Neither of us had an alarm but we could hear the polers up & about. Vikki had decided to have a completely peaceful day in camp. Tessa arose to go on an early morning (game) walk and here she is to tell you about the day:

It was a serene start I had a makoro to myself and the sun just risen as we poled to the walk start. Following my poling class yesterday I have a greater appreciation of the difficulty of gliding with grace through the reeds. It was a great experience to be at eye level with the hippos we met wallowing on the way. My expectations for game were low and I was looking forward to a walk to stretch my legs and the opportunity to learn some tracking tips.
The walk lasted around 3 hours and whilst we 'only' saw some grazing zebra and a variety of birds there were recent signs, via spore and droppings, of porcupine, armadillo, aardvark, elephant, hyena and a leopard. My poo knowledge is greatly improved. By the time we headed back the water lilies were in full bloom and breakfast was ready. After breakfast I headed off for a swim in the clear cool waters with some of the others. Overall a very chilled day.

In the late afternoon we both clamoured back into our makoro with Kabe to go to "hippo pond" to watch the sunset whilst hippo frolicked! It was lovely with rum & ginger to set it off. After dinner we were entertained around the campfire by the polers singing us local songs with dance thrown in every now and then. There was one woman who would provide a counterpoint to the deeply bass voices if the men. Stunning Capella with beat provided by clapping as required. Then we had to reciprocate ... we did a group song of "Hey Jude", followed by solos from Vikki ("flicker" a song about campfires), Emily (a Jungle Book song) and Heiko (German lullaby) before Vikki taught everyone in the original All Black haka. Then we played riddles whilst marshmallows came out to be cooked over the fire. A fabulous evening to end a wonderful two days!