After the long drive yesterday, we figured that today we could all sleep in. It is also H & my 32nd wedding anniversary (seemingly not an important date for our children though, of course, they are all as a result of the marriage in the first place) and so we also thought it appropriate for us to lie in a bit. The issue though is that our body clocks are now attuned to wake up at 5am and so both of us were awake much earlier than necessary for our 7am morning drive.

We decided to just stay close to the camp today and do a small drive along the river and to the Kanniedood bird hide and then continue on for another few kilometers. It is a lovely drive and while we did see some game, we didn’t see predators but we did all add to our bird lists. We were back by around 9am and H & M decided that 27 degrees was still cold enough to do a 30-minute run in (the things people do for Discovery points). O, I & myself had breakfast instead.

It was a relaxed day at Shingwedzi today. Some painting was done by H & Miss I, everyone besides O had a nap and occasionally we would wander outside and enjoy the view over the river and then when the heat overcame you (or the flies), you would come back inside to shelter in the comfort of the air-conditioned room. It got to 35 degrees C today but with hardly any wind at all, it felt hotter. Apparently tomorrow is going to be even hotter.

We did a shortish afternoon drive with the various loops around the camp. Unfortunately not a very successful drive. It was very hot and I think all the animals and birds were resting and not doing anything. My trip list is at 151 so far and that is equivalent to where it was last year at the same time. The birding started well but has slowed down over the last day. Lifers have been flowing though for the others still with H & O having 10 lifers each and M not far behind that but more importantly he is fast closing in on his 500th lifer (he is on 498 at the moment).

As it is our anniversary, H has a rule about not cooking on our anniversary so we headed to the restaurant when we got back and we all boringly had the same thing – chicken schnitzel and chips. It is so hot that even when doing nothing (like waiting for them to bring the food), you are sweating. Fortunately the air-conditioning in our room works very well and so it is nice and cool in the bedroom. H was getting some water when she came back to ask me to join her in the lounge as a bat was flying around. Suddenly I have become a bat expert. I forgot to say this in blog yesterday but yesterday afternoon we had to deal with a bat in the kitchen sink. I had it trapped but eventually the only way to remove it was with tongs and M managed to grab it and get it outside. Tonight I am just leaving the bat in lounge – all our doors are closed – it can stay there.

Until tomorrow …

H (she has been my wife of 32 years so deserves top spot today), P, M (for running with his mom this am in the heat), O (still feeling unwell so sympathy vote) & I (she has been rejecting sitting on my lap to drive for the last few days – grandpa entirely out of favour unless I am making French Toast … going to have to make that again soon)