Wednesday 4th June 2014

There were a few hangovers going round this morning, luckily I wasn’t one of them.

JP took the graduates to the gate, I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with 7D – Steve, Lian, Brogan and of course Jomi. Luckily it’s not yet time for Jomi to leave, he’s staying on until the end of August as camp coordinator. He’s a good chap to have around the camp, probably one of the best Irish Germans that I know.

After a few odd jobs Jomi and I took his parents for a walk through the Fever Tree Forest. Jomi gave the lead to me, very gallant of him to do so, he said that it was so I could get some practice in before my lead assessment. More accurately I believe the reason to be that he may have been a little hungover. Who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth, I agreed immediately.

It’s always special leading in the Fever Tree Forest with all the butterflies flying up around you as you follow the game paths. No racket-tailed rollers where we expected them, or at least hoped for them. However, the usual white-crested helmet shrikes were feeding from fever tree to fever tree, likewise were the cackling green wood-hoopoes. Their calls were only out done by the aptly named arrow-marked babblers and the crying of the trumpeter hornbills.

Back in camp the magic of the forest was short lived as a french drain needed to be unblocked. This was certainly not the highlight of my year in Africa but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It was also very satisfying when we succeeded.

A walk and a drive went out, if I’d rushed to get ready I could have joined one of them. But rather than trying to do too much I stayed back in camp to do some self study as well as some fitness.