Huge lightning and thunder storm, overnight- but only a few splatters of light rain.

Lots of flies this morning!

Today’s travel distance is only 137km but it is estimated to take 6 hours to get there yippee!

We had to let the tyres down today to go along the dry sandy track down to Khwai, while we were travelling along we had a large herd of elephants walk past our car which we had to stop for, this was the only real wildlife we saw. We pass through the small village of Khwai, where several of the small children chase the car begging for sweets- it is sad to see, but too many people in the past have not thought, and given the children lollies. No dentists in these parts!

We have to go across a long narrow wooden planked bridge to reach the north gate to the park where we have to sign in. In the river, below, are numerous hippos wadding in the water. We arrive at our campsite and start to unpack, there is a weird knocking sound- it is coming from a woodpecker in the tree above the car.

We settle in and start to eat lunch when David starts to look funny and announce “oh boy” Brendan and I both immediately look around to see what is going on, a huge elephant is coming towards us, he just wanders in behind us, paying no attention to us at all, to make his way down to the river which is just 30m from our site – what a cool visitor.

As we finish lunch the vervet monkeys start to come around- they are a pest.

They are conditioned to fear slingshots so David and Brendan make sling shot looking poses and the monkeys start to take off – only for a short while.

We take a drive around the park thru the many roads- we tended to stay along the shallow rivers edge, when we could. Large congregations of hippo are seen both in and out of the water- they are such fun to watch. We see a few single elephants- not herds like in the other national parks, a crocodile sunning him- or herself, a few giraffe drinking at the river edge, some wildebeest and more of the African Fishing Eagles.

I had managed to wash a whole line of clothes which were nearly dry, when someone (David and Brendan) started a fire and the smoke went directly onto all the clothes- I need to wash them again – not happy Jan!

After dinner we were just about to walk over to the toilets when we were visited by a hyena It wasn’t shy, and stayed around campsite, even when we shone lights on it. We then had to pack everything up and drive up to the toilet block (about 200m). There was no water in the toilets, showers or taps – though there was a large container with a small bucket to decanter the water – so you could flush – oh the joys of camping…

It was a noisy night with lions, elephants and hippos all very vocal during the early morning hours.