Day 22: Ihaha Campsite – Chobe Safari Lodge (Kasane)

There's a lot going on at night!

We sit inside and write our diaries and upload pictures and tracks and make fun of the annoying baboons who screech as if they were having bad dreams. And this morning we discover on the game camera that a leopard has wandered past. Not five metres from the car. Barely 15 minutes after we went into the cabin! It was almost certainly already nearby when we were still outside!

The camera also captured badgers and in the light of the full moon we saw and heard warthogs at around 4:00 (the creatures are panting a lot) and at some point lions (not so close).

In the morning we just make a quick espresso, a couple of sandwiches and some muesli for later – spreading out properly for breakfast is out of the question because of the baboons.

It's unbelievable how many animals gather at Chobe. And we are reminded once again of Botswana's suggestion that Botswana would be happy to to donate 20,000 elephants to Germany, but only if they were collected by the new owners.

The elephants really do damage in large numbers. Hardly any tree or bush is more than 3m high unless it has already grown old many, many years ago. The huge, rustic baobabs have deep nicks on their trunks. The huge amounts of dead wood are not just from the floods, the elephants tend to knock down entire branches and young trees to get to the greenery above. They seem to like mopane leaves in particular. Nature conservation versus animal welfare? We can't judge.

We continue to creep east along the Chobe River and spot another lioness or a young lion without a mane, or rather: we spot the dead buffalo first and then the predator.

In the early afternoon we reach the Chobe Safari Lodge with campsite in Kasane. We stay here for 3 nights and sort ourselves out a bit. Some routes in Zambia and Zimbabwe don't make sense if we have to connect to the grid every three days at the latest. We probably won't get a new solar panel until we get to South Africa. We could also meet up with friends if we stay a little longer – we'll see. And today we're eating our way through the lodge's culinary offerings, first burgers for a late lunch and then a buffet in the evening with delicious salads, vegetables, fish and meat. It's good after the rather simple camping cuisine.