Thursday/Friday 4/5 th May. Spent a day in the reserve with an early morning drive and then back for pancakes on the fire that was still burning from the night before. The baboons gather at a tree opposite our tent and after loud squabbling, they do settle down to a nights sleep without bothering our camp. They are a large troop of something like 30 individuals and last night we watched some younger ones fighting in the tree and suddenly one dropped out to the ground, about 20 m, but seemed unarmed. By dawn we hear them scurrying from their rests and away down to the waters edge for a drink and family gathering before they wander off again for a day searching for food. This morning we didn't see any elephant but lots of impala, white faced ducks, eqyptian ducks, spare wing geese, squacco herons, egrets and our best view yet of a bataleur as it perched on a low branch giving us an excellent view of its red feet and red bill with a yellow tip. We also saw more fish eagles and a marsh eagle near the waters edge. The lower track near the floodplain gives a good view over to Namibia and the occasional Mokoro and village hut but too far away to see animals. However, on this track we saw animals coming from the bush to drink including water buffalo and a lone female bush buck with its distinctive spotted side. Later in the day we saw a family of elephants going to drink and also the two bulls that were sauntering down the track towards us, with it seems little intention of moving off the track. Recalling our previous days experience we decided to turn the vehicle and find another route!. We had our last night camping in the bush with the animals, observing a wonderful sunset with lots of mayflies and birds flying low to capture their feast of insects over the waters edge. A truly magical moment with the noise of animals in the background and the light of the campfire as we cooked our last soya mince!
We left Chobi reserve by the west gate travelling about 23 km on a rough track and not seeing much apart from impala at the start. However, we later came up on a small herd of water buck that were quite close and distinctive with their white moon stripe on their bottoms, see photo. There was a youngster as well and a little drama as a couple of males approached the herd and were seen off by the resident dad. The last few kilometres were deep sand but the 4WD coped without any problems. The exit from Botswana and entry to Namibia by the Ngoma bridge was effortless and we were soon in Katima to get some refreshments before heading to Rundu. So that's our trip to Botswana and we're pleased to say we can thoroughly recommend it with the friendly people who generally have good English, great reserves that still have that wilderness feeling and cheap diesel ! We had been warned about mosquitoes as it is the end of the wet season and of course we were near water quite a lot at many campsites; we used insect repellent at night and didn't encounter more insects than we're used to in Rundu and only got two or three bites on the whole trip, so I guess we were lucky.

Wednesday 3 rd May. We're now in Chobe Reserve at the Ihaha camping area (GPS 926 m S 17.83657, E 24.88216 ) about 33 km from the east gate of the park. We travelled the boring and partly potholed road from Nata to Kazangula (saw several elephants on the way), and stayed in a great campsite at the Toro Lodge on the edge of Kazangula on route to Kasene. We stayed there for two nights as the camping in the park was supposedly fully booked. This gave us time to catch up on some reading and to explore Kasene some more although there is very little to see apart from the riverside lodges and the shops, including a Spar supermarket. The drive through the park was spectacular as the views of the riverside unfolded. We saw our first wild leopard, many Impala and of course elephants. This park is known for its large elephant population and hippos. We also saw many fish eagles perched on the outer branches of the higher trees along the floodplain edge, and a large herd of water buffalos that didn't seem to be too aggressive and allowed us to pass through without a sound. Also saw water buck, crocodiles, two pods of hippo, warthogs, several large monitor lizards near the water, kudu and giraffe. At lunch under the trees on the edge of the floodplain I saw a marsh boubou makes its familiar sound; we've heard this many times in the Kavango but never seen the actual bird making the call. We also saw a few Heuglin's robins around the camp, fish eagle on lookout, hammerkop nesting in a tree not to mention a water buffalo that strolled past. We now have plenty of firewood which is a relief after the problems in finding any wood for sale in Kasane and also a nice tree trunk that we aim to feed into the fire tomorrow for cooking. In the evening we decided to do another drive around the area and encountered two elephants that were feeling frisky to the extent that one charged us so that I had to do a quick detour into the bush to get out of its way. The guinea fowl here are something else, very large flocks that insist on running on the track in front of the car and only moving at the very last second, but then we're usually in second gear at less than 10 km/h ! It certainly makes a change from the hornbills similar tactics in Moremi. The picture is the camp next to the Chobe river plain with the campfire smoldering.

Sunday 30 th April. We had a leisurely drive of about 100 km to Nata crossing a finger of the Ntwetwe pan and found the Bird Sanctuary with great camping sites in Mopane woodland. After setting up camp we drove towards the Sowa pan going first west and then south but soon encountered deep water. After lunch we tried a different route to the south of the camp and found the pan full of water, much like being at the coast on a calm day. We didn�t see flamingos but quite a few white pelican, white faced ducks and two kori bustards near the track. Also a lot of herons and cranes but we were too far away to identify them. We stayed at the edge of the pan near a platform to see the sunset across the water (see photo); the immensity of the pan really strikes home and this was just a small section of the network in this region. We drove back to camp in the dusk, lit the fire and enjoyed a quite evening in the woods without monkeys or baboons; there were some horses around but they�d disappeared by this time.
 

Saturday 29 th April. We returned to Maun and caught up on our washing and got ready for the trip across Botswana to Nata via Gweta. The rest camp is now a lodge (GPS 925 m S 20.968, E 25.25748) and in the middle of the village. We couldn't help noticing the nice looking schools in the town without broken windows !. In the afternoon we decide to go and try and find Green's Baobab tree travelling south towards the Makgadikgadi pan. The track was OK to start with but soon diverged into several tracks and I was left with the GPS to try and get to the tree. Eventually we were running out of track and in tall grass when we spotted a group of psalm trees that we had been told about at the camp and on turning in that direction, we spotted the Baobab tree surrounded by a high fence and a notice declaring it a National Monument. These trees were used by the early settlers as post boxes to relay mail out of the bush. The gate was open so I got a good picture, shown below, of the tree with the vultures on the top branches. However, we ran out of time to drive further to the pan or Chapman's Baobab.

