After a good nights sleep, only punctuated by the roaring of lions and jackal we set off for a circular drive. We're in this site for two nights, and it's really nice not having to pack the tents up before we leave.
Fairly shortly after leaving camp we see two elephants, both heading north, and Chris shows us an elephant print in the sand.
The elephants also dig large holes to get at the roots of plants, another driving hazard to watch out for! We see several birds, including a type we nickname 'bird brain'. It has a habit of trying to land just in front of the car, then walk along the road. The only way past is to actually speed up until he veers off the road to the side. We see the 'wedding band' bird, also called a lilac breasted something, more Kari Busted and another hornbill.
We see another group of four elephants, then continue driving through the long grass. The roads in this park are obviously less well used, and sometimes it's hard to work out where the road is. We have to stop and clear the grass seeds out of the radiator again, and re fasten the net over the front of the car.
Very little other game visible, so we change plans, stop for a coffee by a watering hole, then turn north again.
There was a large brown bird by the hole, plus several doves. Chris says these are often hunted by hawks, and we see a hawk and an eagle in the trees as we leave.
Our next sighting is a group of five giraffes, 3 adults and two young. We see them in the distance through the trees, and watch them for about 20 mins.
Another family of ostrich appear on the road in front of us, but this time the parents run off to the side, but the chicks remain on the road running away from us. After several pauses hoping they will leave the road, Chris carefully edges his car past them, then gets out to herd the, back into the area where their parents disappeared. He is confident the family will get reunited agin, for which we are thankful.
We saw more birds, but very few animal sightings as we drove north. Finally we saw some oryx with young. The young are a nondescript brown colour, and have the survival strategy of running in the opposite direction to their parents when threatened, then hiding. Meanwhile the predators, hopefully, run after their brightly coloured parents.
Lunch was borewas rolls and bacon at a deserted campsite, then we carried on. More birds, ostrich and butterflies, and when we stopped to see the size of hole dug by the oryx for salt, we also saw a strange bee in what appeared to be the Botswana national colours.
Just as we got back to,our campsite Chris spotted a small African cat, a caracal, running across the road. They are very difficult and rare to see, and he was delighted with the spotting.
At our campsite Chris put the pap on to cook(a national dish of a sort of maize porridge, served with sous, sauce) while we watched the ground squirrels.
Dinner was the pap and sous, with braaied sirloin steaks, washed down with fairly copious amounts of red wine, then Amarula. It is our last night in the bush, and we shall really miss it, not to mention Chris and Ossie when we have to say goodbye tomorrow.
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