Circumstances (i.e. a lack of surprise plane sponsorship) have meant our intended route through Chobe National Park didn’t quite work. We tried though.

Against all rational advice we decided to give it a crack so left the luxury of the Old Bridge Backpackers and headed north. 50km and some tough dirt roads later we arrived at an important looking gate and were offered a room to stay in by the very kind government veterinary workers who worked there. They told us we shouldn’t go through the big “keep the dangerous elephants, lions and buffalo in” gate but that the road was quite good for another 30km until the proper park gate. We couldn’t see any lions so we thought we’d give it a go.

Then we met Carl who told us we were stupid and would probably be eaten. He explained that between driving past us earlier on his way into the park and then coming back out again an hour later he’d seen lions, elephants and buffalo and some more lions.

So, tail well and truly between our legs, we went back to Maun and got a bus to Nata (the sensible route) the following day. Having camped on the side of the road just outside the town, we flagged down a truck who very kindly gave us a lift up to Kasane. The journey was quite interesting though. We saw some elephants, a dead hyena (which, by the way, are surprisingly big) and some lions. Yes, some lions. Just chilling on the side of the road. Miles from a game park and very free to roam south, say, to near Nata, say, where we camped.

We cycled across a wildlife corridor which was disappointingly free from animals and made it to Kasane unscathed. After a day of chilling out we looked for somewhere free to camp (the side of the road). At this point someone asked us what we were up to. We’ve become rather used to this so started to rattle off our usual spiel. It turns out though that this gentleman was only interested in where we were planning to go that evening and seemed worryingly concerned for our lives. Normally people think we’re stupid but this was different. We assured him we weren’t as stupid as we looked and went and camped in front of a 24hr hospital.

We managed to survive the night and went back across the animal-less wildlife corridor the next day and crossed into Zimbabwe, our 4th country.