Our first morning in Botswana started early. We decided that the best way to get back into the Africa Overlanding vibe, was to dive into it and immediately have a game drive. After spending our first night back in the tent doing sudokus and going to sleep early, we had a slightly restless night. The alarm went off early at 5.15am and we were off to Chobe!
We had packed everything we needed the night before, our phones and camera were charged, and we were ready to go. A short drive from the campsite to the gate, and we were back doing what we love most: enjoying the wild. It was amazing to smell the bush and to hear the animals again. We missed this a lot, and it was one of the main reasons for us to travel. The game drive was not packed with many exciting sightings, but we didn't care. All we needed for this first game drive was to see all the impalas again and to watch the beautiful birds. Strangely, we only saw one lonely elephant during the game drive, even though Chobe is packed with elephants.
We did see a family of around 10 lions, including two beautiful males. Our guide drove straight to them, but we were very quickly followed. We experienced again the downside of wildlife tourism. Over 10 cars immediately approached the lions, each getting closer than the previous one. It got bad enough for the lions to leave immediately and go deeper into the bush. We were happy our guide kept his distance, even though it meant no perfect photos. The lions' welfare will always be more important to us. And more importantly, it was wonderful to enjoy a game drive again after all this time. When we got back at the camp it was already 9.30, so we went straight for a late breakfast at the restaurant since we were quite hungry after getting up so early with no food. We were ready to relax, chill at the pool, sleep a bit, and do some reading.
When we got back to our car, however, our fears became reality. We found some fresh rat poo and rat pee... This could mean only one thing, we brought the rat with us. Jeroen immediately started emptying the car, trying to find the rat. The rat was nowhere to be found, but we could at least clean everything. Again.
After cleaning out the car, Jeroen wanted to look under the hood, trying to see if there was a rat to be found. There were signs of a rat's nest near the engine, but it was empty. Quite reasonable, as it must have left that nest when the car was running. Jeroen used a shoe to smack the cover under the hood a few times and suddenly a rat fell out underneath. Jeroen screamed in a somewhat weird attempt to shout the rat away, but it immediately disappeared. We had no idea if it ran away, or whether it went into the dashboard. What was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon, become one of cleaning out everything. Again. We became desperate, as we had no idea how to get rid of the rat.
After our cleaning frenzy, it was time for a boat safari. It was lovely to be on the boat, floating across the Chobe river. We were able to forget our rat issues for a while as we were looking at many beautiful birds, an elephant feeding inside the river and hippos standing on banks inside the river. We were able to take some nice photos of the extraordinary birdlife and were really happy to feel the wind blow through our hair. Emma happily added some new birds to her list of birds spotted in Southern Africa. Upon returning to the campsite, we put our stuff inside the car and went for a nice pizza.
After the pizza, upon returning to Gigi, we were greeted with an unpleasant surprise. Rat poo and rat pee, again! This time it was really fresh, as the poo was still wet. This meant two things. 1. The rat was still there. 2. We had to clean everything. Again. We were getting even more desperate as we fully unpacked and cleaned Gigi again. We had no idea how to get rid of this freaking rat.
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