African Lullaby

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Chobe Game Reserve in Botswana for an overnight safari with the AMT students. Who wouldn't want to go sleep with lions?! Yes, I am that crazy. :)

We spent the day driving through the park and seeing tons of elephants, giraffe, cape buffalo, zebra, kudu, and impala. No signs of lions though but we pressed on in hopes of even a glimpse of them. The evening came so we headed to our campsite, which was in the heart of the game park. When we arrived at our spot, we noticed that we'd be having some company duringthe night. In front of us were hundreds of elephants. As you looked farther down the road, you could see hundreds of cape buffalo heading towards us also. The sunset was beautiful and as we settled down for dinner around the campfire, we were surrounded by the noises of Africa. The crunch of the elephants and buffalo as they passed us by were our evening lullaby as we went to sleep.

The next morning we headed out early still in hopes of seeing lions. We were told about the area that they claimed as their territory and went there in hopes that they were around. About 30 meters away from our campsite we saw their tracks from their travels during the night. Most likely hunting the animals or getting water from the river. Unfortunately, that's all we saw of them on this trip. Maybe next time we'll have better luck. It was an awesome experience though and once I won't soon forget.