we got to baines camp on october 9. had to fly a commercial airline from johannesburg to maun, botswana, then a little 6passenger charter plane from
maun to stanley's airfield, a 15 minute flight away. the flight to maun was supposed to be straightforward, but we went on air botswana, which was more interesting that we thought. left the johannesburg airport terminal in a bus to get to the plane, where we discovered plane was not operable. excuses ranged from no fuel, toilets not working, crew not all there, gas caps were airlocked, personnel to open gas caps were not there, and even that the plane had not come in yet from wherever it was coming from (when in fact we could see it in front of us). so we returned in the bus back to the terminal, where we were told to get back in the bus immediately to go back to the plane. got back on the plane, which was immediately put on hold for takeoff for an hour due to fog. finally got to maun about 2 hours late.

maun airport is teeny, but immigration took way too long, and bags took 30 minutes (one baggage handler). finally got on the charter plane to stanley, and was dropped off 15 minutes later.

once off the plane took a land cruiser (6 passenger, tarp top, 4wd) to baines camp, over dirt roads that were still inundated in places from the annual flooding of the okavango river in august. the whole area we are in is the okavango river delta, so is quite lush most of the year. baines camp is about 45 minutes from the airport, and we saw animals immediately (see below). we spent the first afternoon doing a game drive followed by a great dinner overlooking a marshy area where a family of hippos hangs out, so we heard their bleats and whooshes as they surfaced to breathe, just in front of us. there are only 5 chalets at baines camp, plus a common area where there is a dining room and a large open lounge area/library. meals are great. in the evenings the canopied bed(complete with mosquito netting) is wheeled out onto the deck of our chalet where we can sleep essentially outdoors with all the night sounds......pleasant but somewhat annoying as some unknown animal or other decides to be musical in the middle of the night. being under the stars is quite nice nevertheless.

susan has been deep into birdwatching and has been organizing her sightings with her bird book. the area is rich in birds, as there are birds as big as
eagles and vultures, water birds like egrets and cranes, weavers, and all kinds of birds with a variety of songs, quite fun to identify names with sounds with pictures, and i have been semi successful taking pictures of them with my long (heavy) 500mm lens that i brought.

today is thursday october 11 and the second full day of being here. could not write before because we were totally booked up with activities and not time to write or download or fool around with satellite phone (the place has no phones, no faxes, no internet, no nothing except a lot of flora and fauna and some interesting people)

so far, we have seen elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, a great assortment of antelope (like impala, sprinkbok, others), kudu, lions, warthogs, wildebeest, baboons,
zebras, wild dogs (like a camoflaged dingo), spotted hyena, guinea fowl, and a baby squirrel adopted by the staff (2 weeks old). perhaps the highlight so far was finding and following a leopard who had just woken up and was drinking water after a kill, and then went for a leisurely walk over about 200 meters and climbed a tree to go to sleep. i got all this on camera, and is quite interesting.

i will try to send some of the more interesting photos by satellite, but not sure if i will be successful (large pics and slow upload may not mix). i look like a real japanese tourist since around my neck i have a small camera, camcorder, binocs, and am holding a large camera with a huge lens on a monopod. kind of like an
indiana jones or doctor livingstone (who actually was not far from here but over near victoria falls).

went on a game drive this morning ,and are going in a motorboat later this afternoon in the marshes to see waterbirds and fish eagles and hopefully some hippos out of the water. more photo opps.

we are going for a walk tomorrow morning with 3 elephants that are semi -habituated to people, which should be interesting. we will be here until sunday , whenwe go to chief's camp which is a 10 minute air trip away from here. they have internet capability i am told , so may be able to do a better job with sending pics.

to be continued......