I’ve had a week of interesting game drives and walks. It has shown me that some people are interested in nature on the grand scale and some are only interested in the “Big 5.” It’s hard to entertain some guests. You can show them something as rare as a Big Bull Elephant smashing down a mature Marula tree from about 5 metres. The Marula nearly lands on their heads and they still just feign interest and you can tell they want to see something being eaten or caught or killed! They aren’t impressed and then they see a Lion just lying around and their mouths drop. It’s a bit hard to understand. I think the marketers have a lot to answer for with the way wild life is presented. But that’s a debate for another day.
There has been a lot of rain lately and some of the reserves are quite sodden. Not too dissimilar to the bogs at home. I’ve been close to getting bogged down a few times but I guess it was inevitable that I would get stuck at some stage and that’s what happened on the morning drive yesterday morning. We were enjoying a nice drive and seeing lots of cool animals and then just as I was about to stop for coffee I went through an area where I had been the previous day and we get stuck. I mean proper stuck! To make things worse was that I had taken the shovel out of the vehicle the evening before to use when we were repairing a road in the conservancy. It’s always the way!
Anyway the guests were grand about it and we had our coffees and waited for a tow to arrive. I prayed that the rain would hold off! It was funny because the road just sunk in that particular spot. Help arrived within a half an hour and it only took a bit of grunt to get the vehicle out. I was hoping that as a reward for the stress of the incident that we would see some Rhino and then we saw the two Black Rhino. I hadn’t seen them since October and it was a nice penance for my sins! We arrived back at the lodge a little later than planned with a nicely mud spattered group of guests and half of the reserve clinging to the chassis of the Range Rover! I’m sure it won’t be the last time I get stuck in as there is more rain forecast.
I went out with Ulaf for another “Big 5,” drive in the afternoon and we had some great luck. Lion, Ground Hornbill, Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo all beside the road. Leonard the tracker fell asleep at one stage on the tracker seat as he had nothing to do! It was one of those days when everything falls into your lap and the God’s were shining on Ulaf that day.
There has been a lot of rain lately and some of the reserves are quite sodden. Not too dissimilar to the bogs at home. I’ve been close to getting bogged down a few times but I guess it was inevitable that I would get stuck at some stage and that’s what happened on the morning drive yesterday morning. We were enjoying a nice drive and seeing lots of cool animals and then just as I was about to stop for coffee I went through an area where I had been the previous day and we get stuck. I mean proper stuck! To make things worse was that I had taken the shovel out of the vehicle the evening before to use when we were repairing a road in the conservancy. It’s always the way!
Anyway the guests were grand about it and we had our coffees and waited for a tow to arrive. I prayed that the rain would hold off! It was funny because the road just sunk in that particular spot. Help arrived within a half an hour and it only took a bit of grunt to get the vehicle out. I was hoping that as a reward for the stress of the incident that we would see some Rhino and then we saw the two Black Rhino. I hadn’t seen them since October and it was a nice penance for my sins! We arrived back at the lodge a little later than planned with a nicely mud spattered group of guests and half of the reserve clinging to the chassis of the Range Rover! I’m sure it won’t be the last time I get stuck in as there is more rain forecast.
I went out with Ulaf for another “Big 5,” drive in the afternoon and we had some great luck. Lion, Ground Hornbill, Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo all beside the road. Leonard the tracker fell asleep at one stage on the tracker seat as he had nothing to do! It was one of those days when everything falls into your lap and the God’s were shining on Ulaf that day.
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