An early morning drive from Chobe to Elephant Falls where we stayed earlier for breakfast and we were joined by 1 old elephant at the waterhole before another hour's drive to Gweta,a small village on the edge of the salt pans and where they filmed the TVs programme the No 1 detectives ladies agency. After lunch we went on a drive into the salt pans,a unique area the size of Switzerland. It took an hour's drive through the bush which resembled a fruitless orchard with an occasional 3 or 4 hundred year old baobab looming over it.The pans are the remains of a giant inland are and all white and crunchy under foot as we walked on it,a truly extraordinary sight.Although this was not a game drive we did see a group of ostriches on the periphery of the pans amongst the cattle grazing. By the pans was a cattle station,which was more a collection of wooden huts and fenced off bore holes. It was here that we met a guide who led us to a colony of meerkats that because he has followed them for years are not afraid of humans and let us walk amongst them as they scampered about,scratched the sandy soil or stood guard. It was fascinating to watch them in the wild. There are other colonies here but they stay well hidden from humans so we were fortunate indeed to observe them. On our return we stopped at a waterhole to watch the sunset and a small herd of horses come to paddle and drink.