Bush adventures

15th March: Our first solo walk!

Bruce made our day yesterday when he told Marianne and I that we could go out walking on our own. The only prerequisite is that we have we to take one of the other back-up's who have their Lead guide qualification already. He said we must practise leading and backing up, and that we are also to carry live rounds - exciting! So this morning, we set out on our first walk, Myself, Marianne and Lorenzo (a back up here for a month from his guiding job in Tanzania to get some extra walking experience). We walked from camp into the Fever Tree forest which is one of my favourite walks and had some fantastic sightings. We were stalking zebra and practising approaches when all of a sudden a hyena emerged from the bushes across the pan in front of us. We froze then edged slowly to a nearby Lala Palm, where we crouched down low. To our surprise, another 6 hyena followed the first one out into the open and they were all headed straight for us. They must have got to within 20m before they smelt us and turned and ran, but it was such an exciting encounter and for sure probably the hyena sighting of he year! After that on the way back to camp we bumped a huge herd of Eland in the Lala Palm pan and did some more practise approaches, creeping slowly and quietly, using bushes for concealment to  get to the best view point possible. Although not a big 5 animal, it was brilliant being able to practise such a valuable skill. 

Spotted hyena's crossing the pan just 20m in front of us

22nd March: Anti poaching

Today we got set an anti poaching task, to do a sleepout with the aim of putting in a presence along the Limpopo River to deter Zimbabwians and poachers coming across. We have a big problem at the moment particularly with fishing on the reserve, which is of course counted as poaching too, as it is illegal to remove anything from a national park, including plants, animals and fish. Since the floods, a lot of the pans which we previously dry are now full and teeming with fish, so there is a big draw for the Zimbabweans to swim across the Limpopo to catch fish on this side to take home and sell. Bruce walked recently in the Makwadzi area and caught a large group fishing - he fired a shot into the bank next to them and they went tearing off. He said that by us walking and camping in the area that they may be deterred from coming across, so sleepout and walk there we did. 

Setting out for our sleepout along the Limpopo. L to R: Lorenzo, Marianne, Willem (with 3 stitches in his leg having had a huge acacia thorn surgically removed the day before), Me, Dan Fenton

Crossing the Limpopo!

Having walked the pans, we found a beautiful spot on the banks of the Limpopo to set up camp, making sure we were high enough to be out of reach from a flash flood (don't laugh, an ecoTraining group camped in the dry riverbed there last year and got caught in a flash flood in the middle of the night and lost half their things, including a rifle, which belief it or not they have since found!). Camp set up and wood collected, I was itching to explore the river and having seen so many Zimbabweans cross, the though of standing on Zimbabwean soil (mainly for you, Dad) was just too tempting! So Dan and I told the others we were going to "pop to Zimbabwe" and we'd be back soon! Well we waded a good 3/4 of the way across when it started to get very deep and given that during the recent flood some 3000 crocs were freed into the Limpopo, we decided not to risk it and swim, and conceded that upon reaching 3/4 of the way across the river that we were surely on the Zimbabwian side, so settled at that! It was a fun adventure and lots of laughs, and Dad I feel I can now say that I've been to your home country!

Me in Zimbabwe (just about - it's behind me - this one is for you Dad!)

Later on that evening, relaxing and chatting around the fire, we heard a bizarre sound coming from the river, it sounded like gushing water. We rushed to the banks edge to see a herd of some 150 buffalo crossing the river from Zimbabwe to our side! It was quite strange, they came across, then slept on the waters edge for a few hours, before returning back, only to cross yet again in the early hours of the morning to feed in the Makwadzi Pan! Quite incredible. 

25th March: Playing chess with elephants

Today Marianne and I walked with Jonha Turner, a very nice man who spends a lot of time at Makuleke, who has been tracking and researching the flood damage and its effects on animals and plants in the concession, since the first major flood in 2000. We walked from Mashisiti spring to Hutweni gorge via Mangeba, a walk just short of 7 hours. He taught us loads about grasses and vegetation and we helped him photograph and take notes of plant species in different areas. He wanted to see to what extent the grass had recovered in those areas following the most recent floods - some areas were doing better than others. In the Mangeba area, there is still no grass and the area looks more like a desert with dunes, especially with over half of the tree's destroyed and washed away, its terribly sad. 

