April 23

Bird song woke us early ; the dawn chorus is  always magical and here it was extra special. 

We lingered at our site, relaxing over breakfast, and watching the local (exotic to us) birds flutter and sing all around us.  It was relatively  late (after 900) when we packed up our tent and moved on.   As we drove the few km from the camp to the main road we noticed a bunch of male impalla grazing in the bushes, but nothing more. 

Our drive took us east through the Kalahari.  Cows and donkeys hovered by the side of the road, but we saw  no 'wild' animals all day.  

Our fuel gage  - and our estimation of distance traveled so far - suggested it was time for a fuel stop.  On our way through a police check we inquired and were assured we would find a fuel station about 50 km further on.  And so we were relieved when we drove into a Shell station just where we expected to find it.

Do you take Visa?  Al asked?

Yes, we take Visa.....but we don't have any petrol......

Oh....

Charlotte had warned us about this.  In Malawi fuel shortages are routine and she told us they often had to wait a few days before the stations in town would have more to sell.  Others have warned us of this too.  We were advised to always top up our fuel tanks, even if the tank is half full, because the next open station with fuel to sell might be difficult to find.  We had passed a station earlier in the day, which was obviously open and selling gas, but our tank was still half full then, so we drove on by. Now we regretted that decision. 

We did some simple arithmetic.  Our vehicle has two tanks and the rental agency assured us would could have a range of 850 km.  The next available fuel might be in Maun and by then we would have driven over 850 km.  

Needlesstosay, were relieved to  see an open station when we arrived on the outskirts of Maun.  This time our questions were different, starting with:

Do you have petrol?   

Yes, and if we run out in this pump we will switch to the other. 

Do you take Visa?  

Yes

We took on 115 liters.  We checked the mileage: we had covered 880 km in our first two days. 

It was time to stop for the day, or risk driving the rough roads in Chobe National Park in the dark.  We stopped in Maun for a few provisions then drove just a short distance out of Maun to  camp at the Okavango River lodge.  This being in-between season we found the campsite empty, so we selected a site with a view of the river, settled into our deck chairs, and soaked up the atmosphere. 

Animal sightings?  Those antelope (impalla) we saw in the morning at Thadaku, a  few dozen cows and goats along the roadside and some dogs in Maun.  We also saw a few bird species,  some wonderful Baobab trees, hundreds of termite towers, and what looked like caterpillar nests in trees.  At the Okanago River Lodge we hoped to see some more "wild" species but instead we saw cows and dogs.  Our sleep was interrupted by rock music, barking dogs and traffic noises.  The morning chorus was dominated by roosters, and more barking dogs.  We were looking forward to being in the park!