27th April

The mornings have been chilly again but at 5pm yesterday the temperature in my hut was 38 degrees. So I decided to start my Sunday morning walk at 8pm. I found some quite nice bacon in Spar so the promise of a bacon sandwich was my reward. I've promised Murphy for the last two weeks that this Sunday we'd walk all the way to the bush camp. I didn't take my binoculars because I just wanted to enjoy the walk, my last in the African Botswana bush. With my newly trained tracker's eye I could see my footprints from Friday and Saturday, almost synchronised so I must walk always at the same pace although I don't always start from the same point. I could also see small hoof prints, probably warthog, larger ones, probably kudu. I do look at the bush which stretches away to infinity on both sides but I've never seen anything here, although I'm told eyes are undoubtedly watching me. Often there are no birds about so for me it all happens on the ground.  Apart from the visible insects like the ubiquitous corn cricket which rears on its hind legs and shakes a fist as I walk past, I find all the little tracks of birds,  snakes and geckos fascinating. Yesterday and today I saw fat semicircular tracks of a big snake although apparently they flatten themselves to get traction and aren't as big as all that. The tracks were six to eight inches across so even at half that size I wouldn't want a close encounter.
I enjoy the walks with Murphy, it's the five thousand uninvited flies which tag along that are the problem. These are like small house flies and they're on you all the time and much more annoying than mosquitoes. You don't want to see the kitchen. I was thinking today that of all the useful things I brought, a fly whisk would have been the most useful. Using my new bushman skills I broke a branch off a shrub, being careful of the thorns, and used that. We made it to the bush camp and I looked in the empty swimming pool. Last time I looked, a month ago on my first day here,  there was still rainwater in it and it was chock full of frogs. Well you know me and frogs,  I took a photo of hundreds piled up on the steps but it's on my camera rather than the phone. Today there was just a few left maybe half a dozen. They are African bull frogs and can get huge and they bite apparently. Fascinating stuff...
On the subject of things that bite and sting,  the scorpion I saw in the shower block was a tiddler compared to the one that walked past the office door on Friday. It was left to fearless Jane who squashed it with a can of fly spray.  I felt rather sorry for the scorpion but they are dangerous and whilst not fatal to humans it would be to any of the much loved camp pets, there are two cats Tigger and Gizmo as well as the two dogs.
I am leaving here on Wednesday so I will probably leave my final blog until I'm in Gaborone where Harold has Earl Grey tea waiting for me. How very civilised...