Day 22

Early start again today. I felt tired for the first time since I’ve gotten here. The old roll over for just one more five minutes thing kicked in again and it was cold outside the comfort of the quilt. I persevered though and had the 3 S’s. (Sorry Mam!) I walked out to the vehicle and it was still dark and I could hear tree’s being smashed up very close to the fence. It was cool as my eye’s started to adjust to the light I could see a massive herd of Breeding Elephant right outside the College fence. It was hard to tell how many were there but at least twenty plus! What an amazing way to wake up in the morning. It just reminded me of just how lucky I am to be here.

We eventually got going from the College just after six and to be honest the morning drive was cold and uneventful. It was hard to have any enthusiasm for things when you’re freezing your nuts off in the back of an open game vehicle. A Leopard or Lion would have been nice though! We met up with the other group after about two hours and we really enjoyed the coffee I can tell ya. We headed back to camp later on because we had some visitors to the college. The director of Kruger and some other dignitaries wanted to meet us and see why and what we were studying. After talking to these peeps for a while we all hot footed it back out to the bush for our lunch.

Having lunch out in the open listening to the silence is really cool. We started off back on the trail after and I was in the tracker seat possie. I enjoyed it and was just getting into the swing of things when we ran into the Breeding Herd I had seen that morning. It was a bit dodgy for me to stay in the tracker seat so I moved back into the relative comfort of the vehicle. We then drove forward a little and positioned ourselves about 100 meters from the Herd. Then the most amazing thing happened. They slowly but surely as only Elephants can came over to investigate us. It was a full compliment of females, babies, juveniles and one big straggling Bull. One male adolescent came right up to our vehicle with his trunk up in the air sniffing away. I don’t know how I would have felt if I had been on the tracker seat but nervous comes to mind! At one stage one of the babies got a bit of a fright and the rest of the females came over trumpeting and kicking up dust! You could cut the tension with a knife. It was exhilarating to be there for all of that. For the most part they were chilled out and when they eventually left to go to the Pan for a drink you could hear the tension being released from the group. All smiles and nervous laughter ensued! It’s a moment I’ll always remember!

Day 21

Today started off with Bush School again. We were out in the bush to learn how to deal with potentially dangerous animals. There are quite a few over here as you can imagine but we were concentrating on the “Big 5.” We had to get out there first off though and we had a few hairy moments with the drivers of the vehicles. In fairness most of the guys can drive but the girls are a bit dodgy! They can’t seem to find first gear half the time never mind reverse. We nearly had the tracker reversed over yesterday morning. So much for using your mirrors! Now before I get slated for being sexist my roommate is also a disaster. I don’t think he’s driven before so it’s not exclusively the girls I’m slagging!

When we set up our station for class out in the bush we were on our guard for Lion. We found spoor and we had heard Lion roaring at 4.30 this morning and after seeing how close to the car they got in Kruger, we weren’t taking any chances. The wind was howling as well so we couldn’t hear very much. This is considered to be dangerous when out on foot in the bush as you can’t hear any animals approaching. The day flew by and we are a little wiser about the animal’s behaviour now and of what distance you should approach to. In the case of a charge by any of the animals mentioned I know that I’ll be shooting first and asking questions later! Mind you the tree huggers in the group will need to learn that people come first and I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable being led by someone who is reluctant to shoot a dangerous animal.

Day 20

I had a feeling some of the guys wouldn’t make it up for the trip to Kruger at 5. Out of 13 people originally intending to go, only 9 went. It was tough going getting up at 5 when you’re only getting to sleep at 2. Anyway we headed off on our first day in Kruger hoping to see some Big Cats. I was really looking forward to it. For me, that’s what Africa’s all about and it turned out we weren’t to be disappointed.

We headed out into the park and it wasn’t long before we were seeing some great animals wandering about living their lives.

It wasn’t long before we were literally running into big game. A big group of old bachelor Buffalo decided they wanted to cross the road in front of us at one point. I was amazed at the sheer bulk of them. They were massive. At one stage crossing the road they stared at us in the car for ages! It was class. I’d say we would be in serious trouble if we were on foot around them. They looked real mean! Still no cats though so we headed up a little bit more in a Northerly direction.

