Awesome sunrise over Chief’s 
Early departure shortly afterwards for Xigera. What a day! Over 370 new wetland bird sightings and three lifetime animal interactions. First off, in amongst hundreds of Squacco Heron and African Jacana sightings, we were charged by a young male hippo in shallow water. Very scary when you are stuck in shallow grass and sand banks.
Our eyes were peeled for the rest of the day, which continued hot and busy until we took a wrong turn trying to find the way to Xigera. First a positively massive, the most massive I have ever seen, crocodile moved 30cm below the mokoro in shallow water. It moved slowly and carefully below us in the crystal clear water. Time stopped.
In the time lapse we had panicked a bit towards the end of the dead-end where a big male elephant was waiting for us. Not that we really deserved or needed it, but this guy decided to approach us in the water and give us a nice scare and force us all back over the croc, which by then was in his cave below the embankment where he wanted to be anyway. Soaked up lots of sun, had an amazing time, and learnt a little more about how wetland birds are reacting to the largest flood in many, many, many years…
