This morning we were up at 3.30 again and this time we went up into the Western hide with Catherine, the journalist. She however had to leave early as she and the others were on the early flight to Lusaka leaving at 7.30am. The other couple were off to Livingstone while she was off to stay and write about Latitude - a new hotel that we are staying in next time we visit - so her article will be interesting. Back to the bats -as we arrived there was lots of noise ...

Today we were up at 3.30am for the early morning bat experience - a quick coffee and biscuit then we were off by 4.15am to the BBC hide again. John stayed on the first level and had a very nice unfettered experience on his own. I made it to the top - we felt the morning experience was different to the evening one and unusually more bats seemed to be coming back than went out!! As the sun was waking up we could get pictures which clearly showed they were straw co...

Today we took a 25minute flight to Shoebill Island to look for this iconic bird. The pilot was staying with us so the trip was easy, we went in two waves again. John and I left with Catherine first and on arrival we went to the tented camp to wait for the others to arrive......as they could leave later they had gone to see the dawn bat experience. It's unbelievable that in May these now dry plains are full of water and birdlife. We saw fishermen leaving on their...

We were up at the usual time and after breakfast set off for a walk in the game management area around the lodge. Refreshed we returned for a final shower and last minute packing before we headed to the airport for our flight to Kasanka. The 8 seater plane was not available so it meant two trips the first half left at 1030, John,Jacob and I waited until he returned and left at 1pm. The delay enabled us to have a light lunch at the airport and enabled me to sort ...