Day 9

We said goodbye and left camp at a reasonable time (7:15 am). The plan was to drive aimlessly for two hours then go to the airstrip. But we were informed that there was a leopard at the airstrip so that is where we went. Upon arriving we saw a large dead impala high up in a tree. The leopard was lying nearby. For an hour he posed for pictures but unfortunately did not climb up to eat. Our plane arrived and we had an easy 25 min flight to Jao. Jao is a very busy airstrip because it serves a bunch of camps so there were several vehicles parked there with people and luggage. When there is a larger group of people flying (11-12), a different plane takes the luggage. From the airstrip we were supposed to either take a 30 minute boat ride to the Pelo camp if the water levels are high enough or a 30 minute on dry land followed by a 5 min boat ride (Pelo is on a small island). It turned out to be the car ride The scenery is totally different. The Gomoti area was dry like a desert as it was on the edge of the Kalahari desert. Here it is marshland. We saw lots of red lechwe antelopes; one herd was enormous, hundreds and hundreds of them. The 5-10 minute boat ride to the camp was very scenic. The camp itself is unbelievably gorgeous. Large cabin with indoor and outdoor showers. Swimming pool and equipment for water sports. Pelo is a water camp so there are only water activities here, no drives, which is a welcome change. Since it is surrounded by water there are a million bugs. Our cabin is big and well appointed and screened all around. The afternoon activity was a boat ride. It is akin to the everglades. On the way back we had to stop for the obligatory sundowner of drinks while watching the gorgeous sunset. When we got back to camp there was a large elephant blocking our way to the cabin. So we had to have drinks for 30 minutes hoping he would leave. Dinner was great. When we got back to our tent after dinner, we heard elephants taking a bath in front of our cabin. It was too dark to see them, but we heard a lot of elephant noises, and frogs too. There were tons of incredibly bright stars in the sky, which we tried to photograph to no avail. Lets, our guide, is an accomplished nature photographer and during dinner, he told us the story of how he got started.