The Hide Hwange National Park

Maun to Nata

313ks

Up at 6 the temperature today is great until about 10 am. At another place with a pool and bar. It is about 40 degrees at the moment.
Met Robin and he is all set to go. My campsite cost 55 pula ($12NZD) robins room cost 550 Pula.
Have used the tent a lot as it is far cheaper than a room and you seem to get the same amenities.
Off to Zambia in the morning. Then to Livingston and the Vic falls.

Cheers miles

... the weather is really hot here in Botswana; we are now reaching 32/34 degrees Celsius. Although it does seem to be cool in the early morning and later in the evening, still it is not summer here yet.

We are two days ahead of schedule again and have decided that we will do 5 nights at our next stop in Maun. Neil wants to buy another new tyre to match the one we brought in Lusaka, plus I have lots of catching up to do with my travelblogs.

... the four of us set off Hwange National Park….we were not disappointed.

We arrived at Main Camp in the afternoon and entered the reception area to book in for the night. From what we could tell there were no other people present in the park. A very smartly dressed lady in park ranger uniform greeted us and after checking in some rather imposing books, filling in a couple of forms and double checking that there was enough space on the ...

... of July off to spend with my folks. At least Oliver gets paid weekly, me it's monthly which will suck. I may have to grab some temp work just to earn some weekly cash. Cross that bridge when we come to it.

Really want to paint and recarpet the flat as will be horrible in a year if we lease it out immediately. I think we need to win lotto!! Our accounts looked so healthy before we started travelling... amazing how quickly it goes!!

As our trip drew to an end we drove from Chobe to Nata...the Makgadikgadi Pans were filled with water and completely unpassable. The tour usually stays at Nata Lodge, but unfortunately it was destroyed by fire last year. Instead we pulled up at what was essentially a motel truck stop...the Northgate Lodge. Upon further inspection however, it ...

... and dining area, with a lovely big dining table and a very comfortable lounge and verandah. All of this with a view towards the waterhole as it was all open with no walls or glass windows - just plain open. As we arrived we were welcomed by the manager Barry and the rest of the rangers. We were shown to our hut before joining the other guests for lunch. We had a delicious lunch before going on our first game drive with our ranger Daffy. On the ...

We are waking up early from all the birds that are making a big noise to welcome the new day. The drive to the salt lake before breakfast is giving us a good idea of the time when all the birds are here. The flamingos are rather far away and not as abundant as expected, but there are sufficient pelicans, ducks, etc. to ...

... you have to remember that all this took place in Big 5 country with a herd of ele very close behind! From the car I could see impala, kudu, warthog, zebra and the elephants - what was around that we couldn't see?! I didn't leave the car and we were on look out - how many people have to leave their cars in a NP to rescue another?! Another thing we learnt today was the fact that lions have been hanging about at the picnic site where we ate lunch a couple ...

... One jackal was distracting the mum while the other chased away the baby. That evening we went on a sunset river cruise along the Chobe river. Two male elephants were playfighting by the riverbank and we managed to get really close - within 10minutes of these elephants who were playing in the water. We sat there for over 20minutes watching them before continuing with the cruise where we saw more crocs and hippos. Then, after two nights in Chobe, we took a short hour drive ...

... came rapid 5 (The Stairway to heaven or in my case hell) which was our first grade 5 rapid. We were all feeling pretty confident having not yet fallen out..........! We paddled hard into the rapid & got down in the raft when Tabs told us to, just in time to drop down the 12 foot drop! Crashed into the water & little old me came flying out.....having let go of the oh **** line! When the rapid spat me out after a couple of seconds my boat was ...