Still a lot of signs of flood morning in Hutweni

As with most things, you always find what your not looking for, and on our way to Mangeba from Mashisiti Spring, we caught up to a huge breeding herd of elephants. We had seen their tracks and fresh dung along our path, and by feeling the dung noticed that it was getting warmer and warmer, so we knew we were getting close. Suddenly we heard rustling in the bushes ahead, and across the whole horizon elephants were feeding in the Mopane thicket. We climbed to a point of elevation to get a better look, and tried to see which way the herd was heading. In the middle of the drainage line was the main herd, mostly distinguishable just by rustling tree's, and on the edges the bulls lurked. We watched them for sometime, but then needed to find a way to pass! Jonha suggest we backtrack a few hundred metres, then re-route and hug the ridge on our left. We headed that way, and along the ridge we turned a corner and nearly walked straight into a bull elephants bum! We froze and backtracked again, and had to stop and think. It was a long way around to try the other side, and we decided it was safer to take on the males then the main herd in the Mopane. So we tried a new path, leading in between the outside bull and herd on our right. A few meters down there we herd and saw the rustling of a tree just a few meters to our right...another male! Again we froze and back tracked a few meters, and in doing so, the bull that was on our outside on the ridge side suddenly popped out of the bushes just meters in front of us. We all froze, both him and us, and he stared at us trying to decide what we were! He must have decided we were uninteresting, because after taking a few steps toward us, he walked off at pace to join his buddy that we'd also just bumped. It was like chess, we move, they move, all of us trying not to get taken! His move from the ridge meant that now (hopefully) the ridge line was clear, so we re-routed up there and finally made it past the herd. It was an amazing encounter, and Marianne and I got a valuable lesson on how to get past big herds of elephants when you can't see them because they're all hidden in the bushes! 

Walking into the male elie's bum!

27th March: Tracking rhino

Last night we went on an evening drive along Rhino Boma road near crooks corner to look for signs of Rhino. They havn't been seen on the reserve in some time, and we'd heard reports that rhino tracks had been seen in that area so we went to check it out. Indeed we found some very recent ones, so made a plan to go back the next morning to find the freshest ones and try to track the rhino down. We started at sunrise this morning and spent a brilliant 3 hours tracking spoor. Some of the tracks were easy to follow, like when they were in sand, but at other times it was really tough, like though long grass or on gravel. We managed to keep on the trail for a good 4km, but had to call it a morning after 3 hours as we had to get back to camp. It was amazing tracking experience, and although disappointed that we didn't find the rhino (they sure make any poachers work hard!) we still had fun. We ended up bumping two different herds of buffalo though on the way home which was really cool - never a dull moment in the bush!

Marianne, Lorenzo and me during our rhino tracking walk

31st March: Running the gauntlet; return of the giants

What an absolutely incredible walk we had this afternoon in the fever tree forest. We set out late afternoon, our group of three intrepid explorer back-up's, to do some birding and see what the forest could offer us. We whiled most of the afternoon away stopping often for birds and tracks, and realised after a time that the sun was beginning to set and that we still had a way to go to get to our point of pick up at Nhlangaluwe Pan on Middle road. Well needless to say we never arrived at our pre-planned destination due to a series of very exciting events! It started with us admiring a great herd of Kudu mixed in with Impala and Nyala, and Marianne's fly-away comment about how perfect it would be if there was buffalo too. Lorenzo suddenly piped up with "mamma mia buffalo" (in a very sexy italian accent), and there in the pan ahead was a large breeding herd of buffalo. Sun setting fast, we had to make a swift decision as to whether to turn back to get back to camp or press on and to try get passed them before they reached the pan in front. Wind was in our favour and sun setting to our back, and the herd was moving slowly, so we decided to try and cross in front of them. Creeping quietly and ensuring we stayed behind solid fallen trees and vegetation, we moved past the herd. I, as back-up, kept a close eye on them, it was me watching them watching us.

