Recently my group did a 12-day Southern Africa Adventure which featured four days on safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, and Africa’s most stable democracy. The minute you arrive there, you feel like your safari has already started.

What I enjoyed about being in Chobe National Park is that you not only get to do the traditional open air vehicle land safari game drives, but you also get to do some boat safaris on the dazzling, deep blue Chobe River that runs through the park.

Chobe National Park has the world’s largest concentration of elephants – about 50,000.

There are also lions, leopards, buffalos, zebras, hippos, giraffes, hyenas, and over 400 bird species. It encompasses 4300 square miles of verdant flood grasslands, acacia woodlands, flood plains, as well as baobab and mopane trees. The game reserve was established in 1960 with the aim of protecting the local wildlife and promoting tourism.

The lodge we stayed at was the Chobe Safari Lodge which is perfectly situated on the Chobe River and very close to the park’s entrance. The staff there were very accommodating and attentive, and the rooms were nice and tastefully done, all with views of the river. From the lodge we set out on a late afternoon boat safari on arrival day plus two full-day game drives on days two and three there and then an early morning game drive on the final day of our stay.

Having a good knowledgeable and passionate guide on a safari makes it truly special. We learned so much from our guide Same (pronounced Sammy) about the intricate interplay of all the wildlife, birds, and plants in Chobe National Park. We had a wonderous experience that opened us up to a completely different world that exists beyond the social media, 24-hour news cycle, consumer-centric one that we (or at least I) know and live in.

Overall, I found Botswana to be unspoiled, untamed, and unpredictable in comparison to the only other African safari I have been on which was at a private game reserve in Kruger National Park in South Africa (Kapama) on my 2021 tour.

Both parks are terrific, but being on Safari in Botswana was just more awe-inspiring and I felt that I really got to witness up close and personal the real wild kingdom!