Woke up very early when something swatted my elbow from the outside. Sometime later something ran right by the tent - Craig yells from the car (he and Margaret are sleeping inside) that it was a hippo - I'd thought from the grunts that it was a warthog - which made me nervous enough. Then Dean spots an elephant right on the other side of the car - I'm feeling very exposed in my tent. Craig turns the lights off and we try to sleep. A short time later another ruckus starts and I shout that something is trying to get into the cooler. Craig turns on the lights just in time for Dean to see a very large hyena dragging the cooler away - we definitely need to get some sling shots. I spent the rest of the night trying to convince myself it was ok to sleep.
In the morning we recover the cooler. It's got huge fang holes in it but it still seems to function. We break camp and head for the Northern Gate to the park. It's an uneventful drive. Once we get to the gate are biggest goal is cold drinks - we haven't had any since leaving Moun three days ago. We search Khwai village (just outside the park) and eventually find some cool-ish soda - very nice.
After setting up camp just inside the park gates we cook lunch. It's while cooking that we figure out how bad the monkeys (Vervets) are. Despite constant guarding the make off with a half dozen eggs, bread, onions, hot peppers, and the rest of our ginger. They're cute, but very obnoxious and Dean spends most of the afternoon trying to make a sling shot. Deans contraption basically works - and the monkeys quickly gain some respect for it - but if you give them half a chance they'll take anything smaller than they are. After last night, and the hippo noises we can hear very near to camp - I decide to sleep in the roof tent with Dean.
