My Week in Images - a few Border Town activities

I am sure it would be interesting if I could update my blog/journal on a 'little and often' basis, but I can't seem to manage to do so, due to time constraints. The opposite is now the way it goes.. maybe once a month, a gigantic post appears, with what seems to be an endless variation on my usual themes of roads, rivers, and the creatures who inhabit these places... so, you have been warned what to expect if reading this! Never mind the past month, which shall remain unblogged, the last week alone was busy enough to fill several centimetres of blog space without a problem!

Last Friday morning we left very early for a neighbouring village, 100km away, to do some measurements in order to quote for a possible job. In the early mornings this road is always so beautiful. Here is an old friend - one of my favourite roadside baobabs.

I love the rich colour of this magnificent field of sorghum - a staple food, blessed by perfect rain and conditions during the right season, it's a good crop this year.

After spending about 10 minutes on site, we were on our way home .. back to a belated start to our Friday morning at work. These baboons dispersed in all directions - regrouping on the road after our no doubt annoying interruption to their daily business!

Here are some lovely Ground Hornbills. The third member of the family is on the other side, waiting to cross over. These large and rather strange looking birds are known by some as rain-birds, as their haunting calls in the early mornings are said to announce the coming of rain.

This is a typical Autumn/Winter scene here. Just too early for bush fires, and not yet time for the harvesting of thatching grass, the pale grasslands contrast with the clear blue skies. Trees are now  in varying stages of leaflessness.

The following day, Saturday, after work we packed up and met our friends Nicci and Alan off the ferry from Zambia. We had all been invited to spend a couple of nights at Ichingo Lodge - which is on an island belonging to the Namibian side of our river. Passports are, of course, required, and after much stamping out and in, on both sides of the river, we headed off to this magical rivery place, much loved by us.. 
An old blogpost about this special place is over here

This little island with its tree full of storks is at the entrance to the river channel leading to the lodge..

On the approach to the lodge, it is very obvious that the rapids are close by - the sound of rushing water gets lounder, and the water picks up speed here, as can by observed by taking a closer look around the vegetation...

Our refuge for the weekend - this simple yet luxurious tent, set high above the water, amidst riverine vegetation.

This is the view from the verandah, looking down on the river below.

Here you can be truly oblivious to the rest of the world, with the muted roar of the rapids drowning out most other sounds. It is amazing to think that our bustling hometown (in a different country) is just one river's width away from this idyllic location! Border town logistics can be fascinating.


The two reunited fly-fishing buddies immediately departed for an afternoon fishing trip down the rapids...

... whilst we girls were treated to an afternoon cruise in the Chobe National Park. It is wonderful to be a tourist in your own area. I unfortunately did not bother to take the long lens, so I do hope viewers  can spot these cute baby baboons which we saw on the Botswana river bank. They were all lining up to drink straight out of the river, with others busy scooting down the tree to join in!

These two elephants were enjoying being well immersed in the water.. egrets were catching a ride! This part of the river, being in the National Park, is always populated with boats, so I tried to get a shot without a boat in the background, but with not much success.

This is a typical Chobe National Park riverfront scene.

On the return trip, we travelled through the sunset ... back to the lodge for drinks, dinner and good company!

Sunday morning, the fishermen did their thing again, and we two walked to a well known baboab located at the very highest point on the island. It was a 7km walk each way, and the exercise was very welcome! It's always worth the effort to reach a baboab, especially one as majestic as this one - here Nicci provides some scale, perching on a part of its awesome root system. She has actually climbed it before in earlier years, and has verified that the lofty view of the four-country meeting point is just as legendary as reported! One for the future, for me..

Eventually, after a totally relaxing Sunday, good old Monday morning rolled around, and after breakfast we crossed the river, back to Botswana, back to work - saying goodbyes to our travelling friends, and hello to our weekly routines. A communications blackout with no telephones, no internet and general inefficiency greeted us - the rest of the week involved gradual improvement in all situations, and rushed past at speed..

On Thursday we had to go and visit a brand new lodge about 80km away, for work purposes. Well, I really just tag along on these occasions. This is the only stretch of tarred road through the Park, being the main route through to the main Botswana/Namibian border. It is a beautiful forested area, and it makes me happy to think that these trees are at least protected from human activity.

 Here a gorgeous sable antelope observes us carefully as we drive by...

It was our first visit to Ngoma Safari Lodge, and we were blown away by the stunning view with baobabs in the foregreound and the electric blue of the Chobe River spilling out all over the floodplain due to the high water levels. Here we are once again looking over an international border - Namibia on the other side.

It was absolutely freezing, being pretty early in the morning, with a strong wind chill factor. The lodge managers enthusiastically supplied plenty of coffee which was most welcome. (The silhouette in the corner is me, huddled round my coffee cup!)

This lodge is the sister establishment, and next door to Muchenje, the place of the wooden bananas (see very old blog post over here about wooden bananas) if interested!

On the way back, we met a herd of giraffe. They can blend so perfectly back into their natural environment, if needed.

The elephants moving on their timeless paths to and from the river come into contact with humans and vehicles all the time here, and they are generally very relaxed road companions. If , however, an elephant is staging a road block it is wise to always show the greatest respect for its right of way!

I can't think of anything else worth noting about our week, without overstaying my welcome here! This is one of those Saturdays where I have a list of things to acheive but probably will not actually get round to many of the items on it... I'm enjoying the weekend feeling! That's it for now, happy weekend greetings to all reading this!