PART 2: Aventures continue

If you just started reading, this is part 2 of the adventures. You can start here, or at part 1. It doesn't really matter.

After a peanut butter and granola break I'm back.
So I took way too many pictures. I am narrowing down 1100 pictures to only 60 that I am putting up. It is too many. I am sorry. I hope you enjoy anyways.
And never expect to see this many photos again.

We next went to ride in mokoro. These are dugout canoes. It was cool. Not great. Only one picture was worthy.
After our mokoro ride, we went on a real boat cruise of the delta.
The pictures will amaze.
This is a fish eagle. It is also the best action animal picture I have ever taken. Seriously. It's pretty awesome.
Spectacular sunset Baboons!

You may have realized that no elephants have been pictured or mentioned in either of these blogs. That is because we didn't see any in the beginning of our trip into the delta. Finally as we were driving out we spotted one.
After we returned to Maun, six of us split off to explore more of the north. We stayed a night in a hotel, then rented a combi to drive us to Kasane, which is in the very northern corner of Botswana. It was a LONG drive. 600km. 9 hours.
The ride was entertaining though. We had to stop at the foot and mouth checkpoint to get our luggage checked and shoes sterilized.
The roads were also, at times, impassable. We had to drive on dirt on the side of the road to make it past.
I blame the elephants for the road quality...

We saw around 25 elephants while driving to Kasane. And we weren't even looking for them. You could just look out the window and say, "hey, another elephant," and some people would look. I still think they're cool.

Eventually we made into Kasane that night. In the morning we went exploring in the town and managed to find the police station, outside of which is an old boabob tree. This tree was used as a jail years ago.

While looking at the dead tree, a policeman called me over to ask what the group of us was doing in Kasane, and specifically at the police station. I told him we wanted to see the jail tree, and he told me to see the one behind the police station. Skeptical, I wandered around back with Max and saw the most amazing tree I have ever come across.

It was huge. That is Max to give you a scale.

It was hollow inside. What's in there Rebecca?

GIANT LIZARD!!!!

This tree entertained us for a while.

Until our boat cruise into Chobe National Park.

Background:
Chobe is the third largest national park in Botswana, but boasts the largest elephants concentration in the world. That's right, the world. In the dry season, it is estimated that there are around 60,000 elephants in the park. While it is the wet season, there are still a fair number of elephants roaming around.
Anyways, right off the bat we are met with some amazing wildlife.
Crocodile:

Elephants:

Elephant with looming thunderheads. I tried for a while to get a photo of the elephants with lightning in the background, but I have decided that it is impossible. I love this picture though.

Then we witnessed the elephants crossing the river. It was quite cool, as the elephants would bob up and down in the water, breathing through their trunks.

Then there was just a ridiculous amount of animals in one place. Here is 3 elephants, 2 impala, and 2 baboons.

We departed to this sunset (I told you there would be many sunset photos)

We left Kasane on a 6am bus. We got up around 4:50 to shower, pack, and catch the combi which was supposed to pick us up at 5:30. It didn't. Luckily two cabs drove by and we made it in time.
We took the bus into Francistown, where we stayed for a day and a half. There really wasn't much to do other than be amused by signs like this one.
It was also interesting to see the difference between Francistown and all the other cities in Botswana. We literally saw 15 white people in the two days we were there. This is much different from Gaborone, where there are many rich business people, and Maun and Kasane, where there are many tourists.
We eventually took a sleeper train out of Francistown into Gaborone. Here it is.

Now I am back at the University. Classes start again on Monday. This next week will not be as entertaining as the last. But this should suffice for a while. I hope you hung in there and enjoyed it all, or at least the pictures. That's all I'd look at too.