It's winter in Africa and although the days are generally very pleasant, the nights can get quite cold. At 5 AM, wake up time, it's still dark outside the tent and the temperature could be more pleasant. It's hard to leave the sleeping bag but breakfast is waiting and we have to leave at 6 AM for today's game drive. At 6 AM sharp we're ready only to discover that our drivers/guides use a somewhat different time schedule. Africa! After waiting for nearly half an hour they finally appear and soon we're on our way to Chobe NP, covered in blankets to keep us warm.

Inside the park we reduce speed and start our gamedrive along the Chobe River. In the meantime the sky has turned from almost black to a light blue and over the hills the sun appears, casting its golden rays over the river. At the waterfront lots of Whitefaced Ducks search for food, accompanied by Blacksmith Plovers and several kinds of Egrets. We see a pair of Hamerkops sitting in a treetop and the occasional bunch of Guineafowl. Curious hippo raise their heads above the surface to watch us.

We continue our drive on an inland loop and encounter different kinds of antelopes like Steenbok and Impala. Several impressive male Kudus show their curved horns before they fly into the bush. Then we come across this single Puku (above). Although there are still a lot of Pukus in Southern Africa, the populations are widely scattered. Seeing them in Chobe is quite special as it's the most southern population consisting of only about 150 animals.

Continuing our inland loop we pass a grassy plain and from a distance three buffaloes stop eating and gaze at us while we're gazing at them. Apparently we're not posing a threat to them and after a short while, they start grazing again. In the meantime the sun's getting warmer and warmer and it's time for a short break, To my amazement the place looks familiar and when asked, our guide confirms that this is Serondella, one of the two campsites in Chobe that I camped on in 1991.

Serondella nowadays isn't used as a campsite anymore. Instead of that it's an official picnic site and it's allowed to leave the vehicles and walk around. For monkeys this is an attractive place because picnic means food and there's always a chance to get something from a tourist or snatch something away. While the baboons keep a distance, a daring vervet monkey comes very close. As we leave again, a warthog emerges from the bush and quickly runs by. In 1991 one of his friends kept me in a tree for almost half an hour only a few hundreds of meters from this spot.

At about 10 AM it's time to go back to the campsite. No lions or leopards this morning. Even Chobe's elephants are absent. You can't be lucky always! It's warm now, the sun standing high in the sky. As we're free for the next couple of hours, it's a good moment to test my equipment for the upcoming eclipse. My homemade black polymer filter, made from old protective glasses, works very well and I'm able to get a nice picture of the sun. Even my new remote control works smoothly so everything seems to work properly.

After this successful test, there's not much to do except waiting in the shade, taking a cool shower and preventing vervet monkeys from stealing our fruit. One vervet monkey succeeds in snatching away an onion. A funny reaction follows when it takes a bite. Walking alongside the campsite's waterfront we are warned to beware of the crocodiles. We don't see one but we do see a Monitor lizard and a lot of Banded mongoose that wander freely over the campsite.

At 3 PM it's time for our next trip, a boat trip over the Chobe River. The Chobe River is part of Botswana's border with neighboring Namibia and it also forms Chobe's northern boundary. As animals come to drink at Chobe's waterfront, floating on a boat in the middle of the river will probably add a new dimension to our game viewing experience. We sit down in the front row on the upper deck to have an as unobstructed view as possible.

The birdlife is prolific. Numerous Weaverbirds, Bee-eaters, Kingfishers, Hamerkops can bee seen near the banks as we're floating by and they seem to be less frightened and more approachable than approached from a vehicle. Hippo's are abundant and every now and then the "har-har-har" of a laughing hippo breaks the silence. Crocodiles are seen as well but in the decreasing sunlight and with only their eyes above the surface, they're hard to spot.

At a leisurely pace we go several kilometers upstream. Although we do see some solitary elephants and several antelopes drinking at the waterfront, we don't encounter one of those large elephant herds that Chobe is famous for. Only a month or so after the rainy season, there's probably still enough water elsewhere in the park making it is less necessary for these pachyderms to go to the river. Just like yesterday the setting sun creates a spectacle of colors in the sky and we reach the campsite again when it's nearly dark. In the evening we enjoy a good braai with several kinds of grilled game to taste.