We decided to take a diversion and head to a waterhole and we were looking for anything interesting to be honest. We ended getting really lucky and spotted three Lions. A big male and 2 females. They looked relaxed and it looked like they were well fed. We saw the reason why a few seconds later. I’ve attached a cool picture of their dinner the night before. It’s amazing in Africa, nothing goes to waste.

We stopped off for some lunch along the way and headed back out for the afternoon very refreshed. We spent a good bit of time driving around not seeing much and then as we were all getting a little disinterested we spotted the piece de resistance! A beautiful male Leopard in the grass right beside the road. What a beauty! It completed my “Big 5,” and I was so happy! The Leopard was so chilled out. A number of cars pulled over to view the cat as well and one moron wouldn’t turn off his engine for ages. This particular dummies car then started to make these outrageous alarm sounds for a while. The guys in the car were all so pissed off and it took our focus off the Leopard for a while. He had enough of the attention after a while and fecked off further back off to road to get away from us. I’ve attached a lovely picture of him. These guys are a very rare sighting so we felt very lucky! Just before leaving we spotted a massive herd of Elephant coming back from drinking at the river. It was cool to see all the babies. One big male slowed us up on our way back home and it was gas, I was kind of cursing him inside for slowing us down in our rush to get to the gate!


Then we had to come to a complete halt when up ahead the two sides of the road was blocked up with traffic. We couldn’t see what they were viewing until we literally nearly could reach out and touch a massive White Rhino. This was too easy!
We came gunning down the road after seeing the Rhino. We had paused just long enough for him to walk perfectly into the range of our lenses. Then after getting some super shots and hightailing it we presumed we weren’t going to make it to the gate. We came down the hill towards the Orpen gate and the guy at the gate was literally just pulling it across to close the station for the night. We were steeped as there are big fines for people who don’t make it out of the Park in time! So a perfect end to a great day! They were all saying we had the luck of the Irish and for once I had to agree!

Another super day in Africa!

Day 19

Today began with our first exam of the trip. Pretty tough and I'm not sure whether I passed it. It won't be corrected for a while anyway. TIA or time in Africa as they call it here.

We headed to a Bush pub for the night called “in Da Bos,“ which in Afrikaans means “In the Bush.” It was the strangest pub I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in a few strange pubs in my time. The bar was built on sticks and it is built beside a watering hole where huge Croc’s and Hippo live. Not a place where you’d want to go and relieve yourself in a drunken stupor I can tell ya!! The bar owner was a seriously mountainy man and I know a few mountainy bar owners! It was like something out of the film Deliverance and I was seriously waiting for some mental case to crank up on the Banjo!

The craic was mighty though and the guys all got steaming drunk. I volunteered to be the “Dessie,” for the night so no scoops for me. We played a bit of pool and made sure we got well fed! College food is not great and to be honest the we are always hungry. Anyway after destroying a nice bit of steak and chips we finished off the night with a few rounds of “ Jaeger Bombs, “ and headed home.

In Africa you don’t stop on the roads for anyone even if they have a flashing light on top of the car. With this in mind, we came to a car broken down with a seriously dodgy looking guy standing to the side of the car. I decided to gun the car on the other side of the road. Anybody who has seen the film “Tsotsi,” will know what I mean. In Africa red lights and men standing on the side of the road mean go!!

Day 18

Not much happened today as it was a school day. We were in class by 8 and did 9 hours of class. I did get a beautiful sunset though outside the college that evening!

Day 17

Man it’s hard to get up a quarter to five!!! It’s even harder when the local Hyaena’s are laughing and howling all night. We still haven’t seen them yet but they seem to be close to the fence line at night. I’m looking forward to seeing them. So I’m driving the vehicle today. My first drive in about 3 weeks and in an old school Diesel Land Rover. It takes a bit of getting used to but it’s grand after a while. Mind you, you have to remember that they are people in the back seats! I think I nearly launched a few people from the back seat this morning. There were a few complaints anyway so I eased off the gas.

