Knowing my mother’s 70th birthday would be in 2017, I figured it was now or never: this could be the excuse we use to convince my father to visit Africa. He agreed with the caveat that we go, too (darn!) and so we began to make plans. Usually when we travel, everyone picks a highlight. For my husband it would be Madagascar, for me it’s getting back to Africa, for my father it’s whateveryoudamnwanttodo, and for my mom it was to see Botswana. I immediately agreed–Botswana had long been on the list and I couldn’t wait to see the country described so lovingly in the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency books that are such a relaxing read. We weren’t disappointed and it was, at least for my father, the highlight of our trip.Botswana is an enormous country with varied terrain. We stayed in the northeast where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe meet. It meant my parents could spend a day in Zambia and Zimbabwe where they ziplined over the Zambezi and checked out Victoria Falls and we could have a few game drives in a National Park to stand in contrast to our private reserve experiences in South Africa. We weren’t disappointed.

The lodge is built along the river so you have the chance to take a cruise every afternoon in addition to the morning and evening game drives. It was a lot of fun to see the animals come to the edge of the water.

    

In between the animals, we had a chance to have drinks, relax, and enjoy the beauty of the river. It was absolutely glorious and such a different experience from the typical jeep experience.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the game drives. Our previous experiences on private reserves were wonderful and the Big Five showed themselves with alacrity. The National Park experience is less guaranteed–there’s no inventory, no fence, and the capricious nature of animal movement means it’s tough to anticipate what would happen.

As it turns out, there was no need to worry. Chobe had small antelope, plenty of small fauna like mongoose and birds, as well as a pride of lions that had a standoff with Cape Buffalo. It was absolutely thrilling.

We had a moment with baboons that was a little too close for me . . . but it made for photo gold. Ha!

On our way to the airport, we saw one of the rarest of animals: the African Wild Dog. It certainly made for a perfect ending to a wonderful stay.

The challenge of a family trip is finding a place that meets specific needs: we wanted to be able to take Baby W on Safari and we wanted to be close enough to Zambia/Zimbabwe for my parents to see Victoria Falls.  The Chobe Game Lodge was all that and more. My father, the reluctant participant, really, really enjoyed himself. The rooms are spacious, the bathrooms wonderful, the bar is stocked, the food well-prepared and plentiful. The meal seating is family-style, presented as a buffet which, although not my first choice, made meals with our son easy to manage and that was appreciated after a long day of game drive excitement.