This afternoon we went on a boat trip with Jonah and Chillie came along too so he can learn the routes. We were rather hoping it'd be like our trip on the Chobe River in 2016 (or how we remember that to be!) but looking at the views from camp I think it'll be more like a trip in the Everglades - not that we've been there - with narrow channels amongst the tall grasses.
I was able to get a picture of our place as we pulled away.
There were no animals whatsoever to be seen, but quite a few birds and I seemed to take twice as many before getting a well focused picture, maybe because we were bobbing up and down.
Firstly a Little Bee-eater who had the usual branch across it.
But then I was able to get some clear shots.
Another Malachite Kingfisher which I seem to have taken 1,000s of pictures of, but I do like the head feathers sticking up. As you can see it was a long way away so the second image is heavily cropped and upscaled.
African Jacana - females are unusual in the animal/bird kingdom in that they mate with a number of males during each season and move on leaving the male to incubate the chicks and then raise the young - promiscuous hussies!
Its long thin toes enable it to walk over floating vegetation and sometimes give it the appearance of walking on water.
Although sometimes they still sink!
We stalked a few Coppery-tailed Coucals, but I never did manage a clear shot.
African Darter - actually I'm quite pleased with these as I find them jolly difficult birds to photograph
A couple of things floating in the water!
A rubbish photo as I'd lowered my shutter speed thinking the grasses weren't moving and forgetting that we still were. But it illustrates the landscape quite well.
Another Squacco Heron beautifully camouflaged in its favourite surroundings of quiet waters with plenty of shelter.
I don't know if you can see it well enough here because of the wretched flower spike, but the plumes on its crown are really long.
Most of the time we'd just be pottering along at a very slow speed, but Jonah suddenly decided to speed things up.
A couple of other boats out this afternoon.
It looks like a great party boat, doesn't it?
We then came upon another African Darter drying its wings.
Stunning!
About 1730 Jonah moored up alongside a bank and poured sundowners for us.
Although it was a beautiful spot, surprisingly there was only one other boat and that was well away from us - I half expected loads more to turn up but they didn't and we had a very peaceful half hour watching the sun go down and chatting. Jonah and Chillie are both very personable young men and excellent guides (I know, I always say that but we've not had a bad one yet, although some we've gelled with more than others).
Ian with his favourite sundowner tipple Amarula over ice. As the drinks are served in glasses as opposed to metal beakers, I'm happy to stick with white wine.
I usually say that sunsets are better experienced than photographed, but a couple of these have actually come out quite well.
This is my favourite by far and I congratulated Jonah on finding such a beautiful position, right opposite the trees and showed him the image on the back of my camera. It turns out it was the first night he'd stopped right here, he normally moors up a little way further along - not anymore I suspect!
After the sun had gone down we continued to enjoy the peaceful view.
Isn't it funny how although the sun has gone completely, look in the opposite direction and it's still quite light.
And safely back to our camp's mooring.
I don't often remember to photograph the moon, but it's amazing even a few days off full.
OK, so we didn't see the wildlife we'd imaged we would; but it made a nice change from bouncing around in a truck and the scenery was lovely.