First sightings

The twenty-three of us, plus Russell, plus carry-ons, piled into a minibus with jump seats providing extra seating in the aisle and headed for the lodge. The landscape was low rolling hills -- Russell pointed out that the land still has the contours of the huge sand dunes that lie beneath -- and the most amazing clouds I'd ever seen, in a blue, blue sky.

We turned off onto a dirt road, where the few vehicles we encountered announced themselves as clouds of reddish dust in the distance, then pulled into the paved driveway of the Stanley and Livingstone. We filed onto a large terrace and sipped at flutes of fruit juice, happy to have arrived.

Then someone pointed at the grass below the terrace where several large antelopes were making their way to a watering hole.

"Oh yes," said the lodge manager. "We're getting elands today."

Twenty-three jaws dropped.