We woke to near freezing temperature as the thermometer hovered around 38 degrees F. I am not sure it is a record low but everyone here is talking about how they are not used to such cold weather. As it turns out, the animals in the Savuti were not used to it either because when we went on safari today, we hardly saw any.

We drove for about an hour and one half, slowly making our way to what was once the Savuti Marsh. However, about 40 years ago, the Savuti River, which fed the marsh, died up and forever disappeared. All that is left of the Savuti River is it's dried up sandy river bed, which I have a picture of and will share it with you in a later post.

The Savuti Marsh is now mostly grasslands with a number of small ponds that attract the animals. Once there, we did see a wide variety of different animals including elephants, gnus, jackals, kudus, giraffes, buffaloes, impalas, antelopes and even a pair of lions. However, when we did see them, they were few and far between. If this had been our first day on safari, we would have been impressed and happy. However, we have been so spoiled with our good luck until today, getting so used to seeing tons of animals quickly and often. Our past days of safari made today a disappointment.

As we were criss-crossing the grasslands in search of animals we came across the rocky hill which was famous for the bushman carvings of the animals previously hunted and caught. We were told that they were made by the San people. During my first History of Cape Town writings, I mentioned the San people and how they were famous for their rock painting. Now we were able to see them first hand. Because a lioness and her cubs were recently seen on this hill, we were told that we could not walk up to the paintings as it was too dangerous. However, with our guide, Bafana's help, Mary Margaret used our 50x zoom camera to get a good photo of them. I will post what she captured as soon as I can.

After a wonderful picnic lunch in the warming sun, we decided to head back to the camp and rest the reminder of the afternoon. Given that the animals had decided to stay in the bush areas and not come grazing onto the marsh, we were not optimistic that we would be seeing many more animals.

Thus, once back, I spent the few hours before dark posting pictures to our blog so you can see what we have been up to. I still have pictures for days three and four to post but I am not sure that I will be able to post them before we get back to Simon's Town. The Internet here is a blessing but it is slow and many times my attempt of posting a picture is rejected and I have to do it many times before I am successful.

We had another gourmet dinner this evening with the presentation of each dish so beautifully done. For starters we had a tomato and onion soup with the two parts of the soup (tomato and onion) placed side by side in an artful way. When stirred together, they made a delicious combination.

This was followed by a large fillet of tenderloin beef with a blue cheese sauce on the side, vegetables grilled to perfection, and whipped potatoes. A simple meal but wonderfully done and presented. Each was delicious in its own right. We are told that the beef here in Botswana is better than the beef in South Africa and is exported to the better restaurants in Europe. While we love the beef in South Africa, I must admit that what we had today was absolutely superb. For dessert we indulged in a chocolate coconut cake covered in whipped cream. Yum!

It was much warmer this evening so we have high hopes that the bitter cold nights are now a thing of the past. Tomorrow we must leave this wonderful camp that Nanette manages and head off to the part of the Chobe National Park that is near Kasane.