The buffalo in the fever tree forest

Almost passed the buff, we saw a big herd of Eland which unfortunately saw us and spooked (beware of secondary disturbances), which scared the buffalo a bit, but we were safe behind a fallen tree and all was well. Having passed the buffalo and watched the Eland run off, we stopped to think, hearts pumping, when all of a sudden we saw a heard of Elephant moving through the tall grass in Lala Palm pan ahead of us, moving straight in our direction. With it being to close to sunset, we had hoped to try to cross the pan at this point, but now the elies blocked our path. Buffalo behind and elies infront, we were almost trapped. Some speeding thinking from Lorenzo saw us move diagonally into the fever tree forest, taking a wide berth around the elephants. It was absolutely fantastic to see the herd, the first breeding herd seen in the area for a long time - it was just such a shame not to be able to stay and watchthem for longer. Dusk falling, we hurried on towards Nhlangaluwe, the original crossing point. As we neared the pan, we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw a second breading herd of buffalo, atleast 40 of them crossing the open plain. They were moving swiftly towards our crossing point and blocked yet another of our paths home. It was way to late to turn back, and with both elephants and buffalo behind us, there was no going back.

You can just see the heads of the elies in the tall grass

We saw Bruce on the other side of the pan waiting to pick us up, some 500m away. I climbed a fallen to tree to get a view from an elevated point to try and see if there were any more buffalo in the tall grass, with the idea to try and cross behind them. We radio'd Bruce who had a better view to ask if he could see anything and get clearance and advice from him to cross the open plain (usually it is not at all safe to walk in open pans you have no cover should an animal chose to charge), however with the sun almost set we had little options left. He gave us the go-ahead that it was clear and we hot footed it across the pan. We made it safely to the other side with and Bruce was waiting with a cooler box of sundowner drinks, which we devoured immediately and filled him in on our epic adventure in the fever tree forest. Absolutely amazing walk, fantastic encounters and brilliant lessons leart. Winner...absolute winner! 

Bumping the buff in the fever tree forest

4th April: My pet baby squirrel

Our baby squirrel...I named him Mousy!

A few days ago, Lorenzo and I rescued a baby squirrel that we found abandoned in the garage. We left him there for a few days as didn't want to take it straight away as sometimes the babies fall out of their nest and the mother comes down to rescue them. After 4 days though, we started to feel really sorry for the little guy, so found a shoe box and adopted him. He is the most adorable thing I've ever seen - absolutely tiny but with such a little personality. We have to feed him every 3 or so hours, and started on soya milk through a syringe and have progressed to bannana, fruit and nuts. He's coming on leaps and bounds (excuse the pun), and has got so much more energy. I really hope he makes it through this difficult time as it will be brilliant if we can raise him to be released again. For now though, he absolutely loves my pocket and certainly isn't going anywhere anytime soon!

Feeding time! But he prefers to play and run around

Mousy and Lorenzo

Exploring and trying to find my pocket...his favourite place!

6th April: Walking Guide? And the rest!

Although the walking part of my back-up job is the obvious focus, in the last month or so I've learnt a huge amount of just about every other useful skill you ever need to know in this industry. My general maintenance skills have come on ten fold and I've probably learnt much more in that department than walking. Aside from having learnt how to build a wooden deck (including laying foundations, sawing, drilling and putting up the structure, hole filling, sanding and varnishing), I've learnt how to fix and install new boilers/ geysers, fix leaking toilets and taps, how to fix creaky floor boards, how make rounds (bullets), the list goes on. And aside from guide and maintenance "man", I've become a tree feller, gardener, conservationist (alien weed puller), anti poacher, and mechanic. I feel quite proud of all my new skills, can you tell?!

Some cool pics from the last few months....

Walking into Buff can be intimidating!

I have finally accepted that when in the bush it is impossible to keep clean!

View of Lanner Gorge - my new favourite spot on the reserve....just stunning

One of our camping spots on a sleep out - nice see through tents so you can be safe but still sleep under the stars

Nothing better than a camp fire on a sleepout watching sunset

Sun setting down on the Zimbabwean side and the Limpopo River on our anti-poaching sleepout

Waiting for a pick up after our Limpopo sleepout. L to R: Lorenzo, Marianne, Willem, Me and Dan

Lion stalking a hippo...incredible tracks

Me taking in the view during our rhino tracking walk

Golden Orb web spiders mating - the males are tiny in comparison and often get eaten by the huge female afterwards!

