A Wilderness Trail

One of the courses EcoTraining runs is a "wilderness skills course", aka a 5 night sleepout in the bush, where you carry just a roll mat to sleep on, and all your food and supplies for 6 days. In those 6 days, you have the opportunity to completely submerge yourself in nature and the bush, walking and encountering game by day and sleeping out by a fire at night. I was lucky enough to be asked to back up Alan McSmith, my elephant guru mentor, which I was absolutely thrilled about! With us on the trail, we were joined by his son and three other guests - a lovely lady from Australia, a gentleman from Germany and another from Belgium.  

Day 1: Mashisiti Quarry - Mashisiti spring

My equipment

We met the guests at Pafuri gate at midday, Dee dropped us off shortly after at Mashisiti quarry, from where we set off on our journey. Carrying 6 days of food and 6 litres of water plus one of the heavier rifles, I wondered how I was going to manage six days! We walked the short way to the spring, where we found a flat spot right on the top of a koppie overlooking the spring below. We unfortunately saw the two poached rhino's, which was horrible but good for the guests to see, and without a doubt helped to spread the message of "save the rhino's". Despite cleverly planning ahead and doubling up on bed rolls, sleeping on the rocks that night was still pretty uncomfortable! Al said it was the first test of the trail! But we made a nice fire, and each person had to keep watch for two hors in rotation - keeping an eye out for predators and keeping the fire stoked the whole night. It was a good opportunity to be alone with your thoughts, and also just enjoy the bush and nature on your own - something we rarely have the opportunity to do these days. 

Collecting water at Mashisiti spring...yummy!

Day 2: Mashisiti to Malgala

Day two was a tough walk in thick sand, but brightened up with some cool sightings, including a buffalo encounter on the way. We camped right on the river bank overlooking the hippo's, and were treated to another awesome sighting of a huge breeding herd of buffalo coming down to drink at the river. We had a surprise thunderstorm in the middle of the night, which for a while i tried to pretend would pass quickly, but after 5 mins of rain, my equipment and I got very wet, and I decided to follow the others and dash to the nearest tree for cover. I spent the next 2 hours volunteering to be night watchman so I could dry myself and my sleeping bag out on the fire!! 

Walking into buffalo

Herd of buffalo come to drink at the Levuvhu River

Day 3: Mangala to Hutweni Gorge

Todays trail was brilliant - it started with seeing tracks of an injured elephant - you could see him limping and dragging his foot, and how much deeper set the other tracks were showing how he was putting extra weight on the un-injured leg. We decided not to follow his tracks as he was undoubtedly stressed, but it was interesting to see none the less. We saw heaps of game on the way to Hutweni gorge, including nice saddle bill storks around the pan system. We found a place to camp not far from the gorge mouth, and nestled into a koppie side next to a big game trail, with a deep gully separating us for safety. 

Collecting water in the Levuvhu

As it didn't take us too long to get to our camping spot, we decided to dump our packs at camp and take an afternoon bumble to see what we could find, and also collect water. We were treated to an awesome elie sighting at the Luvuvhu river - he was on the other side of the bank having a drink, then scrambled up the bank, dust bathed, fed and wondered on. Back at camp that evening with night nearly fallen, I heard a crack and looked up to see a few buffalo descending over the cliff and down along the game path opposite our camp. I told everyone to sit down and still, but it was too late and they saw us, stampeding back up the hill the way they had come. Exciting sight though, and we sure all kept extra vigilant on our night watches that night!!

Pan at the entrance to Hutweni Gorge where we saw the Saddle Bill storks

Day 4: Hutweni to Nwambi pan

Day 4 was the longest walk of the trip - we walked all the way from Hutweni gorge to Nwambi Pan - a good 6 hours walk. Today was undoubtedly the "elephant day", starting with seeing a huge old elie carcass on the floodplain. Al gave us a lesson in anatomy and we could really study the brain and see its honey comb design. The carcass was enormous, and it was fascinating to study the giant up close. We're not sure of the cause of death, but assume illness or natural death, as it would be very unlikely any predator would take down an elephant of that size. Needless to say, since passing it had been heavily scavenged, but enough remained for us to spending a good while studying the different parts of it. 

Elephant carcass

Al giving us an anatomy lesson

A few hours later, nearing Nwamb Pani, we had an "alan" elephant encounter. In front maybe 300m, we spotted a big ball walking towards us on our same path. Al told us to sit down, and the bull walked right up to us, max 15m away. The wind and sun were in our favour and the elephant still didn't know we were there, so Al tapped some branches with a stick just to get his attention. He looked up suddenly, got a bit of a fright I think, then made a little detour around our group and continued on his way. Exhilarating.

The bull elephant on his path to us...

...and right on top of us!

Al stuck in the mud at Nwambi, helped out my Jake and Millie

We camped that night under a huge mahogany tree high on one of the banks of Nwambi Pan. We spent much of the evening laughing at Al who got stuck in the mud trying to collect water from the pan and who had to be rescued by his son Jake, who later found a more innovative way of collecting water.  Needless to say we never even drank the water, even most chemical cleaning because it was so murky! 

A more innovative way to collect water...Jake and Al

Day 5: Nwambi Pan to Limpopo

Sunrise over Nwambi Pan - can't capture the beauty

Undoubtedly the best morning of the trail...I was on sunrise watch, and I sat on the banks of Nwambi Pan watching the sun come over the lip of the horizon, the mist lift off the pan, the birds wake up and the light reflect off the water, it was such a special moment. The only thing it made me think of though was how lonely it can be in the bush without your family and friends - to witness such a beautiful thing and have no one close to share it with, I though that was quite sad. But never the less a very special moment. Later the excitment continued when we rounded a corner to come face to face with the biggest heard of buffalo I have ever seen! We moved to the cover and safety of a big Baobab tree at the foot of a koppie and watched the 400 strong herd move past us. 

We camped that night of the banks of the Limpopo river, not far from Crooks corner, feeling very much like the old explorers and hunters that came through the region back in the day, with a sense of achievement and feeling of intense closeness to nature. We thought back to the days of Cecil Bernard, how he and his men often camped along the Limpopo, and the stories we know of that time. We enjoyed our first real wash of the trip in the clear running water of the river and reflected on the last 5 days of trail, agreeing that it had indeed, been an experience of a lifetime. 

Another morning in the bush!