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Some of us travel with Chris in his safari truck when we move from one place to another. It means we are up the front of the convoy with no dust and with Chris pointing out the animals and other interesting things along the way that are so easy to miss otherwise. I try and travel this way each time which of course means that Russ is left to drive on his own - at least he can listen to his awful 50s music without my complaints!
More four-wheel driving through soft sandy tracks brought us to Khwai camp. This area is a community camp and land just outside the southern border to Chobe National Park.. The exciting sighting on the way was of a large antelope I hadn't seen before. A single male roan with its painted black and white face and large russet-coloured body paralleled us, sauntering and running along while we kept up.
We set up camp as usual. This is the only place so far that we have not had any facilities, not even a long-drop loo. So it was out with the shovel and a scout around for somewhere private when the need arose. With everyone looking for the same deal at some time, this was not the easiest of tasks!
We went for the usual evening game drive. Chris found a den where the Painted Dogs would return a there were small pups inside. But we were not to see the dogs that evening.
Next evening we returned to the den (along with some other safari trucks). Two dogs were guarding the entry to the den, one a lactating mother probably of the pups inside, and restlessly waiting for the rest of the pack to arrive back after hunting. We watched them for a while but eventually decided to leave them in peace.
On the way back, night descended and Chris brought out the spotlight. In the bright light we saw a genet which is a small spotted cat with a striped tail, an African Wild cat from which all domestic cats are descended, some tiny bushbabies, a female leopard and a hyena. Only the last two stayed still long enough for a photo, albeit a little on the blurry side!
While sitting around camp, a hyena wandered through and while we were in bed, an elephant wandered right past our tent grazing on the grass as he went. Getting close to the wildlife is no problem in Africa - just don't go outside the tent at night!
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