We arrived at Hwange National park in the late afternoon and set up our tents. After tea we were going on a night drive around the outskirts of the park. We left at 9pm and got into two cars, Sarah wasnt feeling well so she stayed in our tent while we went out. We saw two jackels, one was a black back jackel and one was a side stripe jackel. Our guide Andy was really good he knew everything. He stopped the car because he could smell broken twigs and leaves, a sign of elephants. We crawled along in the car and then we heard branches breaking. There were elephants on the other side of the trees at the side of the road. The guide told us to listen ... crack! "that is an elephant snapping a branch" ... crunch! "that is an elephant chewing" ... scrape! "that is an elephant scratching itself on a tree" He knew exactly what each elephant was doing even though he couldnt see them. One elephant then came out of the trees and crossed the road right infront of us. Andy put the spotlight on it so we could see it better and it turned to face us and stared at us for about a minute before walking into the trees on the other side. We waited a while and then two more elephants crossed the road. We went further along the road and came to some trees with baboons in and Andy said "OK who wants to have some fun?" He then started shouting "Hey! Hey!" really loud, "Get out of the tree." As he did this all the baboons dropped out of the trees and ran away!! He did this several times along the road, it was quite funny. We stopped at a hotel to have a look from the viewing platform over a watering hole, but we didnt see much. When we returned to camp there was a genet running up a tree near the truck. I was first to go around the truck to where our tents were and found the bin knocked over and rubbish all over the floor, something had raided the bin whilst we were gone. I shouted Sarah, she came out of the tent saying "thank god you are back, ive been so scared, I could hear something licking and slurping, I thought it was gonna eat me!!" It was probably just the genet but who knows what it was!!

In the morning we went for another drive in the park this time. We saw lots of antelope and birds. We also saw hippos and crocodiles. Andy found lion tracks and we followed them for ages to a water hole but they had gone when we got there. We made our way back to camp and caught a quick glimpse of a lion before it ran away. At the park they have a conservation area for wild dogs so on the way out of the park we stopped at the centre. We went to the wild dog hospital and managed to see a few hiding in the trees and bushes. They are quite big dogs.

Then we got back on the truck and drove to Victoria Falls.