Jan 26/04
Left at 6:30 on our first safari.  It was quite cool and it would have been nice to have a jacket.  Luanna took a blanket but that was quickly a nuciance when trying to take pictures.  I ended up sitting on the propane bottle rack on top of Paul's truck.  Sat there with Kendale.  Saw numerous birds, antelope or deer or whatever they were.  Stoped at a lookout & spent at least 1/2 hr there.  Jim took lots of pictures.  Got back to camp at 9:10.  Lay down to try to finish my nights rest.  Slept about 45 min when Luanna woke me up to tell me that there were lots of elephants right close & I could see them from the observation area.  So I got up and took video footage of the elephants.  Almost 1 hr of them.  At one point we watched an elephant walk along the shore swinging his trunk chasing all the crocodiles in sight into the water.  Almost seemed like he was having a good time.  Lay down again & got chased up shortly after and was told there was an elephant right close to our room.  So I got up & watched & filmed that one also.  Ended up spending most of the rest of the time till our next safari watching elephants.  There were 8 elephants in all hanging around all day.  I spent some time right out side the observation area & we could take pictures from less than 20 feet.  Quite an experience.  We made our own sandwiches for dinner.  I made 1 from canned corned beef & shredded cheese.  At 400 we left on our afternoon safari.  Saw more elephants but after the days experience it seemed almost an anti climax.  Saw some baboons & deer but getting pictures was not as nice from the Mitsubishi rear seat was not as nice as from the top of Pauls truck.  Got some deer pictures.  Got back at about 630.  Went for supper at 7 and ended up waiting almost till 8 before we got our food.  For supper we had fries, couscous, beans and chicken.  The chicken out here does not have much meat on it.  Probably gets too much exercise.  After supper I spent my time listening to BBC and watching tape from today and writing in my journal.  Most of the others met by a fireside & had some tea.  Ended the day with malaria pills & a shower.

This is the view we had from the observation area.  It was a building with open sides that was designed so that the elephants could not get into it.
This elephant spent some time right close to our cabins.  The sand colored object on the right side of the picture is one of the cabins our group was using. Our guides reminded us that these were wild animals and that maybe we were a bit close sometimes.  Really!