We spent one day last December (2006) taking a Chobe safari out of Livingstone. It was fun and exciting but definitely eclipsed by the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. Here are the contemporaneous notes that I made about Chobe:

We arrived at the Zambia/Botswana border just after 815 a.m. and found long lines of 16-wheel tractor trailers waiting to cross the river. After getting our passports stamped we took a small ferry boat across the river and entered Botswana, got our Botswana visas (no charge) and were met by the crew that would guide our day. The ferry that carried us across was the only apparent transport available for the 16-wheelers, some of whose drivers reported that they had been waiting three days to cross the border. Two ferries ply the river crossing and each is capable of carrying one tractor-trailer and a maximum of two cars per crossing. (On the way back from Botswana I counted 46 tractor-trailers waiting to cross into Zambia and 45 in line to go the other way.) Each crossing takes approximately twenty minutes and the ferries only run 12-hours per day so everything comes to a firm halt as soon as anyone wants to move goods across the border. (I am advised that there is an alternate route – by road – through Zimbabwe, but governmental red tape there often delays the trucks for weeks at a time.)

After going through the usual formalities of paying for the trip we were loaded into a land cruiser and taken to our launching point on the Chobe River for a three hour river cruise and a light breakfast on board.

The Chobe River is a tributary of the Zambezi and sets its own course beginning about eight kilometers up from where we found it. It separates Botswana from Namibia and is plied by pontoon boats full of tourists who come to see the animals. Interestingly Namibia looks very different from Botswana along the banks of the Chobe River where we cruised. Botswana looks lush and green and full of verdant bushes and ancient trees while the Namibian bank of the river seemed to be nothing but bullrushes. As we never actually landed in Namibia I don’t know how far inland this holds true.

Between the Namibian and Botswana banks of the river there is a marshy island where we discovered a family of seventeen hippos playing water games. I am told that hippos are not good swimmers so the water near the island must have been fairly shallow – only deep enough to submerge eight hundred pound beasts so that there is nothing but their ears and bubbles showing. (Perhaps this explained why there were no life preservers on the boat – maybe with hippos there the issue is irrelevant.)

A couple kilometers further down we saw elephants – at least four herds of 75 or more elephants per herd. (We counted the first herd and the others were larger.) There were lots of babies among them so we deduce that the last couple mating seasons were quite successful and the elephants were prolific. It really is amazing to go around a river bend and discover even one of these massive creatures; finding whole herds was definitely mind boggling. On the way back we found several lone elephants, a family of wart hogs and what looked like two very large brown neck-less sausage rolls grazing on the island; these latter were also hippos.

After a rather bad lunch at the campground, we were off again in another land cruiser to see Chobe National Park from the land side, and spent the next three hours discovering more elephants, lots of monkey, assorted wart hogs, giraffe and deer in the park. The highlight, though, was just the glimpse of a leopard hiding under a tree.

I have just returned from 4 days in Choebe National Park, It was a wonderful experience. The lodge itself was set on the banks of the Choebe River. The accomodaton was superb. I had a two bedroom 2 bathroom lodge complete with lounges and kitchen /dining room
The 3 meals a day were included in our package and they were delicious.
Staff were most obliging and attended to our every need. Included were 2 game activities a day. In the morning we went by 4 wheel drive in the park and saw elephants, lions giraffe springbok as well as every other kind of deer and monkeys etc. The sunsets from the lodge were superb. Huge red ball desending to the horizon nightly like a fiery disc. Superb. I highly recomend this lodge and the Choebe National Park... Go enjoy!!