Days 30 And 31
Today began with breakfast and then a lecture about ethology – animal behaviour, this was fascinating. We watched several video clips which helped us to learn bits about their behaviour and the lecture was really interesting too.
Brunch today was sausage, chips and salad. After brunch I filled in the ethology section of my workbook and then packed my stuff ready for tonight’s sleep out. At 1500 off we went, seeing buffalo from the bridge on the way. It was my turn to drive today and I had to use the radio too, and we got some absolutely awesome sightings (as I was driving I couldn’t take any pictures though!) The first sighting was a big bull elephant just strolling along happily in the bushes. After he passed us, I began to drive off with the intention of turning around when another huge bull elephant appeared on the road right in front of us. I turned the engine off and we all sat still and he walked right past the car, within touching distance. It was simply fantastic!
We carried on driving and after a few minutes we came across the whole herd of elephant crossing the road right in front of us! There must have been at least thirty of them, and a couple of tiny babies too – so so adorable. They crossed the road quite quickly and then we drove around the corner and onto the clearing to get a better view. I did a bit of off roading which was great fun. There were quite a lot of sickle bushes which I had to drive around (very good at puncturing tyres) and we made it with all four tyres intact! It was so much fun and the elephants were so beautiful.
We carried on driving and I had to use the low range a couple of times too. We had to do a river crossing (although there wasn’t really that much water) and a couple of steep rocky hills too – such fun!
We arrived at camp and after some debate about where to sleep. There were two options – the top deck and the bottom deck. The top deck was really rocky but the bottom deck involved quite a steep scramble which would have been ridiculous in the dark or if it had rained! The top deck was the winner.
We collected firewood, made a fire, began cooking dinner and set up our beds. Dinner was a braai, chicken, potato salad and garlic bread.
We sorted out the ‘watch rota’, an hour each. Mine was from 0000 to 0100. We saw a scorpion under a ‘scorpion light’, which is UV and makes the scorpion appear purple. Ben gave us a quick talk about the stars, a few constellations and a way to find north which was very interesting and then it was time for bed. I fell asleep looking at the stars.
I was fast asleep when I was woken up for my turn! We had to sit in one of the 4 x 4 for the hour and every few minutes shine the spotlight on our arc and check for animals!
At the end of my hour I went back to sleep. I woke up at one point in the night quite chilly, but I was just sleeping in the sleeping bag liner, not the sleeping bag liner, but it was quite a nice change to be cold! I woke up shortly after 0500 to find that pretty much everyone else was already up and about. Apparently lions were heard roaring during the night, but I slept through it!
We had some rusk biscuits for breakfast, packed everything away and then drove back to camp – hoping for some more sightings on the way. We were not disappointed – we saw a male lion and a lioness. They were so close and so chilled, we spent quite a long time watching them.
When they left the road we carried on driving, seeing a few jackal, a couple waterbuck, giraffe, wildebeest and impala.
I can safely say we saw more elephants than all the other animals put together over the two Game Drives, I don’t think we even saw impala yesterday!
We drove back to camp and found that because we where the last group back all the unpacking had been done, we also found that there is no water again because one of the pipes has leaked – this is Africa I suppose. We unpacked our things and then chilled until brunch time. Today for brunch we had sausage, coleslaw, potato salad and salad. After brunch I spent some time revising, swimming and relaxing – most people spent the afternoon napping.
At 1500 I went to the LSSD shop and then at 1600 we had a lecture about orientation, navigation and survival. I already knew most of the bits about orientation and navigation, but there were some new bits about survival which were very interesting. At the end of the lecture Trevor filled in my log book from my driving yesterday. Then it was time for dinner – chicken schnitzel, potatoes and coleslaw. There was another issue with the water, basically the pump broke and so they fixed it, now that the pump works properly it is breaking all the weak spots in the pipe and the whole pipe system needs fixing. We now have to shower all at the same time so that there isn’t a build up of pressure, so we have a shower schedule. Laundry also has to fit in around this! This is Africa! Luckily next week is off week so most of us won’t be here anyway and it can be fixed properly. We showered (following the schedule) and then had well deserved early nights after a fantastic couple of days and ready for an early start tomorrow.
Anyone who knows me at all knows I love camping and being outside. I can usually sleep through anything and tend to sleep superbly when camping. The stars last night were beautiful, I loved falling asleep listening to the sounds of nature and the crackle of the fire. I was so excited for the sleep out and I wasn’t let down – I had the best time and can’t wait for the next one.