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.