Next stop, Chobe National Park in Bostwana — our fourth African country. (I don’t count Morocco as being in Africa; it’s just a weird island all by itself.)

We knew that getting around Botswana without our own transport was going to be difficult. In fact, getting to Chobe NP from Livingstone, Zambia, would involve five or so transport changes. Happily, before we set off alone, we had the good fortune of meeting Chris and Jasmin, a good-looking German couple who were planning a route that matched our own towards Namibia (again, a difficult country to travel without wheels or a Private Pilot’s License). They had come up with a novel solution: Join a one-day organised Chobe safari visit from Livingstone and stay-put in Botswana at the end of the day, waving-off the other tourists as they returned to Zambia. And then find a place to stay. Genius! We decided to copy their plan and boarded the bus.

Once inside Chobe, and thus Botswana, we were taken on a whirlwind driving safari around part of the national park. Chobe is most famous for its density of elephants — eighty thousand of them, to be precise. Crocodiles are also a major feature feature and I was really looking forward to meeting some close-up as I had only previously photographed them from a distance. Unfortunately, our safari driver-guide was more concerned with getting from A-to-B as quickly as he could and rushed us through what could have been a far more pleasurable experience. Don’t misunderstand me: The drive was indeed enjoyable, but it paled compared to our experience in Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater under the professional and enthusiastic leadership of Rama, our Tanzania Journeys safari guide. We were particularly amused by the baboon searching through elephant poo for easy, tasty, undigested morsels. We were less impressed when our driver refused to stop to let us photograph six giraffes having brunch at the side of the road, citing time as being against us.

In the afternoon we took to the water on a very civilised dining boat safari, on which we and a bunch of American tourists were stuffed full of buffet food and unlimited (UNLIMITED!) beer and wine. This was a really enjoyable experience and the perfect opportunity to get to know our new German travel buddies a little better. The waterside animals performed their almost pre-rehearsed acts flawlessly: Elephants washing, playing and crossing the river. Crocodiles laying-in wait along the river banks, occasionally smiling (to cool down) and slipping into the murky waters to disappear from sight.

We spent the evening at the campsite making fire and playing with our cameras to create ‘light graffiti’ art with a slow shutter and a torch — have a look at the photos to see my crocodile and Claire’s ‘Botswana’ word.

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