After trying to get into a couple of less frequented camping places (they were all full one or other night and I wasn’t into pitching my tent every day) I ended up at Chobe Safari Lodge Camping. My site was on the banks of the Chobe and everyone kept telling me to watch out for crocodiles. No ways I’d be sleeping with my feet outside the tent!
Sign next to my campsite
I joined up with Val on the roadside – she and friends were wading in a vlei area collecting water lilies for the friend’s riverside home. The swimming pool had been flooded by the high Chobe River and is now home to frogs and fish and the water lilies were to provide shade for the pool guests.
View of Chobe River from my campsite
They took me to the local restaurant, the Old House, to meet some of their local friends. Wine is as good on the Chobe as anywhere else :-)
The Old House, Kasane
After my previous blogpost from the coffee chop, I was having lunch with Karen and Tiennie when I stopped mid-sentence, wordlessly staring at someone I thought I recognised. After doing a double-take, it was Richard Ayres, the last person I ever expected to see in Kasane. Turns out he is managing the upmarket Elephant Valley Lodge on the outskirts of Kazungula. We went there for drinks and dinner (yes the wine is good there too!). What a fabulous deck overlooking a floodlight waterhole, which was visited by a herd of ellies – too dark for me to take decent photos.
Driving back to Kasane late at night can be perilous, but I slowly followed Tiennie and Karen back to town, passing an ellie on the side of the road in town. Sunday morning was a slow day. I packed up camp at Safari and went to unpack my LSP on Karen and Tiennie’s lawn so I could re-organise all my stuff. It was hot and I was feeling the effects of the previous night’s dining so I tried to clean and tidy and re-arrange as quickly as possible. One of the side effects of camping is sand inside the tent. My groundsheet is not as effective as I’d like it to be and Tiennie kindly gave me a length of shadecloth to use as well in future. He also supplied me with a proper piece of wood I will hopefully never have to use. It is to put under the jack if you need to change a wheel in the sand. It stops the jack sinking into the sand from the pressure of a heavy vehicle.
Richard very kindly invited me to stay at Elephant Valley Lodge for the night so I got to sleep in a REAL bed again and have a proper bath, which was heavenly. Once again the food and wine were great. A handsome Sable bull visited the floodlit waterhole and I don’t think many of the guests really appreciate what a treat it is to see this antelope.
my campsite at Chobe Safari Lodge
Monday morning – I watched a beautiful sunrise, then packed up as my Baked Beans Jubilee adventure was moving to Zimbabwe and the ‘smoke that thunders’
Till next time . . .
(once again this blogpost is made possible by the generous Karen and Tiennie of Kasane Computers)
(once again this blogpost is made possible by the generous Karen and Tiennie of Kasane Computers)
4 comments:
This is where we stayed! EVLodge! and where K & T and V & K met us for drinks and dinner!! and where we made that phone call (while watching the floodlit water hole one evening- to Geli!)Fantastic.
Oh my gosh, so i met your friend too i think. So funny.
So this is really exciting to see how far you've come already. Camping on the Chobe, geez, did you get any pic's of the crocs? we saw many. BIG ones, ha! I wonder if they know what tents are??
Tiennie is so nice, that was really kind of him to donate those things to the BBJ adventure.
I could picture Val picking those lilys, i hope she'll make a post of this, i'd love to see some pics.
I hope you know how vicariously i am living this with you Janet. Today we are going to the falls.
OH BOY!!
Bring several plastic bags for camera protection as well as a dry rag in the bottom of one, for the cameras.
Have Fun!!
Janet, what a treat to hear of all the FRIENDS you are meeting, aren`t we all a big family by now? Yes Lori, I will never forget that PHONECALL from your lodge, hearing yours and Karen`s and Val`s voices! What an incredible night! And Janet, you telling us of all your adventures and meetings of people and animals (sables are great, yes!) makes us hang at your lips breathlessly. Can you feel how big your pockets get, with us all sitting in there?
Thank you also for taking time to even comment on my blog. You are such a friend! Watch out for the meteor showers tonight and tomorrow. You can wish endlessly! Happy proceedings on your marvellous journey.
how cool that you are meeting up with val!! and that this is the same place lori went and where she called geli from there.........gosh the world can be a small lovely place when we want it to be♡
the view of the gorgeous river from your tent is amazing -- but watch out for those gators!!
love taking this journey along with you.....
xoxo
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.
Post a Comment