It was a long drive from Maun to Kazungula on the bank of the Chobe River. At our campsite we saw crocodiles and a hippo swimming in the river. Almost everyone upgraded to bungalows but Ruth and I stuck to our tent - it bucketed with rain all night and I had to run out to put the windows and door down on the tent and got soaked

We were up early for a 5:30am game drive which didn't start until 6:45am because one of the trucks had broken down - rather annoying. It was a terrific drive - we saw hippos, crocodiles, a monitor lizard, lots of impala including some babies, lots of guinea fowl, red-headed storks, geese, green glossy starlings, another very colourful bird that looked like a kingfisher (I'm not sure what it actually was), vultures, and other birds, two lions, herds of elephants passing right next to us with lots of babies, a leopard, mongoose, warthogs and a tree squirrel. At one point a dung beetle knocked itself out on the roof of the truck and fell inside - its wings were spread and it looked huge - initially we thought it was dead but after a while it started moving - we were freaking out and made the driver stop and come to remove it - when it folded its wings up it looked much smaller but still big as far as insects go.

Back at the campsite Sammy had made cooked breakfast with bacon, beans, spaghetti, chips, scrambled eggs, etc. followed by melon Later we went into the nearby town of Kasane but there was nothing much of interest there.

In the afternoon we went for a three-hour animal-spotting cruise on the Chobe River through the National Park. We set off from the swanky Chobe Marina Hotel and took two coolboxes chocca full of beers. The cruise was absolutely fantastic, undoubtedly the highlight of the whole trip - I enjoyed it so much and it was very relaxing as well - I was sitting in the front row in the glorious sunshine with my beer, we saw SO MUCH wildlife and were able to go incredibly close to it We saw many hippos (both in the water and grazing on the banks), a large herd of elephants drinking on the riverbank including a cute little baby one (only a week or two old), crocodiles (some swimming in the water and two huge ones sleeping on the bank that our boat pulled in right beside - uncomfortably close for me sitting in the front row!), kudu, red lechwe and other antelope, fish eagles, cormorants and lots of other birds. We also saw a dead buffalo - the nearest we got to a buffalo, bringing us up to 'The Big Four and a Half' on our animal-spotting as opposed to Africa's 'Big Five' (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo).

When we arrived back at the hotel there was a sing and dancing troupe in traditional animal skin costumes doing some fabulous singing and dancing by the docking station to welcome us back. Unfortunately after three hours on the boat and many beers there was a stampede for the toilets so we had to rush past them! We came back to watch them though - they were great, I really enjoyed it but couldn't hang around because the truck was waiting to take us back to the campsite.