Botswana - Chobe National Park

On October 20^th we left Malawi and entered Botswana.  We arrived at our campsite early, ate lunch and then went for a sunset game cruise down the Chobe River.  We saw heaps of elephants and buffalo, as well as many hippos during our cruise and capped the evening off with a beautiful deep red sunset.

Here are some pics from the sunset cruise:

 What do you do when you don't have a diving board?  Use the tree branches!

 Elephants roaming everywhere

Crocodiles in the Chobe River

 Elephant

 Buffalo

 More elephants!

 Hippos

The next morning many people went on an early morning game drive in Chobe National Park. I planned on doing this as well, but instead I learned that there was a dentist at the local hospital in Kasane and my wiggly front tooth took priority over the game drive.  I took a taxi to the hospital in Kasane, registered with the front desk and paid the consultation fee (so cheap, like $3 USD).  I was then told to queue to get my blood pressure and temperature checked as I couldn’t be seen without having it documented.  After looking at the long line of over 30 people waiting to get their assessments, I headed straight to the dentist room in the hospital and pleaded my way to the top of the queue for the dentist.  Thankfully I found favour with the dentist and he said it would be okay for me to skip the blood pressure and temperature check.  In addition, he told me he would take me in next after they sanitized the room!!!

I sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes and then the dentist called me in.  I explained the situation and his first recommendation was for me to get my face checked out as it was so swollen and to ensure that nothing was broken. I assured him that I had already seen a doctor in Livingstone. I then read him the e-mail from my dentist at home.  Unfortunately, the x-ray machine in the hospital was broken so I couldn’t get an accurate assessment of any root and bone damage.  The only thing he could do for me was give me some local anaesthetic and have ME re-position the tooth so that at least it would heal in the proper position.  So, that is exactly what we did.  Once the freezing set in, the dentist had me re-position the tooth myself as he said his force would be too strong…so I did.  I also ensured that before I received the injection that they only used NEW needles – very important!

After, I chatted with the dentist for a bit and then walked back to the SPAR shopping store to meet up with my group.  I noticed that the tooth started to descend a bit again because nothing was securing it in place. I think a dental splint would have helped but TIA (This is Africa).   

After I met up with my group, we continued our journey heading south and went to our campsite, Elephant Sands.

What a cool campsite!  Elephants literally come right up to the campsite to drink out of the drinking pool.  It was amazing to see the elephants so close up.

 I had a pretty awesome time in Botswana despite the injuries I was dealing with :)