22nd April

Having visited so many of their establishments over the past few days I feel I must put in a word for the poor much maligned aardvark. Look him up -I think he's Africa's answer to the duck billed platypus (Rick thinks that's the wildebeest but I rather like them now they're actually quite elegant). The aardvark is apparently not common, well either that's wrong or the few that there are can dig holes every ten metres over a 7500 hectare farm. They can in fact dig a metre in five minutes and their discarded burrows are used by seventeen different mammals. I can imagine jackals and porcupines standing around saying "Nah don't bother mate, he's bound to finish another one in a minute". Enough, I hear you cry..
On Sunday tracking we did something different, for me at least. They found cheetah spoor at about 9.45am and we tracked it through the bush for two hours,  the idea being that they might find some scat or a new marking tree. We probably covered about three kilometres some of it round in circles trying to pick up the spoor. It was ferociously hot even at that time of the morning, cloudless blue sky and no shade anywhere. I kept up and I was looking for spoor but also had to watch where I put my feet so I didn't fall down a hole or trip over a creeper. I was
also watching out for the murderous vegetation, the knee grabbers, the sleeve rippers, the face slashers and of course the giant spiders. Phale walked right into a web. It didn't seem to bother him but I think I'd have had the screamers. As it is I had to duck under it there was no way around. Eventually they lost the trail and we turned back, I admit I was relieved it really was hot out there and nearly midday by the time we got back to the truck (using GPS).
I have to say that these safari trousers may be able light comfortable and easy to wash and dry but they are no match for the bush. They may be ok for sitting all day in a safari wagon taking photos but they provide no real protection. There's a particular plant when you push past it fires dozens of quills about an inch long and they stick straight in and your legs look like two porcupines. If you don't stop and pick them off they quickly work their way in and hurt like hell but I didn't dare lose sight of Phale so it was an uncomfortable trek back. We had a lunch break at a nice shady pan and the afternoon was pretty uneventful until about ten to five when a whole herd of mixed wildebeest, gemsbok and zebra crossed the track up ahead. We counted 20 wildebeest, 15 zebra and 5 gemsbok it was a fantastic sight and a few minutes later we saw another group of six zebra. Talk about saving the best til last, it was wonderful.
So a very long day,  twelve hours tracking. When we got back in view of Easter Rick had bought three roasted chickens and we had that with rice and mangetout and onion gravy around the camp fire,  me, Rick,  Phale,  Cho,  Manga and Reggie. The trackers also made something called pap from maize flour and a cross between polenta and wallpaper paste. It has been my misfortune twice to have to clean the pan which takes a good half hour. Still it was a lovely end to the day and an Easter Sunday like no other.
More later...