some animals before I leave Africa.

We drove around Chobe National Park (11,700 square km) in a safari for about 3 hours. We drove along the Chobe River for a bit before heading deeper into the jungle to look for animals. From the Chobe River you can see an island called Sedudu, beyond which is Namibia. This island used to be disputed by Namibia and Botswana, both claimed ownership and the dispute was referred to the International Court of Justice which decided in favour of Botswana. The flag of Botswana flies proudly over this island now.

It was actually quite a disappointing drive as there were not many animals out and about; certainly not any of the Big 5 except a Cape buffalo far away in the distance. The animals we saw included waterbucks. They are also known as toilet seaters because they have a white ring around their bums 🤣. If you see them, it means water is nearby. They secrete a musky smell when threatened, this is to deter predators. We also saw plenty of Marabou storks. They are scavengers and eat almost anything from carcasses to nuts, seeds, fish etc. They actually help to clean the environment because they eat almost anything, usually leftovers. They are also one of The Ugly 5 😅. I didn’t ask what the other 4 were because I honestly think all creatures are beautiful. Except insects (6 legs). Oh and human beings 😅.

We saw hippos playing in the water, ducks, white egrets, an African fish eagle, impalas (today it’s impalas everywhere!) Egyptian geese, African jacanas, plovers (birds), an elephant in the distance busy eating, guinea fowls and a giraffe.

Then back to the hotel where it was a rush as we had about 20 minutes to eat breakfast, pack and leave the room by 10 a.m. A short drive and we were leaving Botswana. We stopped at an ATM and I just checked my wallet to see whether I needed more money and to my horror I discovered some money missing. As usual everyone was in a rush so I had to go withdraw money in a hurry as I still had some expenses before leaving for Johannesburg. 

After all that and while crossing the border to Zimbabwe, I was really so upset because it must have been one of the cleaners who took it from my wallet. Sometimes after checking in to a hotel I just took with me the essentials, leaving heavier things behind so that I don’t have to carry many things with me when I go for excursions. Honestly, I never did this before when I travelled alone; I guess I felt safe and comfortable travelling in this group tour that I let my guard down. It is my own fault in the end. 

But that was precisely the reason why I was (and still am) so upset. At the same time, you never expect the cleaners to go through your things, this I find to be really annoying. My wallet is always in my hand carry bag so that person would have had to go through my bag and then my wallet. This is a nonsense. I will leave it to karma to deal with them. Also I think I am more upset than usual because my period came today. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it is a real nuisance being a girl. I’m not gonna mention my lost money to my parents because I’m not in the mood for yet another “I told you so” lecture 🙄.