Today started with our Bushwise practical driving test, at 0700! We just had to drive around in the 4 x 4 for a bit and basically prove that we can drive a manual car and that we won’t kill anyone. It was marked out of 15, I got 11, which is a good pass 🙂
We then had free time (most of us did some studying) until brunch. Today we had sausages, corn fritters (so good), coleslaw and bean salad. We then had free time until 1600, as it was just too hot to do anything – 37 degrees in the sun!
We spent the time chilling by the pool, studying, reading and chatting. I also did a load of washing, it dried literally in less than hour! I also saw a baboon spider which was quite cool.
A bit before 1600 we went and sorted out our hot boxes, put all our names in a hat and drew groups for the Game Drive this afternoon. The drivers were already scheduled in but the rest of the groups were randomly mixed.
Off we went for the drive, I was in Gerald’s group with Derek and then Ad driving. We had a great time, we saw several giraffe before we even got to the Reserve, so I was happy. We also saw impala, wildebeest, zebra (so so many zebra, our car was pretty much surrounded at one point by about 50 of them), a hippo, steenbok, a leopard tortoise and loads of birds, we either saw or heard (amongst others) woodland kingfisher, three banded plover, crested franklin, grey heron and common scimitarbilll. Now to learn them all and recognise them instantly! We also saw an ‘elegant grasshopper’.
We started learning about different types of dung too and looked at both elephant and giraffe dung.
The sunset was beautiful with such beautiful colours and the ‘moon rise’ was amazing. The moon looked massive and it was almost orange – stunning. We could also see Venus and Mars.
At one point we just stopped the car, turned off the engine, and sat and listened to nature’s sounds for a few minutes – it was pure magic. So so magnificent. I could have spent all night there just listening and watching the stars, but we had to come back to camp.
Dinner was waiting for us, a sort of pasta bake with cheese and a salad. Afterwards it was time for showers and bed, a very early start tomorrow.