Wild Dance Flowing Freely—Botswana's Chobe River

Botswana: Named the number one travel destination of 2016 by 'Lonely Planet', this desolate yet stunningly beautiful land in Southern Africa is home to pristine natural landscapes and ecosystems, vibrantly creating the Earth's astonishing beauty, a true primordial sanctuary. Having just galloped through the jungles of 'Chobe National Park' in pursuit of wild animals, one can then directly board a yacht from the hotel's dock in the afternoon to take in the sights of the Chobe River, truly a taste of the 'joyous world of rivers and lakes'. The riverside resort itself is a beautiful sight, with grass everywhere, flowers blooming throughout the garden, deer calling near the cottages, and monkeys frolicking in the courtyards. In 'Animal World' and 'DISCOVER', I've more than once witnessed the wild momentum of the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers, but it's only by actually being on this river that all the impulses, excitement, and sighs become vividly real and believable. As a tributary of the largest river in Southern Africa, it meanders along its course. Different vegetation adorns this lengthy river with lush greenery. Where there is water, life thrives, and with Botswana's climate being mild and bright all year round, dense vegetation is everywhere, and abundant water sources attract countless rare wild animals. They inhabit and breed here, in this low-lying area home to giraffes, lions, rhinoceroses, elephants, zebras, leopards, antelopes, buffalo, hyenas, monkeys, black minks, and many other creatures. In the rivers and marshes, there are crocodiles, hippos, ospreys, little blue kingfishers, ostriches, wild ducks, and more, with hundreds of species of birds and animals. What one sees on each voyage on the Chobe River is entirely up to luck and fortune. The Chobe River's channel is sometimes as wide as a lake, sometimes narrow and rushing into grassy beaches, winding between Botswana and Namibia, with the calm and beautiful surface hiding cold-blooded, fearsome crocodiles and hippos that can bite a boat in half when enraged. The yacht gradually sails into dusk, and the Chobe River is adorned by the afterglow of the setting sun, looking very charming, with the river breeze dispersing the heat in the air. On the shore, a huge hippo finally emerges and sprays a column of water; the buffalo, one of the 'Big Five of Africa', walks through the golden grass; the elephant is the leader in Chobe, with its dust bath covering the sky; the deer are the cutest and most photogenic anywhere. I intentionally captured the hippo and elephant together, the buffalo and deer, the bald eagle and kingfisher, the elephant and deer in the same frame. This is the rhythm of life in Chobe, this is the animal world of Chobe. Our cruise ship is also stained in the afterglow of the sunset, and as the sun gradually sets in the west, the light turns from bright red to golden yellow. With the geese returning to their nests, accompanied by the dance of the rosy clouds, Chobe's closeness to the animals and its gentle comfort is an unprecedented experience and state of mind. I admire their harmonious coexistence, I envy their unrestrained freedom, I am jealous of their carefree life. Measure the world with your steps, discover beauty with your eyes, feel nature with your soul. Facing the breeze, hands on hips, standing at the bow, I think I have accomplished a feat—'touched the wet back of the Earth in Botswana'.