It was oppressively hot last night (rain meant the fly had to be down) so I got very little sleep. The alarm went off at five to go meet the guys (Margaret didn't go) for the morning game drive we arranged yesterday. The drive was good despite lots of car trouble (the fan belt kept slipping causing the engine to overheat). The highlight was a lioness that came within two yards of us (that's four of the big five now - only a leopard to go). Other noteworthy sightings included lots African fish eagles, the nicest looking baboons we've seen, lots of impala - including some males fighting, another lioness barely visible in a bush, a pair of tawny eagles, a big group of banded mongoose, and a group of sable (the most we've seen in one place).
After the driver dropped us off back at our camp I took a shower, wandered into town to look for some food. I spent the rest of the morning / afternoon sitting on the patio above the Chobe river trying to get caught up on my journal.
We'd chartered a boat and driver for three hours starting at four - unfortunately it started to rain at about a quarter to - even more unfortunately the boat was uncovered. However it was already paid for so we were sports and set out. The rain was on and off the entire three hours so we were often wet and cold. Over all it was good but not as good as we'd hoped. We saw lots of hippos, but none out of the water. A couple charged the boat but we got out of there - they're a lot bigger than our little boat. Saw a female kudu right next to the water.
The strange thing is that and hour and a half into it we still hadn't seen any elephants - what Chobe is famous for. When we asked the guide where all the elephants were he said that with the rain it was plenty cool so they didn't need to go down to the water. Seconds later he pointed about 100 meters in front of us. They were still making their way down the slope - a group of twelve, including some babies - one less than a month old. The highlight was the little baby - who kept falling flat on it's face trying to scramble around the slope. A little later we saw a smaller group of three, and then a number of singles. Sunset put a little fire under the dense clouds - just enough to give a hint of how fantastic a nice sunset could have been. We made a run for home a few minutes early and got back to the dock right in front of an absolute downpour,
