Zimbabwe & Botswana

It was so nice to see family again. The kids were pumped to see people other than their parents. It was great to have Dustin and Ashley join us on the safari portion of our trip. We met them in Johannesburg, South Africa for a quick overnight before we flew into Victoria Falls.

I didn't think that I would be impressed by the falls, but it was pretty cool to see their force and get soaked by them.

We went to a boma dinner that was a pretty cool cultural experience with dancing and drumming.

After that, we were off to Kasane, just across the boarder into Botswana. This is where the pampering started. Our stay at Bakwena lodge, we were in a farm house with our own private kitchen area and pool. The food was amazing and the tours to Chobe were great. Little did we know it was only going to get better from here.

On day 1, Zoe got to see the animal that she was most looking forward to, painted dogs

Next stop was Lagoon Camp. The room was classic.

Our guide, Lucas and tracker G were so great. They stayed out longer and later than all of the other groups to ensure that we got to see every animal and experience amazing things, like the roar of a lion calling his brother from 10m away, the night sky with all of the beautiful stars and no light pollution.

Next was Moremi Crossing. Definitely a more rustic, older camp where Amos tried his best, but the whole experience landed a bit flat for me.

And finally 4 Rivers camp, a new lodge that opened only a year ago. The rooms were unbelievable and the staff went above and beyond to make sure that everyone had an amazing time. Diesel and Akeem again found every animal we had been looking for.

Thomas got to co-pilot the plane twice between camps.

We saw four of the big five, we had to wait until Namibia to see the Rhinoceros:

Lions:

Zoe's favourite picture:

Leopards (which became Ashley and my favourite to see)

Elephants

Buffalo (the grumpiest guys around)

But we had no idea that there were other list too, like the ugly five:

Hyena

Vulture

Warthog

Wildebeest

and Marabou Stork

The big little five: Ant Lion, Leopard tortoise, Elephant Shrew, red billed Buffalo weaver, Rhinoceros beetle (we only saw the leopard tortoise of the bunch)