Botswana - Francistown to Nata to Chobe

---

We moved on to Francistown and then Nata where we drove 7 km out to the shore of the Nata Bird Sanctuary to see the thousands of flamingoes and pelicans. There were no flamingoes (and the lady at the gate said they had never had flamingoes) and only a handful of pelicans too far away to see properly. THEN we got stuck in the sand. Tried digging the motorhome out, driving forwards and backwards and finally jacked it up, put loads of sticks under the wheel and with help from members of the group who had by then turned up we finally got the van out. It took us 2 hours and the temperature was 44 degrees centigrade. It was just a desert of sand but we were relieved to finally get out. Mind you, the suntan is now much improved and I am sure the burns will heal eventually.

We are now at Chobe where the electric keeps tripping out so the air conditioning is non-existent in the van, our water tank is leaking again and we have a gas leak. Oh what fun.

However, we went out on a safari in Chobe National Park this morning and saw elephant, sable antelope, lions and some beautiful birds including bee eaters. This afternoon I organised a boat for 14 out on the Chobe river where we saw hippos, elephants swimming across the river, cape buffalo and crocodiles. One of the crocs decided he didn't want us watching him and he whipped round, hissed and dived back in the river. All very exciting.

We are now by the swimming pool writing up our blogs.

We're off to Zimbabwee and Victoria Falls tomorrow and then back to Chobe and on to Namibia and Stones National Park. Brilliant!

---