Today our tour with Wild Dog through to Namibia starts. We were picked up at Gloria's by a 28 seater bus (for the 5 of us) at 10am. The bus took us to the border between Zambia and Botswana. Once out of the town the country side was very dry although at one spot we did see some irrigation and some wheat being harvested.
At the border (a bit over an hour away) we had to go through the exit procedure from Zambia and then crossed the Zambezie River in a small boat to the Botswanan side. There is also a vehicular ferry but it can take only one truck at a time and there are trucks lined up for kilometres.
We were met on the other side by another bus and were driven to immigration on the Botswanan side where we had to get an entrance stamp (no visa required). At the border post we had to stand on a mat impregnated with something to prevent 'Foot and Mouth' and Anthrax from being transported across the border. We then drove for about 45 minutes to Chobe Safari Lodge. 
After booking in we had drinks and lunch while waiting for our rooms to be ready. Lunch was a buffet - very satisfactory. Our room is huge, with an additional small room with double bunks for kids. There's a varandah out the front overlooking the river but it's really too hot to use. Fortunately there is air conditioning. Interesting that there is a sign on the double doors opening onto the verandah warning against leaving the doors open as the monkeys will invade our room. There are Barboons and Vervent Monkeys out the front - and a number of wart hogs around as well.
In the afternoon we went on a three hour drive into the Chobe National Park in an open vehicle (had a canvas roof to keep the sun off). Even though we had seen lots of animals in Kruger the drive certainly had a 'wow' factor. This area is the top end of the Kalahari with very deep sands and a teak forest (fairly open). The Parks northern boundary is the Chobe River (with Namibia on the other side) and it was along the river that we spent most of our time. The river consists of several channels with lots of islands and lots of green grass.
In the afternoon we saw: huge heards of elephants with lots of young ones; southern ground hornbill; sable antelope; guinea fowls; stalks; ring necked dove; tree squirrel; buffalo; lilac breasted roller, water buck; crocodile, jakana bird; lots of other water birds; wart hogs; impalas; Kudu antelope; vultures; hippos; fish eagles; giraffes, Blacksmith's Lapwing; ibis, geese, egrets, baboons, red beaked hornbill; and to top it off a small (5) pride of female lions. They were just lying around no more than about 6 metres away taking it easy and not in the least bit interested in us. WOW!
Back at the lodge for a very delicious buffet dinner, including game meat and sorbet (Jill was very happy!!) We also met for the first time our Wild Dog Tour leader for the rest of our trip, Ian.
We slept under our mosquito nets even though we haven't seen any mosquitoes. We also put on our Bushmans 80% Deet when we went on Safari. It is a malaria area and we are taking no chances, particularly when Jill and I have chosen not to take malaria tablets.
