A Walk in the Bush

Ok so I decided to go for a walk today with Dave as he has to scout out the area for snares.  Dave told me to bring some comfortable footwear, which were well worn in; and he actually picked out this old pair of trainers from the back of my cupboard when we were packing my bag.  Well I put them on today and just when I was thinking they were a good idea as they felt like slippers; the plastic that went across the top of the shoe snapped off on both shoes.  Never fear, Dave was on hand to fix them with a couple of cable ties fixed together. 

We were both thinking he was pretty clever and we started off on our walk.  So we got passed all the tents and a troop of monkeys and Dave gave me a pet talk on how to use the rifle in case of emergency and to stay close to him and keep my eyes open.  Well I went a few more spaces and then my nerves got the better of me.  It's the long grass that does it, I'm just petrified I'm going to stand on a snake.

So Dave walked me back passed the troop of monkeys and I walked the rest from there on my own.  David must be exasparated with me but I thought I'd done pretty well at least I can walk back and forth from the tent to the dining room on my own now, which I couldn't do yesterday.  We're just going to have to take baby steps.  Or we could have done if my whole shoe hadn't fallen apart on the way back to the tent.  Of course I'm relieved but I also feel a bit guilty because I really should try to get used to walking around the bush.

Dave got back from his walk and he said it was a good job I hadn't gone with him because the bush was over 10ft high and he almost ran into three ellies.  So he decided to come back and he was really itchy from the buffalo beans.  So I don't feel so bad about not going.  He also said that the ellies were on their way towards us so I got quite excited about that.

After an hour of waiting we decided to go and see if we could meet the ellies on their way.  We took our cameras and Dave took his rifle and this time I was a bit braver and went a bit further out of the camp and I was only wearing flip flops.  I decided that if I kept on talking and asking Dave questions I would forget about being scared.  It worked to a certain extent.  We found leopard spoor, which was very groovy and ellie foot prints. 

We saw a red bishop, which is a cute little jet black and red bird and Dave was telling me all the different birds by their calls and I'm starting to learn some of them.  So I was starting to feel a lot more comfortable being in the bush.

Then suddenly we heard a deep flapping sound fairly close by.  Dave then recognised the sound of the ellies passing wind!!  Dave didn't want us to get stuck on the wrong side of the ellies when he knew I was nervous so we back tracked towards the camp.  Dave stopped by another grassy path and signalled for me to wait there while he went to investigate.  He then got all excited and came back for me because I wasn't very keen to walk through the long grass on my own and then I saw this little bull  elephant and I forgot about the grass because he was pretty awesome and so close.  He had small tusks, which Dave guessed were about 15lbs each and he was about 10years old.  He was very nonchalant just munching his way through the day.  We didn't hang around to see the others as they were moving very slowly through the thick bush.  It was also getting dark so we decided to head back.  On our way back the monkeys were being rounded up by their elders for bed as they roost in the trees at night.  You can hear the little ones nattering away until you hear a loud bark from the troop leader and then silence.
There were a couple of hippos yawning away in the river as we passed and we even had a scorpian in our bathroom when we went for a shower.  So all in all quite a lot of animal activity going on today.  By the way David quickly dissected the scorpian so hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight.  Oh and I almost forgot we saw a Leguaan, pronounced Legovan, which is Africaans for Water Monitor.  Very creapy looking thing but thankfully it wasn't very big.