After fishing we spent a couple of hours relaxing in the shade of a tree on the river bank, which was just stunning. There was no one else in sight just DK, Karen, Dave and I.


In the late afternoon we packed up the cars with food and booze and headed into Dave’s old estate to have a braai in the bush. We first went to pay our respects to Dave’s Dad who we’d laid to rest under a Baobab tree next to a beautiful pan with lilies; last year. Quite poetically a herd of elephant cows passed by on the other side of the pan whilst we were toasting Jon. They had two calves with them and one was very tiny. We then drove onto the boundary of the estate by the river and started a fire and watched the sun set. Dave stalked and caught a Nightjar and we hear lions roaring in the distance. I didn’t want to leave it was so beautiful. Unfortunately we eventually got chased off by the mozzies.

We drove back in convoy and Dave stood up through the sun roof with a spot light and we had a game drive back. We saw two male lions just on the side of the road so we drove into the bush and watched them watching us back for a while. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any decent pictures. They were young boys only about two years old. So they had a bit of a Mohican hair do going on. That was pretty amazing and topped a perfect day. I think I’m beginning to understand what makes the African bush such a special place. I’d been wearing my new Courteney boots so I was feeling much more confident and thought I was finally conquering my fears. However when we got back to the house there were two of the biggest geckos I’ve ever seen and all my previous worries came back. The geckos here are called Turners geckos and I’m sure they must eat small birds.

Turners Gecko

Dave was determined to catch one, which he did and the gecko wasn’t too happy about it. Dave told DK to put his finger in his mouth which he stupidly went to do then changed his mind last minute as the geckos teeth grazed his finger and drew blood. As DK pulled away his finger the gecko swung round and attached his mouth around Dave’s finger. The gecko’s jaws were so strong that they couldn’t get him to release Dave, in the end they had to use their knife to wedge the gecko’s mouth open so Dave could pull his finger out. We were all laughing because he got all that he deserved.