One of the vervet monkeys in camp everyday

Impala in camp feeding on the lush grass in relative safety!

Little Bee Eater

Brown hooded kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

Juvenile Martial Eagle 

Old female elie we bumped at Lala Palm Windmill

Zebra trying to find grass in a sea of Datura

Button Quail

Life as a trails guide back up

26th Feb 2013: Start of 6 month lodge placement: Welcome back to Makuleke

Today Marianne and I left Aunty Merry's lovely home in Johannesburg and headed back up to Makuleke to start our lodge placement, where we will be working as Bruce's back-up trail guides for the next 6 months. 

After a long 7 hour drive, we arrived to a very welcoming Bruce, Dee and one of my favourite previous trainers, Rhodes. We had a little time to settle in, then it was lunch and straight out on our first walk. We walked from camp into the Fever Tree forest, which I was shocked to see fairly dry, amazing given how soon after the floods it was, and we managed to walk all the way up to Palm Vlei, a new area for me. We had some fantastic Eland sightings and it was great to see how much game has come back into the area since the floods - a marked difference in the two weeks we've been away. A fantastic welcome back to the bush :)

Eland in the Fever Tree forest

What will happen in the next 6 months is that different EcoTraining courses and groups will come through the camp, some lasting over a month in length, others just a week or even a few days. The courses range from Trails Guide & ARH, EcoQuest (week long introductory course providing an overview to becoming a guide), birding courses, a biomimicry course (modelling modern world technology/ products/ process on those designed by nature e.g. the Eurostar bullet train shape is modelled on a kingfisher beak for aerodynamics), wilderness trails (5 night, 6 days walking and sleeping out under the side) and a few others. On all of these courses, the activities and learning will be out on in the bush walking, and that is where we come in as back-up's. So the great thing is that we get to go on all these other courses and learn so much more, its very exciting. The group that has just started now is a Trails Guide course which couldn't be more perfect given that both Marianne and I still need to do our ARH, so Bruce has said that we will participate in all practise shooting and assessment sessions, allowing us to get that done. Another positive is that unlike our course group of 13, this group is very small, only 6 of them in total, so there is lots of opportunity to shoot and walk. 

The Jordanians

On our arrival, we also met 4 Jordanian students who had stayed behind a few extra days after their course graduated to get some final assessments done. They've been on the year course, sent here by an organisation in Jordan to teach them about the South African safari and nature industry and how to be guides. On their return in a few days time, they will take up their positions in pioneering a huge nature conservation and tourism project in Jordan, using and developing the areas of natural beauty and reserves to build lodges, lay walking trails, train new guides and set about attracting tourists to the area. It's a massive undertaking and a hugely noble task, and we all hope they succeed. I highly recommend everyone visit and see what Jordan has to offer - from what I hear from the group, the nature there is extraordinary. If you'd like to get in touch with them about it, contact Abdullah on wildjordan@hotmail.com. 

L to R: Abdullah Abu'Ramman, Osama Alsomadi, Osama Alrabay'ah and Nadia Alalul

27th Feb 2013: The dreaded rubbish run

They didn't waste time on sending me out on my first rubbish run! Luckily I had Dan with me to show me the ropes. The usual run is to load the trailer with all the rubbish (6 massive full wheely bins, plus excess rubbish and cardboard), empty gas bottles (19kg and 48kg) and a selection of approx. 6-15 diesel and petrol 20L fuel tanks. You drive about 45 mins to get out the concession gate, then another hour or so to get to the dump - it's miles away! You have to offload the rubbish, switch gas bottles to get full ones, re-fill the petrol tanks, check the mail in "town" (a one stop shop), and buy anything you're asked to at the little shop. It takes about 5 hours in total, and the hardest thing without a doubt is all the lifting - I hope I'm going to get stronger in the next 6 months, because I really struggled this time round! Still, it wasn't a terrible job, it was quite nice being out on your own and the biggest bonus of all - getting phone signal!

