RIVER CRUISE SAFARI

8 am pickup this morning to be delivered to the border of Zambia and Botswana. The Chobe River and the Zambezi River meet here and 4 countries all border each other at once: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana - super cool. We took an open air ferry that seats about 20 over to the Botswana side of the river and went through immigration. The strangest part was that we all had to step into a box and step back out to cleanse our shoes before entering!?! We were picked up on the other side and taken to a small roadside cafe/restaurant where we then boarded our large 2 story open air boat for our river section of the safari tour. Immediately we spotted a crocodile in the river and noticed how much greener and lush everything was in the area. As the boat departed, we saw some beautiful lodges along the river bank and I made a note to self to visit here again! We spent about 2 1/2 hours on the boat cruising slowly up the river and watching the wildlife in the water. Buffalo, elephants, hippos and croc abound with a huge array of birds also. We could see the driving safari vehicles on the river banks and realized that was where we were headed after the cruise. We found out that Botswana is very protective of its wildlife habitat, and Chobe National Park is one of the best game parks in Africa. After the cruise we had lunch back at the cafe/restaurant and then got back into an open air jeep for the rest of the adventure.