Guess who's back?

Africa part 2

Well I arrived back in Africa after a horrendous fight stroke lay over stroke flight stroke lay over! This all occurred on New Years Eve to top it off. So after 36 hours I arrived in pratically one piece in Pezulu lodge where I’ll be spending the next 6 months guiding. I would just like to thank Mellon Balls(Willy Aherne) for those last Vodka and Red Bulls the night before my flight at 3.30 in Copper Face Jacks too. They were really great at keeping me up for the long flight the next day!

So zombielike I step off the plane into 45 degrees! Nice! It was New Years Eve so I was expected to work till 2 that night. I started to get a feel for the place from the other side of the stick. I had stayed there with Alex in October. I remembered the faces and where things were so I knew it wasn’t going to take me that long to acclimatize. We finally got to bed at 2 after all the scooped guests went to bed and man did I need a bed! I woke up the next morning at 6 and we went out on a game walk. It was my going to be a test for me to see how much information I had retained. Jeff the other guide was firing questions at me left right and centre. Fortunately for me, I had most of the answers. I was genuinely happy to be back in the bush though. That was the main reason to head out here in the first place.


The next day consisted of an unofficial game drive with one guest who was mad into birds. It was more of an opportunity for me to get to know the game drive reserve. We set off in the arvo and it was hot! I’d say it was around 35 degrees. We drove around for a while and we saw a load of Rhino and Buffalo which was quite cool. Then Jeff spotted this Wildebeest lamb and he jumps off the vehicle. I’m there going “what the fuck,” and he’s off chasing the Wildebeest. I grab a couple of blankets and the guest and we high tail it after him. The young Wildebeest was young and lost and probably sick but I’m thinking to myself that this is not right. The idea was for us to catch it and bring it to Moholohola. Anyway we chased it through thick bush for about ten minutes by which time I was knackered and had no success in catching the lamb. I’m sweating like a Macari in a chip shop and the guest is nearly carking it. It was only then that I noticed he was in Flip Flops! You don’t want to be running around in the bush with Thongs as they call them in Oz. At one stage an adult Giraffe and baby came gunning for me and I had to step out of the way. They weren’t that far away and were going at full tilt. That’s about 55 kmph! I thought I was going to get a kick in the face! We survived it and the lamb evaded capture to face whatever fate had in store. It was good fun but a bit hairy. I don’t’ think I’ll be doing that on my drives!