Up at four thirty. Hmm. stood on the mosquito netting and broke the bit of bamboo holding it up on my side of the bed, der. It’s only a bit of bamboo. Should be easily replaceable!
It’s an early start but you don’t sleep much in the bush. It’s a survival thing. You sleep you die. Horribly. Bush dwellers are constantly on the alert, except for elephants who are the real kings of the jungle and fear nothing. Elephants might chase off lions if they think they are being a pest to other animals.
Back sat on the verandah with binoculars, laptop and book. I’m reading Masters of the Air upon which the new TV series is based but which I won’t be watching as the reviews are not brilliant. The book is not particularly an easy read but I’m ploughing through it.
The game drive this morning was again successful with a large herd of elephants, zebras and giraffes being the main attractions. We also stopped at a termite mound with an open top. This is known as a chimney and when you hold your hand above the opening you can feel the heat rising. Millions of termites produce a lot of body heat. We also saw dwarf mongeese and the usual loads of impala. No shortage of wildlife here.
At the end of the drive instead of returning to the lodge for food we rocked up at a spot in the bush for an outdoor breakfast. Great. Hannah is now having her usual kip and I’m ritin, following a dip in the infiniti pool.
I am the only hotel guest in sight plus one or two members of staff quietly going about their business.
The silk shirts I had made in Chiang Mai have come into their own here in the bush. Today the temperatures are again on the rise. The silk is lightweight and very suited to the heat. At noon the temperature is thirty four/feels like thirty eight. The hottest part of the day is nearer four pm.
We are half way through the safari and have three nights left in South Africa. Didn’t feel like yesterday when we are exclaiming that we still had twelve days to go.
Dozed a little and went to the Gallery to chat with Joe and THG. The Gallery is one of the few places with wifi connectivity and is where I go to backup my pics. This morning I overdosed on videos and they took ages to back up. My phone says only 152GB storage used out of a TB. If I filled the phone with photos I’d need th by more Google storage.
It is heating up. Difficult to believe that explorers of yore would carry on in this weather. Keep going Caruthers. We stop to make camp in four hours. Roger that Blenkinsop. By God it’s hot sir.
Before we came I invested in a proper safari outfit. I must say it has proved its worth. I was a bit usure of this as all the promotional videos showed punters in shorts and tshirts but in my book covering up is the name of the game. I look the part.
One of the nice bits about the evening drive is the stop for sundowners around an hour out of the lodge. Last night it was at a lake where we were fortunate to see hippos in action plus crocs and baboons. Our guide jeremy showed a video taken that moring of an impala being chased into the lake by wild dogs. The impala was eaten by a croc. That’s life Jim. Eat or die.
The safari life is so far removed from reality back home it is really difficult to get your brain around. Cape Town, Franschhoek, Hermanus, ok were westernised places a long way from home. The experience had an element of the exotic but it wasn’t a million miles away from what we are used to.
The bush is a different ballgame. Just watching an eagle or simlar circling effortlessly around 150m in front of the verandah. A beautiful creature looked at through my binoculars. Small birds have scattered in panic. The noise of fans sounds like helicopters hovvering above our heads.
True luxury this without being over the top.
…
We were treated to a thunderstorm shortly after lunch. Strangely, no rain just thunder. The upshot is that it has cooled nicely. This is shortly after the decision had been made to delay our next game drive by thirty minutes to give the animals a chance to wake up and get moving again.
…
This adventure is getting real. It started to spit as we left the camp but within ten minutes we were driving through a tropical thunderstorm. I started to count the seconds between lightning and thunder and it got to less than one. Ie less than a mile away from the lightning.
That is the point at which we turned back for out own safety and because we couldn’t see anything anyway. We just bent our heads and tried vainly to stop water getting under our ponchos. Everything was soaked except, funnily enough, my phone. Even the inside of my boots were soaked.
I am now showered and sitting drinking beer in the gallery. In front of the fire that Hannah and I had earlier speculated they must light in the winter months. Here we are in high season, in the Kruger, sat in front of a log fire 🙂
In Cape Town I messaged@Mark Fordyce whilst drinking Pina Coladas, his only very occasional tipple. Now we’ve been caught in the rain and very exciting it has been too. Our African adventure continues…