So, armed with only dried food, a few tins of smoked oysters and sardines and several packs of cuppa-soup, we headed out on the road again to our next adventure.
Entering Moremi at North Bridge, we crossed over the river and made our way along the sandy tracks towards Xananaxa.
The Bridge over the river Khwai.
Along the way, we got stuck in deep sand and had to be winched out by a passing driver, but once through that bad stretch, we reached camp with no further mishap. Well, I say no further mishap. I'd better backtrack a little here.
When we picked up out hire car in J'oburg and were heading back to Pretoria. I remarked that the bonnet must be open as there was a lot of movement up front. J assured me that the guy at the hire place had indeed closed it properly before we left. The next day on the drive to the border, I remarked again that the bonnet looked loose, but realised that it was the bull bars shaking that was the issue. We checked the bars, which seems solid, and carried on. We had only left Dijara about an hour ago when the drivers side of the bull bar dropped suddenly. We got out to examine the problem and realised that the bracket holding the bars to the bolt point under the engine had snapped clean off! We secured them with a cargo strap as best we could and continued on our journey.
At Xakanaxa, we asked at the camp if they had a welding machine. They did and were kind enough to let us use it to fix the problem. As soon as we drove off after this, it was obvious that this had been the problem since we left J'oburg as the bars were now solidly in place and the optical illusion of the bonnet being loose had vanished.
At Xakanaxa, we set up camp and relaxed, watching the sunset and having a Braai. As we had "donated" our meat earlier, Ruel kindly shared some of his delicious lamb chops with us. Thanks Ruel.
We sat around the fire, drinks in hand, recounting tales from past trips and enjoying the sounds of the African night. After a while, we heard loud splashes from the deep channel in the marsh in front of our campsite and a buffalo bellowed mournfully. The splashing and bellowing continued for an hour and a half and we sat there speculating at first that lions had cornered the buff and were busy trying to make it their evening meal. After a while, we realised that there was no sound from any lions and realised that the buff had been taken by crocs judging from all the sounds we had heard.
In the morning, we headed out on a drive. Displaying Wattled Cranes, Long-toed Lapwings, Coppery-tailed & Senegal Coucals along with Hartlaub's Babblers were all new species for me, as were the Red Lechwe out on the marsh. Two rams were watched for half an hour as they battled for dominance over the ewes during their rut.
We headed for third bridge, crossing over the older of the two bridges to cross the marsh. A quick stop in camp for some drinks and snack, then we headed slowly back to Xakanaxa to relax in camp (& weld the bull bars).
Although it still looks yummy. 
Dewi