Today we spent the whole day at the Imbabala Lodge. During the night we heard so many animal sounds which we couldn’t quite place besides hippo grunts. We found out as we left for our early morning game drive that there were hyenas around the camp and they were making most of the noise. As we were leaving the camp, we noticed a hippo sitting on one of the dirt roads just near the camp! It was so amazing to see one so close! I managed to take a few sneaky pics of him. He was the one making all the noise during the night!

We stopped on the banks of the Zambezi to watch the sun rise. My god it was beautiful.

After watching the sunrise, we continued on our drive to the circle where 4 countries meet. the countries are Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. Along the way, we saw many birds and impala as well as a few giraffes and elephants and zebra too. Then we spotted many vulture circling…which could only mean one thing. There was a kill. As we drove closer, a hyena ran off…confirming our guide’s suspicions. Eventually, after circling around some shrubs, we found the impala carcass after smelling it :p

Zebra butts!

After all that excitement, it was back to the Imbabala Lodge for a substantial brunch. It was at this point that we decided to treat ourselves and have massage, we were on holiday after all! This massage was like no other though. It was in a secluded spot of the logde and overlooked the river, so you had the sounds of birds and animals to serenade you, as well as the natural breeze as your aircon. So very relaxing.

 Brunch!

The view from the massage.

Feeling very chilled after our massages, we just hang around the lodge, making ourselves at home like we were told to do by getting our own drinks. Enjoying the very peaceful surrounds. It really was a beautiful place.

 

The view from the common area.

The view from our Villa.Our Villa.

The afternoon snack before our next adventure!

A little later in the afternoon as the sun started to set, we were about to set out on a small river cruise down the Zambezi. However, we had received word that a herd of elephants were preparing to cross the Zambezi which was a sight to behold, as we were told. They weren’t wrong. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was so calculated and orchestrated so that the babies were in the middle and protected. It really was so amazing to witness. These photos don”t really do it that much justice.

Once the spectacle of the elephants crossing was over, we headed to the dock to begin our sunset river cruise. Cruising down the river was such a new experience for a way to see animals as well as the environment. I loved it. We were able to see quite a few hippos as well as water lace monitors and some baby crocs.

We even had a sundowner and watched the sun set with elephants. It really was magic.

Dinner again was quite intimate again with less people staying at the lodge, but it was just as delicious!

During dinner, we were speaking with another guest who had to leave very early the next day, but had only been there for a day and wanted to make the most out of her time there, so the lodge had organised to have a 3rd game drive for the day, which we happily jumped on to! The more game drives you can do out here, the better!

This one was particularly cool as it was so late at night meaning that the animals were all out doing things. We actually saw a wild cat, but I didn’t manage to get a good picture of it. We also found some hyenas.

After our 3rd game drive for the day, we were so tired that we went straight to bed and crashed. The next day we were heading over the border to Botswana and doing some tours over there so we needed our sleep!