Day 3: Johannesburg to Maun to Kings Pool (Botswana)

Day 3:  Johannesburg to Maun to Kings Pool (Botswana)

We woke up at 8 AM, showered and got dressed.  We all met downstairs for a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel.  I had lots of Biltong (Jerky), fruit, yogurt, croissant, OJ, and a number of other delicious items.  After breakfast, we went back to the room at 9:30AM and brushed up, packed our stuff and headed out.  We walked back across the street to the airport.  In transit, Zack had to take a crap and needed a bathroom ASAP.  He ended up finding one but it was not a "good experience".  We got to the gate around 11 AM for our flight to Maun which took about 2 hours.  We arrived around 1 PM at the Maun International Airport in Northern Bostwana and then got on a small charter propeller plane around 2 PM.  The flight was about 40 minutes from Maun to Chobe Airfield which is basically in the middle of NO WHERE.  When we landed the hotel had setup some great snacks for us before we headed to out.  They had Pineapple with chili, Biltong, chicken/coconut nuggets, vegetables, passion fruit puree and a bunch of different drinks.  I had a cold St. Louis local beer that wasn't bad.  We loaded up our stuff on to the jeep and headed out for our first adventure around 3:30 PM.  The jeep was tiered so we all had a great unobstructed view.  Within a short drive we starting seeing our first wild animals;  Kudo, hippos, wart hogs, giraffes, baboons, elephants and all sorts of birds.  As the sun starting setting, we saw a number of animals hanging out along the river which was pretty cool.  Bobby was our driver and was born not far from where we were and knew the area extremely well.  I took some great pictures and we all enjoyed ourselves.  We finally arrived at King's Pool (Hotel) around 6 PM and they greeted us with a nice cold drink and there was a beautiful sunset view.  They gave us an orientation of the Hotel and explained the layout/services.  The hotel consists of 9 "personal" lodges right on the river which separates Botswana and Namibia.  Our lodge was very spacious with an open screened walls with views of the River.  It was basically a mesh enclosure that opened up to the surrounding area.  They explained to us that we have to keep the doors to our room closed or we could have unexpected guests.  At night time, Hippos cross the property to get to the river and Wart Hogs like to sleep under the lodge.  Any time when it is dark, you are not suppose to walk around with a hotel attendant. We got ourselves settled in and hung out in the room for about 45 minutes until they came and got us around 7:30 PM to bring us to the main outdoor eating area.  For dinner, I had a couple of Beers, Broccoli soup and split a Beef Filet along with a Miso Chicken with rice dish with Allison.  For dessert, I had a chocolate souffle and a green tea.  The food was very good.  We walked back to the room around 9 PM and got ready for bed early because we had to wake up at 5:30 AM.  The bed is enclosed with Mosquito netting and they gave us hot water bottles to use in the bed to keep warm.