Tip top Training

The last 2 days have been spent expanding my mind and it amazes me how much one can learn about this amazing place. After our big birding day I decided to head to Bush lodge a little earlier than necessary to see if I could go past the cubs and get a couple of photos of them without the pressure of guests or other vehicles wanting to see them. Unfortunately they had gone down into the river and there was no visual. With another hour before I had to be at bush lodge for lectures, I decided to relax out there just in case they showed some face...all that showed though was a big storm. At first a few drops started and when I looked back I could see a wall of water approaching, so I put foot to try beat the storm back to the lodge and made it with seconds to spare and en route managed to get a photo of the on coming storm.

We then enjoyed a lecture on the smaller things in the bush and all sat gob smacked by some of the info that Andre shared with us. 

Yesterday afternoon was another great day as we headed out just myself and Andre as well as some of the spa girls to find some big game to walk into. A herd of elephants had been called in and after all the vehicles had left the sighting we headed in to see if we could make an approach on foot. However there was a 3 week old calf in the herd and this just made it too dangerous to walk so we watched them for a while before making an approach on a rhino bull that seemed to be patrolling his territory. This went well, the rhino didn't even know we were there and he moved off and we headed back to vehicle to see if anything else had been spotted that we could walk into.

As we drove away, we bumped into 4 more rhino and decided to make an approach on them. We got as close as 30 metres without being detected and were enjoying the sighting until two of the rhino rounded the termite mound and picked up our scent immediately. This  initiated an immediate retreat by us to a termite mound behind us...the rhino snorting and trying to move downwind of us so they could get a better idea of who we were led to me keeping myself and the rifle between the rhino and the girls. Once we got to the termite mound the mood calmed and we enjoyed the view from the the safety of our perch. What a treat!

This morning was far more relaxed for me as it was one of my friends Level 3 assessments and I was tagging along to pick up some new information and to help him by being his tracker. Whilst we were out, we were following some lions hunting and while waiting for them to come out of the thick bush we could hear the lioness make a kill...the low level growls were followed by a prolonged silence. We were unable to enter the bush to go see the action because of all the rain that we have had and we pulled out shortly after.

I also backed Ben up on his assessment walk which was fantastic...we even saw a spider kill a beetle...HOW COOL? :-) What a great morning and now I am ready for the great afternoon ahead as I have new guests for the first time in 3 nights and looking forward to using some of the new information I picked up over the last couple days to blow their minds...