Africa - Botswana - 2nd Day

Mon, August 15, 2011

After a long, hot shower and a good night of sleep it wasn't too bad getting up at 5:30am for our 6:00am game drive in Chobe National Park. I never thought I'd say that! It's amazing the kind of energy I had with sufficient rest and relaxation. As the sun came up we entered the park and began our last game drive of our safari. We saw more elephants, warthogs, giraffe, a hyena, etc. It really was beautiful and we were so lucky to have experienced it.

I can't remember how long the drive lasted and I think we took a nap somewhere in the late morning. Actually, the other girls napped. I wasn't able to sleep so I just read a book. When Mai woke up we grabbed lunch and I made a call home to Mark and Keira. It was so great to hear their voices. I don't know if it made my homesickness better or worse, but I know hearing their voices made me happy. Hearing, "Mommy!" on the other line was just what I needed. We ate some lunch and waited for the other ladies to join us.

Around 3:00 we were shuttled over to the river for a sunset boat cruise. That was an absolutely amazing ride. My favorite memory was watching a herd of elephants, including baby elephants, cross the river channel. The water was definitely too deep for the babies, but the guides assured us that they would make it across. It turns out the adult elephants would swim under and use their legs to help boost the babies to the surface of the water so they could breathe. Sure enough, they all made it across.

There was one passenger aboard our boat that made the trip quite entertaining. She was Asian (of course) and had one of the most annoying laughs ever. On top of that, she was filled with questions. Normally I'm all for learning and having an inquisitive mind, but seriously!! She was ridiculously over the top. AND, when she walked she shuffled/stomped. I can't even describe it. Heather wanted to throw herself overboard. I pointed out it'd probably make more sense to throw the annoying girl overboard.

Nonetheless it was a wonderful cruise. We saw a lot and we learned a lot. Once again, we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over the water.

Pretty cool sunset huh?

Enjoying the boat cruise

When we got back we sat down to dinner and another vicious game of Phase 10. We had a wonderful waitress take care of us our first night and this second night. Her name was Kay. She was wonderful and very patient when teaching us basic words to use, when we requested things...There was this funny moment when we asked for "a bowl with butter" and Kay came out with little bowls of water which is what she heard! We all had quite the laugh over it. I'm sure she was puzzled by why we'd want bowls of water. It turned out to be useful as we each got the roast chicken dinner and had super messy fingers by the end of dinner. The water bowls came in handy to clean off our fingers so we could continue our card game. Toward the end of our night a stray cat came to join us and if you know me, you know that made me really uncomfortable. Immediately I thought about the cat scratching me and giving me rabies. Then as the cat came near my backpack Heather said, "You know. That cat probably has fleas." That sent me into another tailspin thinking about little fleas jumping off the cat and onto my bag. I took that as a queue to end the night! And so our time in Botswana came to a close.

Making fun of Heather's chicken massacre