Here's my first installment.  For whatever reason, it saved it in draft form.  Oh well, you can compare it, I guess.   It's Wednesday, April 16.  We are now in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  Let me bring you up to date.

Thursday, April 10, I was getting my stuff packed in preparation for our Friday flight to Johannesburg and on to Maun, Botswana, when the biggest beetle/cockroach I have ever seen ran out of our bathroom.  It was headed toward my suitcase and backpack, both of which were open.  I'm dancing around in a panic because I did not want it in my bags.  I grabbed one of my shoes and proceeded to swat at it twice before hitting it and knocking it away.  That's all fine and good except now I can't see it anywhere.  Stella is standing by her bed watching all this.  It ran across the floor and back to the bathroom.  By now, Stella has come around her bed and can see it.  She says "turn the light on in the bathroom"  I'm thinking "no, that will make it run more."  Anyway, we turn the light on and it runs behind the toilet.  I had a stiff paper bag laying on the bed that I had gotten when I bought some souvenirs so we put it on the floor thinking maybe it would run into the bag.  No, it ran up on the side of the bag and stayed there.  Stella carefully picked it up and shook it off into the toilet where we flushed it.  Honestly, it was probably a little more than two inches long, had a hard shiny dark brown shell.  I don't think it was a cockroach, but I didn't want it catching a ride in my suitcase.  I told Beverly about it the next morning and she said that she saw it running in the hallway on Wednesday on the floor below us.  Maybe we flushed the hotel pet. 

Friday, April 11.  Up at a little before 4 am. This was a real test of my happy face because I am not a morning person in any way, shape or form, but we had a 6 am flight to Johannesburg.  Checking in was kind of a nightmare.  They weigh all your carry-on luggage as well as your checked bags.  I didn't have a problem, but they made Beverly repack all her stuff.  She got the agent who was hardcore about it, and, consequently, the entire group had to wait while she went through everything and rearranged. 

The flight was an hour and 50 minutes.  Then we retrieved all our luggage, toted it all through the airport and checking in for our flight to Maun (pronounced Moan), Botswana.  I can't remember the last time I flew on a prop jet but that's what it was.  A 50 passenger one.  The overhead bins and under the seat space was so small, I had to have them check my backpack.  It rattled and bucked around but we made it so that was good.  :)  When we arrived at Maun, the outfitter informed our guide that one of their two vehicles had broken down 18 kilometers out of town and they were trying to get it fixed.  Eleven of us went in the vehicle that was working and left for our camp with a stop for a mokoro ride along the way.  The other 8 stayed behind to go in the next vehicle. 

It was great riding along in an open air vehicle, looking at the countryside.  Africa has a definitely different smell to it.  There was a variety of sage along the road and it was strongsmelling.  Not unpleasant, though.  Nice weather for this portion, but we got to the Okavango Delta where we had rides in mokoros which are flatbottomed boats that are poled along.  Two people to a boat.  This is my "I can't take Stella anywhere" part of the story.  The boats are fiberglass, kind of canoe sized but the sides are lower.  They put in hard plastic seats, kind of like stadium seats, but they weren't attached to the boat.  Stella got in first, we had to go one at a time.  Well, when she sat down on it, she just kept going and ended up on her back with her feet in the air.  I'd have given anything t have a video of that.  It was in slowmotion and there she was like a turtle.  She was laughing and so were all of us.  The guy who was going to pole us along and the guy with the boat next to us hurried up and got her sitting upright.  From then on, our guy, "Life" was what he said his name was, made sure he was hanging on to both of us as we sat down.  Beverly said "I almost did exactly the same thing, Stella" so we could have had two "turtles." 

We were poled along through the delta.  It was really nice, but storm clouds were threatening.  We had a lot of water lilies and birds to look at.  We stopped for snacks, which consisted of individual bags of chutney-flavored potato chips, an apple, some dried fruit and "biltong" which is their form of jerky.  I tried it but thought it was awful.  Pop and water finished up the snacks.  We hurried and got back into the boats because rain was imminent.  A little ways back, we met the other group.  By this time it was sprinkling, and it turned into a downpour.  I had my fleece jacket, thank goodness.  It was a little damp but not too bad.  The other group turned back and were soaked by the time they pulled up in the boats.  We waited for the storm to pass a little in a lodge there, and then loaded up for the journey to our camp.  The situation with the