Our last morning in the tower - up at 5.30 and we headed to the lookout to watch dawn break and have a cup of tea. I could hear elephant behind us but couldn't see them. It started to get light about 6 with the sun rising just after 0630. I got a quick photo before setting out on our walk; it was cool for the first 30minutes but did not take long to get hot - today we walked across the dried mud flats( covered in spring tides) and along an area with palm trees and thick bush where the elephants often hang out......behind is a plain area where you can see they have dug holes for water. As we walked towards their water holes we saw a large felled coconut tree and work in progress by locals to cut and hollow out a two man canoe from the trunk. As we approached the water holes - surprise surprise a honey badger ran towards them then scurried off - I just managed one ok ish photograph! We took a wide ish path through the trees back but had to take a detour when we spotted elephant making their way through as well. As we were watching elephant from a safe distance someone pointed to my right - I thought more elephant but no today's picture - a bushbuck had popped up and was surprisingly close so I snapped it before it ran off. We also saw, red duiker and a trumpeter hornbill - they have a great undulating flight and are interesting to watch.
We continued back towards the main road, went by a waterhole, where a local man was fishing, and were back at the tower just after 0830 for a much needed shower and breakfast - boy was it hot today - I think I am currently having heat endurance training!
At 1000, I had my last eyeball with a bataleur eagle, we said our goodbyes to the staff, who now had to prepare for a one night stay by the boss who was bringing his parents with him from Dar es Salem ( apparently he splits his time between Tanzania, UK and Croatia where he has another conservation project.) and we left for the main camp.
After lunch we relaxed and packed - thankfully John spotted a hole in my bag which he mended otherwise I could have unknowingly lost clothes through it!
I tried to checkin on line for tomorrows flights but we couldn't log on to the Internet - I identified that they had used their Internet quota for the month - as its the 1st tomorrow I may be able to do it in the morning - lets hope!