Market, Helicopter, Border Crossing, and First Game Drive

June 21, 2013

What a packed day! 

After breakfast, we went to some of the local markets.  Mom and I went to a shop where I found

beautiful bracelets and necklaces to bring home and where mom found a lovely sculpture of an owl.  Amazingly enough, the sculpture arrived at my mom's only a little over a week after we returned home.  The Victoria Falls FedEx was very efficient! 

I was glad that the shopping adventure was only an hour or so because I was very excited to see the falls from our helicopter ride.  We soared over the falls and the Zambezi River for about twenty minutes.  It was wonderful to see the source of the falls and to be able to see the width of this natural wonder.  I was impressed at how smooth the helicopter ride was.



The first elephant sighting

We departed from Victoria Falls after lunch.  On our drive to Botswana, we saw our first family of elephant at the side of the road.  I really don't want to sound like the cliche tourist, but I honestly got chills and teared up a bit at the sight of these wonderful creatures.  Maybe it was because they were our first big animal (the warthogs in Victoria Falls were amusing, but not as impressive) or because I had grown closer to these beautiful animals after I finished a great book ,The Animal Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony. (Thanks to my co-worker and friend Stephanie for the recommendation!)  No matter the reason, I knew then that the next part of our adventure would be one enlightening moment after another. 

The next wonderful moment was when we arrived at Chobe Chilwero Sanctuary.   Upon walking onto the back patio of this lodge, I was greeted with a view of the Chobe River, complete with elephants grazing and drinking in the distance.  We had a welcome drink of ginger juice and lemon and proceeded to our chalets.  These chalets were gorgeous.  They had a back patio that included a hammock and outdoor shower.  And they had a spot with chairs and a table out front that overlooked the river.

While I was amazed at the view from our lodge, it was the first game drive that evening that made me start falling in love with this country.  We saw elephant families down by the river, giraffe (including a two month old), hippos, buffalo, impala, slender banded mongoose, guinea pigeons, kudu, puku, and a honey badger.  There were also many beautiful birds.  At sunset, we headed back to our lodge to refresh a bit before dinner.

At this location and at our next one, we were not permitted to leave our cabins alone at night.  We called the reception area and were escorted to drinks and appetizers.  A local group of young adults performed traditional dances and songs.  They were competing in a national tournament the next day, and the skills they showed proved they were worthy of a victory there.  At the end of their performance, I danced with a few of the girls.  After that we ate another delicious meal that, of course, included more South African wine.

What we did in a day seemed like several to us as we headed to bed exhausted but more than pleased with the day.  I laughed when I saw the bullhorn on the table next to my mom's side of the bed.  We crawled into the mosquito netting and fell asleep fast.