Elephant Sands

It's the first day of our organised tour through Botswana. We're in a minibus with six others, who are great fun. The tour leader, a young guy from near Johannesburg, is not so much fun. Katie distrusts him straight away, whilst Chris tries to give him the benefit of the doubt. In time, Katie's instincts would prove true. But more on that later.

Today, we're heading out of Zimbabwe to a lodge in Botswana called Elephant Sands. It's an incredible place: it is built around a watering hole, where herds of elephants come to drink. A small series of spikes separates them from the bar area, but the rest of the property is spread about, with no barriers to stop the lumbering giants from walking where they please. It means that sometimes, you're forced to stop and give way to a 6 ton elephant.

The rooms have lots of windows, and are designed so that the bathrooms look out across the grazing area. Chris was able to do a number 2 whilst watching an elephant a few metres away.

To be honest, it's quite refreshing to be able to stay in nice places and rooms like this. If we were still on our backpacking budget, we probably wouldn't have come to a place like this, and we would have missed out on this incredible opportunity.

With that though, we go to sleep, drifting off to the sound of giant footsteps outside.Read more