July 5

July 5
JOLENE:
Ok, so it’s not my turn again today, and I’ll let one of the kids write about before today, but I’m sitting at our campsite in Chobe by myself watching this incredible scene in front of me. The sun is setting with lots of beautiful clouds and it’s along the Chobe River, so there are lots of birds and bird noises and it is so peaceful & absolutely gorgeous.
Roger & all the kids are on a game drive, but I decided to take advantage of some time alone and to start supper. Every now & then I look all around me to be sure I’m not going to be surprised by a lion or something. We did hear a lion roar in the distance earlier, and saw one earlier today as we were driving. The kids can write about their first experiences in the African bush. I’ve seen it all & done it before but it is still incredible. One thing I didn’t remember is all the birds, but if you look for them, there are many incredibly beautiful ones. We have a book along & look them up as we go. Right now, as I write this, a lion is roaring and some other animal is squealing – I’m quite sure there is a lion kill not very far away. I moved my chair to in front of the tent in case I need a quick place to go!
Jolene
LISA:
Well, Travis stole my day. As you can probably guess, it is not often that us kids fight over a day to blog. But June 7th was a momentous day in the history of the Weaver (1/7 Gotwals) family. But don’t jump ahead too quick. This wasn’t a dull day either.

We left the campground and headed out towards Chobe. We had to stop for internet (partly to inform all you devoted fans about our happenings) and do the oil. I’m guessing that the oil problem was previously mentioned somewhere up there. The most exciting thing that happened at the internet café was that we saw a gigantic dung beetle outside, although there was no dung around so it couldn’t impress us with its poop maneuvering skills. After spending copious amounts of minutes there, we left and drove to Chobe. Within the first 5 minutes of entering the park, we saw a spectacular assortment of species, including a lioness sleeping under a tree. I know I will never be able to name everything we saw, but some of the many animals we saw while driving through the park were giraffes, elephants, impala and many other kinds of antelope, various types of birds, and I think I’ll stop there because I could probably go on forever, and it’s also blending in with the current animals we’ve seen in the near present. We have a book of animals that we are checking off everything we’ve seen in case you want to see it sometime. It’s really incredible. It’s kind of unreal, seeing all these animals you’ve heard so much about in books and movies and seen in cages right beside you in the wild. It’s hard to believe. Seeing all these huge and strange animals in the wild is so much more impressive than being in a zoo.

We found our campground and set up camp. We kind of explored the place, and we heard a lion roar while it was still light. That was pretty cool. Then Mom stayed back while we all went on a game drive, as Mom said. We didn’t see a whole lot on the game drive, but when we came to the water as the sun was setting, it was totally worth it. This was quite a sight. Now I have seen a lot of beautiful scenery in my life, but this one just about takes the cake. Usually when somebody describes a scene as “breath-taking”, it is a really beautiful sight, but it doesn’t actually take your breath away. I’m pretty sure I actually gasped when I saw this. I don’t even know how to describe it because you basically just had to be there, but there were these scattered clouds everywhere, and the colors of the sunset were shining through them in the most perfect way. The whole thing was reflecting off the water in front of it, and if that wasn’t enough, there must have been over 100 elephants out there. They were sticking together in groups and some were drinking, some were wading, and some were crossing the water. Now let me tell you, baby elephants are just too ridiculously adorable. Everything about that picture was just so perfect.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget that image. I don’t know how Africa does it, but every single sunset and sunrise (although I haven’t seen a whole lot of those) is just incredible.

I love this land.
Lisa