Dragging ourselves out of bed we packed up for our morning game drive.
We had a fantastic sunrise: in fact, all the
sunrises and sunsets would be amazing! I spoke to the maid who came to my bungalow:
she talked about the different types of people who came to Chobe: mostly friendly
Americans and Europeans, apparently not-so-friendly South Africans. She also waxed
philosophic on the fighting going on in Angola (and Zimbabwe, for that matter), and hoped
they could resolve their differences without fighting. Don't we all! She was
quite a remarkable person.
Starting our drive, we could tell that we had a lot of
luck the previous day: at first we saw almost nothing. Then a few animals started to
come out: we saw a warthog rooting in the dirt for
grubs, some Impala (they were everywhere!), a few Kudu
with their spectacular spiral horns, and even hippos again. A few springbok also wandered by: I thought they had the most
beautiful coloration of the different ungulates we saw.
We had hoped to get a closer look at that lion from yesterday, but it was
not to be. We did find a herd of elephants walking
by: they were eating the leaves off the trees and smashing their heads against a few,
too. It even looked like there were a few juveniles!
After our morning drive, we had to pack up and head to Nata Lodge, which
was to be our evening stopover before we headed to the Okovango Delta. We had a
fairly long drive that day, as well as another hoof & mouth checkpoint! About
halfway through we stopped for a bathroom break and to
stretch our legs.
Nata Lodge (in Nata, appropriately enough) is a small camping ground, but
had a nice bar and pool area. After setting up our tents for the first time (private
tent! Being the odd man out has its advantages :-)) We quickly took advantage
of the pool: it was HOT, and the inside of our tents was like a sauna. For some
reason, the pool water was milky, but that didn't stop us from cooling off!
Afterwards, I played poker with Joanne and Jan, using my
Optical Illusions card set (which Joanne and Jan found almost as fascinating as the
poker!) There was a dog wandering around (presumably a pet). I made the
mistake of petting it, and immediately needed another swim: that dog was filthy!
Our first campout dinner proved to be pasta & meat sauce, not bad at
all! Afterwards I met up with Katja and Martina at the bar: we discussed American
influences in the world, among various other topics. We also spotted a few rats in
the bar: time to go to bed!
On the way back to our tents, Susanna claimed that someone had spotted
bushbabies (a small lemur-like animal). Well, I didn't see those, but I did see this
amazing lizard (that I have yet to identify): amazing
colors!
It's a 5:30 am wakeup call tomorrow, and also my last chance for a shower
for two days!
