I got up at 5.45 in order to see the sun rise over Planet Baobab - Linda didn't ;-).

After a delicious breakfast, which was shared with a couple of ground suirrels. we got driven back to the airstrip untied the plane and took of for Maun. As usual we overflew our last accomodation site first, then tracked south for Jacks Camp, a really expensive (oh sorry, exclusive) place which we at least wanted to see from the air. But there was nothing special about it (from above anyway). I don't get it why people pay ten fold to live there instead of Planet Baobab for instance (which btw. is owned by the same people).

The flight to Maun took us along the shore of the Ntwetwe Pan and over the Makgadikgadi Pans Game Reserve. Then along the Nghabe river and up to Maun. Everything at about 1000ft AGL (above ground level).

We didn't really see any animals, but it was still a nice flight.

I later found out that Maun is known for its wind and the tower is said to give you very little or sometimes even wrong information on it. There was a bit of wind shear that day and it cought us badly. After passing the threshold and shortly before touch down the airplane was pushed high up in the air. When the unexpected lift disappeared again we dropped very quickly and hard onto the ground. It all went so fast that I really can not tell how often we bounced, but it must have been 5 times or so.

It was a very rough experience that I easily could have done without.

We parked the plane and walked to the Delta Flyers office just outside the airport in order to do the required briefing for the landing at Ntswi Island in the Okavango Delta. This briefing by Craig, a New Zealander who is flying charters for Delta Flyers, really was more an alibi exercise than anything else. I was told that the strip on Ntswi Island is short (the shortest in the Delta, I seem to remember) and asked whether I thought that this would be a problem. Some papers had to be signed, but in reality there was no reason to land in Maun. We could as well have flown directly to Ntswi Island.

We booked a three day safari (2 nights) with a private Mokoro guide. Linda went to buy food while I practised three landings - not the least to check whether the plane was still ok. While refuelling we noticed the front wheel spring had collapsed completely. Due to the hard landing the spring fluid had flown out. Getting this fixed would take the Kalahari Air Services an hour or two. As we therefore would be arriving late at Ntswi Island we decided to stay three nights instead.

After the spring fluid had been replaced and the machanic ensured us the plane was ok, we took of for Ntsewi Island, which is only about 20 minutes away shortly before 17h. The strip is not nearly as tricky as Delta Flyers tried to make it. The landing was no problem and went just fine.

Scott, the manager of Bush Camp, picked us up a little later and drove us to to our accomodation in a boat. We pitched our tent (the only one in the camp ground that night) and started preparing our own food while there still was a bit of light. It got dark quickly though. Except for a small headlight we had to eat our delicious dinner (soup and potatoes) in complete darkness whilst most of the other guest at the camp were sitting by candle light in the "restaurant". Well ... there was also a little extra light from the lightning around us. We went to bed early.