Part Two: Botswana

Day 4, continued

We made it into Maun around sunset. It's such a cute little town, with way more than I expected. We grabbed dinner at Wimpy's and ate it on the way to our backpackers. The directions we had weren't all that great so we got lost. We drove back and forth and it was dark by the time we stopped to ask for directions. The sign to our backpackers was so small and far from the road that we almost missed it (again!). We were so relieved to finally be there... and then the car got stuck. The road to the campsites was completely sand, and since it was raised up in the middle we couldn't get our car through it. Emmi was driving so the boys and me got out and started digging the sand out from under the wheels so we could get the car to move. After about 20 minutes of digging and the car barely going anywhere, the boys decided to just walk the rest of the way to see if anyone could help us. It was about 8pm when we pulled into the road and we didn't see the boys again until a little after 9. Emmi and I sat in the car in the dark with the windows rolled up. I wouldn't say we were scared but we were definitely a little uncomfortable with our surroundings. When we saw the boys headlamps come around the corner we were beyond relieved. And then we got the news. There was no one at all at the campsites where we were supposed to stay and it seemed like our only option was to either stay there in the car overnight or try to get the car back out of the road and look somewhere else. So we dug more sand and pushed the car, and after what felt like forever, we had the car on level ground. We lucked out and found chalets that we could stay in for the night, which were nice, but hot and a little pricy. I can't even describe how amazing the shower felt that night.

Day 5
We woke up the next morning with a hopeful attitude. We decided to drive around to find something to do for the day and maybe even another place to camp. We drove around for a few minutes before finding the Island Safari Lodge. Originally we went there because their sign advertised a lot of activites, but when we arrived we realized they had camping for only about $6 per person! This was incredible considering our other place was $10 per person and looked like a complete wasteland compared to the paradise we were standing in at the moment. We signed up for a boat ride later in the evening because a full day in the delta had already started and we were only there for one day. We then ate a delicious breakfast in the restaurant before going grocery shopping. Later that afternoon we hung out at the campsite and made lunch. We were still pretty tired from the day of driving and pushing our car out of the sand so we decided to take a nap. I woke up to Nick and Emmi laughing; it turns out Damon tried to sleep in the car but left his foot out and  a squirrel nibbled on his sock. They were laughing because he was trying to chase it around, which as you can guess didn't exactly work out how he wanted.

At 4pm we went for our boat ride.  Unfortunately, again, we didn't see any big game, but the ride was still beautiful and we got to see an incredible sunset on the way back. Oh, and we even got to swim (well, walk) around in the delta a bit! That night we went for a swim in the resort's pool before getting a very good night's sleep.

Day 6
In the morning we woke up to chirping noises that sounded like either birds or a couple squirrels. We unzipped our tent expecting to see one or the other, but we ended up finding monkeys outside our tents! They had knocked over the trash and were eating what was left of our dinner. They walked around our campsite avoiding people before finally leaving. After that little adventure we packed up the car and started driving towards our next country: Zimbabwe!