Pubblicato: 09.07.2019
Last night, agreements were made with other teams as some people wanted to ride in a different car. Nessi secured a spot with Team Bumbel B, and I made a two-to-one deal with Global Party Machines. I give Lena and Bea away and get G(lobal) in return. When I wake up, my tent neighbor Nessi is already missing. Nessi was once again awake much too early and watched the sunrise. She was slowly getting ready when Bembel B showed up to take her along. So she packed her small backpack with the essentials, the camera, and her passport. On the way out of the camp, she realized she didn't have her phone with her. Since the rest of us were still asleep, she couldn't let anyone know where she was. However, we had all agreed to stop at Elephant Sands in the evening, so it wasn't tragic that she couldn't tell anyone. The trip was supposed to be old-school anyway, so Nessi left a message for me on a piece of paper at the entrance to the cafe at Elephant Sands. Bembel B, as always, was very quick, and Nessi reached the Big 5 Chobe Lodge around 1 PM. This was uncharted territory for her. What should she do all day? But the two guys from Bembel B know how to spend a day outside the car, and they booked a sunset cruise in Chobe National Park for the three of them. More and more Put Footers arrived at the lodge and also booked the cruise. The sunset cruise was incredible. Hippos, buffalos, elephants, and giraffes were everywhere, so close that you could almost touch them. They even spotted a crocodile near the boat.
Meanwhile, Team Master of Disasters had a slightly different day... as agreed, the girls went to the Party Machines and Global came with me in the car. It went well for two hours, and then we had to switch at the next gas station because Global was afraid of losing his team and not being able to communicate with them. Well, not everyone can communicate on a mental basis as easily as we can. When we arrived at Elephant Sands, everyone passed by Nessi's message except me. So I knew where I would find her in the evening, and everything was perfect.
Elephant Sands itself is a magical place. The accommodations are built around a waterhole, and the bar is right at the waterhole. About 300 elephants come by here every day to drink and bathe. We were about 3 meters away from these gentle giants and experienced everything up close. It was an indescribably beautiful impression.
But since we knew we wanted to go to Chobe National Park, we unfortunately didn't have much time with the elephants. We hurriedly went to Kasane. We wanted to take a shortcut and asked in a small town where we should go, but it didn't really work out, so we took the official route. There were exactly 2.5 hours left before the park closed, but it was worth it. Chobe National Park is beautiful and filled with animals. We even saw elephants that wanted to mate. They almost ran into the car in front of us, and we all had to reverse a bit.
After finding the lodge where Nessi was staying, we found out that we were in the park at the exact same time as her. We saw the same animals, just from different angles: she saw them from the boat on the water, and we saw them from the car on land. Even in our photos, the boats can be seen in the background. It's interesting how you can still be connected without modern communication.