Hippo - what a sight to see on our last morning in Africa

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FAREWELL TO AFRICA I slept very poorly last night as I fretted about the loss of all my photographs from Kalahari Plains onward. Also, I had severe leg cramps that lasted all night, and indigestion which I hope Imodium will alleviate. Despite this, I had a 6:15 wakeup call so that I could join Glen for at 6:30 bird walk around the camp. The first thing we saw was a giant hippo out of the water feeding just outside our tent! The walk was very successful and we added six new birds to the trip list including a Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird that brought out Glen's long-lens camera. We ate breakfast and had a chance to go back to our room for a hour before our ride to the airport left at 10:30. This time we had a 7-passenger, air-conditioned taxi to ourselves. There is no business class lounge so we waited for a time in a restaurant before being asked to leave. There were no seats available so we stood. Our plane was an hour late - no fun. It really shortens our transfer time.
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MORE INCREDIBLE SIGHTINGS After suffering through the heat of the day and missing the cooling effects of the kikoi, I made a point of asking the assistant hotel manager if they had any kikoi that we could use to keep cool during the afternoon heat. She looked puzzled until I explained what they were. "Oh, you mean the chitenge. I'll put a couple in the room for you." With that problem solved, we set off with Newton. We had discovered on the morning drive that Newton possesses the eyes of an eagle. He can spot animals at least two kilometres away - even Glen is impressed. We have all learned that when Newton slows down or stops, removes his sunglasses, and checks through his binoculars that we had better pay attention as he has seen something really worthwhile. This happened again not far from camp. He spotted an African Civet - a nocturnal cat-like animal, rarely seen and very secretive. We drove closer and sat silently as the animal approached running al
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FLIGHT TO TOKA LEYA We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and a short bird walk around the camp adding one new species to our lists, before leaving for the airstrip. Our pilot, Josh, was there waiting for us and as quickly as we could, climbed into the plane. We still managed to pick up some Tsetse flies for our journey to Livingstone. The flight is so smooth today that I can actually work on the blog. We will have internet at our next camp, located on the Zambezi River, just a short drive from Livingstone so I hope to update as much as I can. Hope people are still checking in.
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