Elephants & Lions on Botswana’s Chobe River

Admittedly, this article is a long one. Make sure to at least look at all the photos, and if you want to see the entire post in full color, please click on “Read on Blog” above. I had to leave a lot of good photos out of this post, as it would have gone on forever!

This is the second time I have visited Botswana’s Chobe Game Lodge along the Chobe River. The first was a few years ago at the end of the driest and hottest season – October. The lodge itself is a gorgeous, 5-Star experience all the way! After a morning of travel, we are greeted with a delicious, cucumber & mint refresher as well as warm hand towels to clean the dust off our hands and faces.

In the evening, our group takes a boat ride along the Chobe River. Elephants are abundant, as are birds, Kudu, Crocodiles and Baboons. I’ve decided to do a separate post about the birds of Southern Africa later, as this would be way too long for all of you if I included my bird photos!

The Elephants, or “Ellies”, as I will henceforth call them, travel down to this river every day to drink, bathe and cool off. The river is the life blood of all species here in Botswana. They come running down with their old and with their new.

Kitso (pronounced Keet-sew) is one of the famous new female guides that are hired by Chobe Game Lodge every year. She proves herself to be an intrepid guide who finds us the best animal and bird viewing opportunities in the area. Below is a male Kudu who just took a long drink from the river. Our group is mesmerized by his large, curly horns.

She then spots a herd of ellies who are about to cross the river. Our group watches the herd as one enters first, then all of the others follow. It is a deep river, and we are a bit worried about the youngest elephant, but as it turns out, he or she was okay and got to the other side without incident. Below, the largest one emerges on the other side.

At the end of our first day at Chobe, a baboon on the river bank eats fruit.

Very early the next morning, we climb up into the Safari vehicles and set out on a game drive with Kitso. She hears on the radio that there are lions in the area, and then we see the lion tracks.

Kitso delivers us to this particular pride of lions with speed and finesse, as she maneuvers us into a wonderful spot from where can view some lion parents with their cubs.

Lions are amazing parents. They play with their cubs in order to teach them how to survive later in life, and also how to get along with other members of the pride. Here, the mother lion plays with her cub.

Below, the young father lion tussles with his cub as well. They are both covered in sand.

We then drive to another area to watch possibly the same pride, called the Broken Tail Pride. I am not sure why they’re called that, but I am sure there is a lion somewhere with a broken tail.

These lions enter in from the right of our vehicle and walked right across the road in front of us. They are used to people in vehicles watching them, and are completely nonchalant about the gang of Paparazzi following them.

We see a female Kudu and Sheryl and I notice the Ears.

We always enjoy seeing Giraffes.

I’ve made an exception for the Kori Bustard, which is the National Bird of Botswana. It is known as “bird of the Chiefs”, kgori in the local language of Setswana. It is a large bird, standing around 2-3 feet tall.

The end of our 2nd day on the Chobe River.

On our last game drive at Chobe, I spot a female lion near the river and say to the group, “there’s a lion and it’s carrying something in its mouth.” It turns out to be a Warthog that a mother lion had just killed for her young, and she is slowly carrying it back to her cubs. The cubs are under a tree near our vehicle, and she drops the animal every 10 feet or so to take a break because she is exhausted.