Rubbish run done, it was back to camp for brunch and lunch, then in the afternoon I got to go for a walk - its not all bad here. We drove up to Manqueba Road and walked around Jachacha Pan - another new area for me. The birding was great and we had another fantastic sighting of a large herd of Eland - brilliant. We had drinks back at the vehicle on top of the hill watching the sunset, which is always magical in Africa. On the drive home in the dark, I saw my first ever Civet, sitting right in the middle of Pafuri Road - I thought it was a Honey Badger to begin with - absolutely beautiful animal. We also saw two Spotted Eagle Owls also sitting in the road, so cool. For the rest of the drive my head was tilted backwards looking at the stars and the milky way. Another fantastic day in Africa!

You can never tire of the sunsets in Africa

28th Feb 2013: Extreme gardening

You'll like this entry Mom - it's about gardening! And I'm not talking a small patch of gardening, or even in-camp gardening...I'm talking mass scale weeding! Since the floods, we've had an alien plant species that has been introduced to the area and gone crazy - it's everywhere. It's called Datura, and although it has very pretty white-purple trumpet flower, it's awful stuff and within a few days will cover an entire area and crowd out all the indigenous plants. So today, Marianne and I got set the task to pull all of the Datura out between camp and Middle Road, along the access road and beyond. Luckily, the soil is still fairly soft so the leafy green plant comes out, root and all, with just a tug. Nevertheless, it's back breaking work, and after 5 hours pulling them in the baking African sun, we were absolutely exhausted, not to mention covered head to toe in soil, dirt and scratches! It is mildly rewarding when you look at the area you've just cleared and it's gone from a sea of Datura green to lovely red African soil, but then you look up and beyond a little more and see it for as far as the eye can see it is a bit demoralising. Humph, I have a feeling this is not going to be a one day, or even one week job! Little and often we've been advised though, so anticipate me now grumbling about this horrible stuff for months to come!

The afternoon brightened up some what when I had time to go for a little run, which you'll all know pleased me no-end, then after lunch we got to do some dry rifle practise to re-enforce our drills before going to the range. The dry practise went well and I felt much more comfortable with the rifle by the end of it - I'll whisper that I may even a tiny little bit be looking forward to going to the range again - thats a GIANT step forward for me!

13th March 2013: 

Time has flown, as it tends to out here, and so much has happened.  By far the most exciting development is that I have passed my ARH shooting assessment, whooooo! Sure, it took a few attempts, however better late than never, and better safe than botched, so I'm over the moon. Bruce told Marianne and I that he will be taking us to the range a lot still to do some more "fun and practical" shooting - some running around and shooting, backpacks on, crawling around on the ground etc, sounds like a jol. The best thing of all now is that we can start logging our back-up hours, all contributing to our Lead Trails Guide assessment, for which you need a minimum of 100 backup hours and 50 encounters.  So the count begins!

Walk camp to Crooks Corner: 12 hours, 20km

Walking to Crooks Corner

One of the highlight walks of the last few weeks was an epic hike we did from camp to Crooks Corner. We were very lucky with the weather, it was overcast all day, and we left from camp at the crack of dawn, crossing into the fever tree forest and followed the Limpopo down all the way to the Zimbabwe & Mozambique border. 

Gourmet lunch in the Jackelberry forest

The walk itself was stunning, taking in open pans and huge water holes to fever tree, jackal berry and riverine forests, acacia and mopane shrubvelds and huge open grasslands. We had a brilliant lunch break and half an hour nap in the Jackelberry Forest (we all bought a roll mat) which was much needed after 6 hours walking. It was most disheartened to see how much Datura there was about though, it was just everywhere, sea's of the stuff taking over everything, just horrible. It's hard to know even how to begin clearing it, I struggle to see how man power alone can tackle the problem...I suppose it is one for the conservationists to tackle. Meanwhile though, we had far more exciting things to distract us; we kept a bird list that totalled over 130 species by the end, including a Bat Hawk, Cuckoo Hawk, Lemon breasted canary, Dwarf Bittern, Grey headed parrots, a Bohmes Spinetail and we were even treated to a very quick glimpse of a Pels fishing owl. We saw a few buffalo and a very tiny hippo calf feeding on the river bank with it's mother...so sweet.  After some 20km and 12 hours of walking, we finally reached Crooks Corner and sat exhausted watching the crocs and African Fish Eagles from the Limpopo River bank - couldn't have been a more perfect end to a really fantastic walk. 

