Monday we set off at 8:00 with our new team to head to Botswana. Ben managed to spend the truck journey transferring photos from memory cards onto his hardrive using Marys tablet so we can finally upload them all when we get to a computer with decent WiFi. The roads are a lot better in southern africa compared to the east. We arrived at our camp at lunch time - the shortest drive we have had the whole trip. Our camp was based next to Chobe river, we could hear lots of hippos yawning and grunting but there was an electric fence separating them and us, there was also lots of little mongoose running around. Some of the group decided to do a river boat safari however we decided to spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool. For tea Coleen and Lezinda cooked us huge beef steaks with vegetable bake and corn on the cob - it was so nice, we thought the food before was good but this is on a whole new level! Ben had about 5 servings! Botswana is famous for its meat and they do a lot of exporting to other countries including UK, when we entered the border we had to stamp all shoes we had with us in disinfectant to ensure there is no spreading of foot and mouth. We have been told that we will be able to eat lots of game meat throughout southern africa including Zebra, Ostritch, Crocodile and Warthog!!

Tuesday we set off at 7:30 to move south through Botswana. We stopped off at a place called 'Elephants Sands' for brunch, the site had a watering hole bang in the middle which had just over 30 elephants in it. The elephants had drank all the water from the hole so were just throwing the sticky mud from the bottom over themselves, there were three huge elephants who had occupied the swimming pool and were hogging it. Coleen said we were very lucky as she had never seen so many there at once or any drinking from the swimming pool, however this does mean that they are very thirsty at the moment and would start fighting soon causing lots of destruction, they had already smelt and dug up the water pipes cutting off the sites water supply to their lodges. Botswana has one of the largest elephant populations in the world with 130,000 elephants. We arrived at our camp site around 14:00, we spent the afternoon playing around in the swimming pool and climbing boabab trees 'upside down trees', they are massive.

Wednesday we set off at 7:30 to head to the Okavango Delta, we arrived around lunch time so hung out by the pool and took advantage of the free WiFi, Mary booked her flight to join us on our 24hrs in Johannesburg! Some people in our group paid to do a flight over the delta. Before tea we played a couple of games of flunkyball which is a fun drinking we must play when we get home! For tea we had Ribs and salad...delicious!

Thursday we set off at 7:30 for our trip into the delta, the Okavango Delta is big with 11 cubic kilometres of water spreading over a 6,000-15,000 km² area. We had to leave Lezinda and the truck behind and jump onto a speed boat that took us to the Poler station. The Poler station is the base into the Delta, there is a premimeter around the delta which stops domestic animals mixing with wild animals again to prevent foot and mouth. Once at the Poler station we met up with our team that would take us into the Delta in Mykoros, traditionally dug out canoes however now a days made from fibreglass to prevent deforestation. Ben and I went in Rico's Mykoro, at first they were really wobbly but after a while we got used to them, Rico stood at the back of the Mykoro and pushed us along with a long stickpole, we had to sit in the Mykoro 'like a sack of potatoes'. We went along for about 1 hour through water paths in the reeds until we reached our island where we would stay the night. We were warned before hand that frogs might jump into the Mykoros but luckily that didn't happen!! We set up camp then hung out playing cards, a cool game called Jungle Speed, and playing in the water, having a go on the Mykoros. At 16:00 we went for a bush walk to see if we could find any animals, we saw elephants, zebra, giraffe and wilderbeast however they were very far away, we have been so spoilt to see them so close on Safari beforehand but for the new people it was exciting for them. We got back to camp after sunset and had tea, a traditional meal made on the fire, beef stew with Milipop a sticky mash potatoe type food made out of maze and water. To keep to tradition the women had to serve dinner for their men, they had to know how much they thought they would eat, Laura thought about serving Ben a tablespoon of food but didn't think it would go down well, instead she covered it with spicy sauce, we then had to hand it to them whilst kneeling which we all found entertaining. After dinner we walked down to the water edge and watched the fireflys lighting up in the reeds, they were so pretty and the painted reed frogs sounded like little bells ringing, then we did singing and dancing around the fire with the Polers before bed, we were told not to get out of the tents during the night because of Hippos, Elephants and Hyenas.

Friday we left our island at 7:15 and headed back to main land in our Mykoros, stopping to look at a crocodile on the way. We had quick showers when we got back to camp then set off to drive to Ghanzi, we arrived at our new camp at around 15:30 and were so excited that it had grass! We set up our tents (Ben extra cautious about ants) then had a swim in the quarry. At 16:00 we went for a walk with the Khoi-san Bushman, they wore the traditional outfits which were not many clothes at all! They walked us through the bush pointing out and showing different plants that can be used for different meditions, dye, food etc. They told us to place a seed under our toungs so we would be able to click our toungs when we speek like they do but shortly after putting them in our mouths they popped and made everyone jump!! When we got back to camp we chilled and had dinner.

Today we set off at 6:30 for our long day of driving which would be filled with many games of charades and riddles. We passed through the Botswana border and arrived in Windhoek, Botswana's capital just after 15:00. Namibia is different from 'Africa' so far, they have proper buildings and roads with traffic lights! It is also very clean and there is a lot more white and mixed raced people, a very diverse country. We are spending 1 night in a hotel here which is bliss! Tonight we are going put for a meal and meeting 4 new team members who will join us here and travel to Cape Town with us.