On December 26, we said goodbye to the Stanley Lodge in Livingstone, which had been our very comfortable temporary home for four days, and set off for Botswana and Chobe National Park. The border crossing from Zambia to Botswana is soon to be possible by bridge, but for now, everything has to come across the Chobe River by ferry. After a 1.5 hours drive, we were loaded onto that ferry and sent across the river to Botswana and its immigration office. The Botswana immigration office featured a rack advertising free condoms and information about HIV/AIDS. The Public Health advocate part of my brain rejoiced! However, the cynic in me noted that display rack for the advertised free condoms and brochures was empty.

But once we got to our rooms at our new lodge, I was very pleased to find condoms at each of our bedsides, with the Botswana logo prominently featured! (In case you are wondering, my interest in these condoms was purely academic.)

At Chobe National Park, the riverfront is one of the best places to see the wildlife, so we split our time between riverboat ride safaris and the traditional open SUV-type vehicles on the dirt roads.

Jessica developed a way to take photos with her iPhone by shooting through the binocular lens, which resulted in some really nice photos. You can see more details in this photo of the male lion, above, taken through the binoculars. Below is my photo of the same lion, using only my iPhone camera.

The cute monkeys are very aggressive at the picnic area of Chobe. I was standing by the truck after an early morning game drive, with a scone in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. A mother monkey jumped up, grabbed the scone right out of my hand and ran away with it! (Photo taken by Jessica.)

A dung beetle and his ball of dung! Both are larger than you would think.

Went to a crocodile farm and took the opportunity to pose with a baby crocodile.

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