Thursday, 27 April. After lighting the "Donkey" to get heated water for a shower (night temperatures dropping below about 14 C), we had breakfast and headed off to the south gate of the park and then up to the north gate. Third bridge is actually broken at the moment and there is a sign warning of the dangers of crocodiles in the water so we had to back track. On route at one of the diversions round a waterlogged track we saw a large group of elephants, shown in the photo, including some young ones but difficult to get a good photo. The track from south to north gate was more or less straight, some deeper sand but not a problem but we didn't see much wildlife until we reached the campsite to be greeted by the blue-balled monkeys. They're as mischievous as the baboons and in spite of our precautions, they did manage to get our last two hot-cross buns from the table.The wooden bridge to the entrance gate was made of logs; it looked pretty ropey and in need of repair and the top was partly under water but all the same was passable.

Wednesday, 26 April. Sorted our reservations for camping in the Moremi reserve and then drove to the park entrance, initially on a good tarred road and then gravel and then the last part on a sand road. We decided to take our time and follow the track to the campsite at the Third bridge. This is about 60 km from the entrance but we could only travel at a maximum of 20 km/h because of the rough track, many small diversions around flooded bits of the track and of course the numerous stops to see wild life including giraffe, Burchell's zebra, warthog, hippo, blue wildebeast, red heartybeast, impala, elephants and numerous birds such as a large flock of hooded vultures flying into a kill (we suspected), saddlebill storks, red eyed franklins, fish eagles and numeroud hornbills on the track(mostly red-billed) that seemed to leave it until the last second to escape the car tyres. On route we rescued a Backie that was bogged down in the mud; they'd been there an hour and had to keep the vehicle running because the exhaust was under the water. After breaking our tow rope again, we did pull them out without a problem and it turned out that if we hadn't come along, they'd have been there all night as we were the only campers at Third bridge (GPS 950 m, S 19.23875, E 23.35659). So relief all round and they kindly gave us a bottle of wine for our trouble. The campsite itself, photo below, was in a magical setting in a grove of trees near a marshy area with hippo nearby. We did have a close encounter with baboons, or least Helen did as they stole a packet of macaroni she was preparing for supper but it was interesting the way the male did it. He was watching Helen and I walked over to drive him away thinking he'd left the area. In fact he'd circumnavigated the camp and came out behind Helen and made a rush between the car and the table grabbing the macaroni on route. I did attempt to retrieve it but by the time I found him he'd split the contents with his girlfriends. It was amusing to hear them crunching dry macaroni! Our next fright was when we'd turned in, we heard a loud noise and after a few moments realised we had an elephant next to the tent grazing on the leaves on a fallen tree. We decided to stay put and hope they'd notice our small tent and leave us in peace, and they did. However we did hear them at different times in the night together with hippo and warthogs, and in the morning we saw elephants near the shower hut. So that was our first encounter with elephants in camp and we're just glad it wasn't hippo.
 

Tuesday, 25 April. Now in Maun at the Maun Rest Camp which is just north of the town and situated near the river. The camp is very nice and we can recommend it for the good facilities and peaceful situation. The town itself is more developed than we had thought and lots of shops, market stalls with a cafe near the airport and internet cafe, and Barclays and Stanbic banks with ATMs. We plan two nights here so that we can catch up on supplies, see the town and perhaps take a flight over the delta. We visited the cultural centre and the Environment Centre but both were dissappointing. In particular the Environment Centre provides paths to walk in the reserve and see animals but we found the tracks poorly marked and the whole place run down as if it had been a vibrant place in the past. There is a lot of scope here to provide information about the area and wildlife in particular. We walked as far as the river but didn't see many animals, perhaps we were just unlucky! Later we decided to take a flight over the delta in a three seater and I got some photos of the water and the many islands. This was a great experience and gave us an impression of the vastness of the delta even though we just saw a fraction of it! Although there is a lot of green from the air, much is in shallow water with the grasses growing through, see the photo. We did spot groups of elephant as we flew as far north as chief's island and west to the Moremi reserve. I estimated from the GPS readings that the average river gradient from Drotsky's cabins to the Moremi reserve at the Third bridge was about 0.23 m/km, so very low indeed.
 

Saturday 21 April. Arrived in north west Botswana at Drotsky's cabins (991 m, S 18.41684, E 21.88968) situated on the banks of the Okavango where we camped for two nights right next to the river. At this point the river is flowing east but takes a turn south a little downstream on its way to the wider delta. We went on the evening cruise on the river and saw many birds including a Goliath Heron, Senegal coucal and the White Fronted Bee eaters shown in the photo. They were nesting in the river bank. At this point in the delta, which isn't far from Namibia, the vegetation is mainly papyrus and reeds with the main river restricted to one channel with the flood plain at the moment over 2 or 3 kilometers wide. There were Hippos about as we heard them in the night, but they're impossible to spot in the dense vegetation. On the cruise we also caught a glimpse of a small Sitatunga (that's what we were told anyway as we'd not seen one before). We decided to stay another day here and relax with free coffees at the bar and watching the river nearing its long journeys end. It was good to get the campfire burning as they run on South African time here so its gets dark an hour earlier than in Rundu and also, after sunset, it was getting cooler.