Spot the tiny hippo calf next to it's mother - adorable

The Deck: GPS coordinates South 27°21'27.8 East 31°10'17.8

Needless to say walking as back-up is just one part of our job here, and one of the other big tasks we got set as a group of back-up's (Myself, Marianne, Willem, Dan Fenton, Dan Fincham and Lorenzo) was to build a wooden deck. As part of Bruce reaching 10,000 walking hours (a massive achievement, only a few people ever have reached this figure), it was decided that, after a few years of planning and dreaming by Bruce and Dee, that now was the time to build an extension of their tent balcony. The aim was to get it completed by the 12th March to have a nice venue for the the big 10,000 party. 

Salvaging wood from the Wilderness camp...lots of fun with 
Willem, Lorezo and Marianne

Wilderness Parfuri camp (being declared a write off since being destroyed by the recent flood) provided a perfect source of wood and slats. And so the epic two week project commenced, starting with digging and laying foundations, followed by some hilarious trips to Wilderness to find and steal entire wooden decks that had been washed away by the floods. We spent some painful and very hot hours scraping out the filler in the deck before finding the screw heads to remove screws to take the whole thing apart, only to then have to re-build it to size! Planks and support poles ready, it was time for the deck to start looking like deck. Hardly professionals, occasionally the pole alignment was a bit off due to some people being a bit suspect with their measuring (cough Willem) and a few planks cut far too short (cough Dan), but overall as it took shape, it started looking amazing. 

Willem sawing some of the slats

As it took more and more structure, ideas and demands "from the top" grew as each day passed; a wine corner please, maybe a braai area, ledge bar tops running around the whole deck for drinks, a dancing pole in the centre (Willem!), an area at the end for a table, space for storage, etc, and it soon became a running joke. Construction manager Willem however took command, managed his clients expectations well and directing us accordingly. Union breaks were plentiful, and worker motivation was high. When Dan started breaking all the power tools and the generator and nearly cut his 

finger off with the grinder, he got banned from power tool use and Bruce promoted him to site manager instead. He got provided with a clipboard and pencil and was put on probation until his power tool skills returned.

Decking around... Dan Fenton (sitting and banned from tools), Willem (working) and Dan Fincham (posing)

Construction team hard at work!

I will say now, that Granddad you taught me well in the woodwork and design department because my tool use and knowledge was excellent by comparison- I even had the boys complaining that I was using "complicated technical terms" for the tools... also know as the correct names! My sawing and power tool ability most definitely came in use, as did my ability to re-measure things correctly that other people failed to do right (haha Dan). The project came to an end just in time for the big opening, and Bruce and Dee were invited for an inspection. It was all going well until they found a plastic chair under the deck that looked like it was supporting the whole thing and they nearly had a heart attack. After some very worried looks between themselves, they called a urgent meeting with the site manager and building team, during which reassurance was given, the chair removed (it was just under there by chance and did not play a supporting role), the deck continued to stand and they breathed a sigh of relief. 

Decking done, it was time for the slats to be cut to size and screwed in. Dan Fenton (still not using power tools)

Starting to look awesome! Dan and Marianne working hard

The big inspection with Bruce and Dee

Huge thumbs up were given, workmanship and effort praised and rewarded with beer, wine and chocolate, and all of a sudden it was time for the big strength test. For Bruce's 10,000 party, some 20 people ascended onto the deck for a braai, drinks and lots of dancing. There was knee sliding, jumping around, some hilarious soekie (traditional afrikaans dance), and lots of drinking out of Bruce's Veld skoene (leather bush shoes - a tradition). A certain someone even tested the stair case by falling (more than once) both up and down it (Byrand). Overall, the Deck did amazingly well and was deemed a great success...there was only one massive crack during the evening, which we found out the next morning was a support beam snapping in two...whoops...sub-par quality wood from wilderness, not our fault....

The experience overall was brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed both the construction of the deck and the party afterwards. I have decided that if guiding doesn't work out i'll become a carpenter and build lodges instead!

Willem fixing the crack in the support beam the morning after the party