0530 arrived as did our wake up call but as it had been raining all night we decided not to do the game drive or walk as we did not fancy getting wet and cold again. Instead we had a leisurely morning - sleeping then packing and finally joining the guys from Belgium who were flying with us to Maun for brunch. As we finished packing the lights went off in the tent meaning we had truly exhausted every ounce of solar power....the last of the hot water was yesterday! However as the morning went on the skies brightened and we saw patches of blue sky - by the time we set off for the airstrip it was dry and warm, but the large pools of water on the tracks were testament to the volumes of rain that fell. As the plane was late we had a mini game drive - seeing ostrich, steenbok and then oryx and red hartebeest who were milling around in the shrubby areas near the airstrip.
In Maun we transferred to a flight taking us to Camp Kalahari on the edge of the Makgadikgadi ( meaning dry,dry in Botswanan) salt pans. We were collected by 'Bones' our guide and taken to camp which was was excellent in all respects. Enroute we saw hundreds of zebra who had migrated from the Boteti River following the good grass- 16000 make the journey along with wildebeest every year - making it the second largest animal migration in the world after the Mara / Serengeti migration. Interestingly this time last year all the zebra had left because the rains had been far less - the grazing (and the wildflowers)thanks to the above average rains are still so good they could stay for several weeks more!
We were the only driving safari guests the others were on a horse safari spending a couple of days in camp before heading off to a fly camp.....so we had Bones and the vehicle to ourselves which was great.
After lunch we settled into our very comfortable tent before heading, out at 4.30pm, to the pans to look for a brown hyena family last seen before the rainy season started.
No hyena but we did find ground squirrel, bat eared foxes, black backed jackal, lone young male wildebeest booted out of the herds for 'being naughty', more zebra, amazing big skies and a a flame sunset ( the likes of which had not been seen for several days.)
On our way back to camp in the dark we used the spotlight and saw spring hares, cape hares and steenbok - I was hopeful for an aardvark as they are frequently seen in the winter but no luck - still too warm for early sightings I expect.
Bones with his 16 years experience at the camp is an excellent guide and choked full of knowledge......we are already looking forward to tomorrow as it's meerkat day - our reason for coming!