After I had finished my year in Africa I had some holiday time before I went back to the UK for Christmas so I found a company that ran week long trips into Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia for a week which was perfect because a week is all I could spare. I do not normally like organised tours but this one was perfect for me as I was not sure if I could do as much in a week independently so I opted for the safer option.

We started off from Joburg and picked up 2 other passengers an Aussie guy and a German girl. We headed over the border into Botswana with no real problems and headed for Francistown where we would spend our first night. We camped out on the first night in a campsite overlooking a beautiful river.

The next day we drove to a campsite near Chobe National Park and set up camp before we were picked up and drove into Chobe National Park. Chobe is renowned for its elephants and the sheer number of them and we were not to be disappointed. When we arrived into the park we saw a large number of elephants in a herd walk past us and the second large herd of elephants we saw walked all the way around our vehicle on either side, that was quite an experience and it was the closest to a group of elephants I had got before. We saw a number of other animals including hippos, zebras and a number of other animals. As well as seeing the elephants we were lucky enough to see a lioness with her 2 cubs which were about 10 weeks old. We were very close to the lioness and this was the first time I had been so close to the lioness, but she just sat their still even though there were 4 vehicles around her. The 2 cubs were also playing nearby but were not fazed and it was great to see them play freely without being worried by the vehicles.

Once we had finished the safari we headed back to camp where we had an early night and prepared for our early rise to Zimbabwe.