Chobe National Park - Day 2

The Gaborone - Francistown road is always busy, a 5 donkey powered cart taking
it's position on an unexpectedly cloudy start of a long trip north.  

It was a gloomy morning when we finally left around 9am headed for the Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe, but luckily it wasn't too far a drive to our spot for the night.

We were expecting a really busy road out of Gabs but we seemed to have missed the very early morning throng of cars leaving first thing and we were too early for those leaving gat lunch to catch the 5 day long weekend so we made good time. A stop to refuel in Mahalapye and we arrived at Khama Rhino Sanctuary just after lunch time. 

Cooler than we expected and cloudy all around we headed for Malemas pan after lunch hoping to catch rhinos coming to drink. There was one rhino at the Pan and he was seated with his back to us quite far away so instead of hanging around, we made our way to Serwe pan to see if we would have any luck there.

The Rhino's are protected and safe at Kharma and long may the effort continue. 

Better luck at Serwe pan where 3 rhinos greeted us there chilling out at the edge of the water. They were just lying down not doing anything but we waited and eventually were rewarded with 2 other rhinos - a mother and calf that came running towards the water.

Rhino Mom's are known to protect up 2 generations of calves at the same time. 

That in turn got the male rhinos a bit interested and soon he was up and checking to see what the new arrivals were about. The mother was having none of it and with her baby by her side she skirted the waterhole and went to drink opposite the male. We watched them for a while before they finally started heading off since made our way back to Malema's pan.

The bull takes a drink at Serwe pan, Kharma Rhino Sanctuary. 

By then the lone rhino had left and nothing else came to drink. Only a herd of impala with a few springbok interspersed were grazing in the area and even the sunset didn't want to play ball so we headed back to camp in the dying evening light.

Sunset day 1 - all to look forward to. 

Back at camp it was setting up the rooftents and lighting the fire for braai. Surprisingly it got progressively windier as the evening went on and by the time we were ready for bed, we were glad the tent was closed up and Dru had thought to bring an extra sleeping bag - hopefully it is a but warmer for the rest of the trip!