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Day three -Travel to Botswana
The group got up early so we could have breakfast and head off by 8:00. Unfortunately our chef went AWOL so after getting up, packed and ready and putting the tents down we had to wait for the mechanic to prepare breakfast so we left late anyway. At this point camp jobs were assigned, I got the ice boxes. This is probably the easiest job on camp, so I was happy. Steve's job was to climb on top of the truck (see photo) and get everyone's mattresses down at every new campsite and collect them up and put them back every time we left a site.
We had a 3 hour drive across to Botswana, taking a ferry across the border. The ferry crossing took a long time as it only took 2 trucks at a time and because of our late start there were lots of people in front of us. We saw elephants by the roadside, about 20 feet away from us as we crossed the border. Eventually we arrived in Chobe were we would be staying for the next two days. The Chobe accommodation was a lot nicer, although the tents were the same the camp site was on the grounds of a 4 * hotel so the shower facilities were clean and usable. Again it was right on the waters edge with views across Chobe park. There were signs in the toilets warning you to be careful at night because crocodiles and hippos come up to the camp.
We put up our tents, after fighting off some wart hogs and banded mongoose from the site. Then we had our first group lunch, this was a group effort as our chef was still missing. Steve and I headed into town after lunch and did some shopping, then we spent the rest of the day by the pool. The group met up in the bar before dinner, unfortunately one of the group, Rod, a 67 year old collapsed for the second time in a day. Luckily one of the girls on the group, Emma, is a doctor, so she gave him rehydration salts and sent him off to bed early. The rest of us had dinner and got ready for bed. Just as I got into my tent I heard screams, so I rushed out to see what was happening. Owen had left his tent open during the day and his tent was alive. He had centipede (which bite), ants and an extremely large spider in there. We all got together to try and get it out, but only after we'd taken almost everything out of the tent did we see it. At this point it rushed at us and even the tour guide started screaming. Finally with the use of several cans of bug spray we smoked it out. Panic over we all headed to bed, but no-one slept after that close encounter.
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