We were tipping away nicely anyway and I had to skid to a halt to view a herd of Buffalo. I’d say there were about 50 in the herd. It was amazing the way they were all standing in a circle with the calves in the middle. It was like a big phalanx of horns and testosterone. I pity any lion that has to try and kill one of them. They are mean looking and it’s no wonder they have a bad reputation for aggression against people. The old Bulls are the worst. They tend to stay a little bit away from the herd. They tend to stare out you directly trying to work out whether you’re a threat and then decide what to do. If they don’t like the look of you then they will attack and they don’t just mock charge you out of bravado. They have been rumoured to wait for people that have climbed tree’s to escape from their horns until the person is too weak and falls out and then kill them. Apparently the Shangaan call them the “Dacha Boys,” or Old Cranky Men. Actually I know a few of my uncles are a bit like that!

We drove on and looked for the Cheetah family but to no avail. We saw some more Bull Elephant’s though and it’s a bit unnerving to drive a Land Rover so close to a monster of an animal. I have a few good shots of my tracker Kevin ( A lad from Glasgow ) and the elephant. Well actually I don’t, I was too worried about getting the vehicle out of there in case the Bull decided to take exception to our presence. I guess I weighed up a good shot or self preservation! By the way, the Bull did decide to give us a fright and mock charged us at one stage. Kev on the tracker seat was told to stay put and don't make any sudden moves! As Pete and the lads would say, he had to check for stains after!!

Were off to Kruger National Park on Sunday so I’m looking forward to seeing my first wild Cat of some sort. We heard Lion yesterday morning roaring from close to the College but we can’t go to the area and investigate until we get the go ahead from the Reserve manager. Apparently he’s on holiday for 3 weeks so unless the Lions come to us we won’t be seeing them in the Timbavati for a while. We’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled until then. It’s gonna be great when we finally get to do some walking trails without the vehicle. That’s when we experience real nature.

Day 16

Well you know the old expression of “when ya gotta, go ya gotta go.” Well this happened to one of the guys yesterday. I couldn’t think of a more uncomfortable time to have to use the toilet than to have to use it out in the bush. We had just finished a nice cup of Rooibos tea and the dawn sun was just breaking through the treeline. We heard a low rumble from not far away. We then saw a Big Bull Elephant coming crashing through the trees heading for us. I don’t know whether this brought on the urge to use the toilet but we had to high tail it to a safer area for Moses and his call of nature. Moses survived the experience I’m glad to say though!

It must have been our lucky day because as we were stopping for a Bateleur Eagle sighting, Sean spotted something big moving to the North of us. We rely fairly heavily on the guys with the best eyesight in the group and Citi and Dee spotted a beautiful big male Rhino. (White) All I will say is holy God, the size of the thing. It was huge. I’d say easily over 2,000 KG. It’s foot print should give you the scale of the animal. It truly is massive. It looks like a big Brute, all power and probably not very smart. I’m delighted to have seen him. They normally rely on their sense of smell and hearing as their eyesight, like mine isn’t very good. It’s another one of the so called “Big 5,“ off my list. The “Big 5,” it’s believed were so named because they were considered by hunters to be the most dangerous animals in Africa. So I’ve seen Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino. I’m delighted we didn’t see all these animals in one day. I think that the fast food “Big 5,” suit some people but I think when you realize just how rare sightings of these animals are then you appreciate them more.

We came back to the College to relate our stories and boast about our good luck. The other group though were grinning from ear to ear when we came back. What had they seen? They were like big kids with a great secret and wouldn’t tell! In the end they let the “cat out of the bag,” so pardon the pun. They saw 4 Cheetah. A female and her 3 cubs. They got some great photo’s as well as they were very close. Now we have a mission for our game drive tomorrow. Look for Cheetah spoor and see if we can track them! They are a very rare sighting around here so my fingers are crossed but we’re not very hopeful of spotting them. Roll on 5 O’Clock……….