Monday 26th May 2014

After only fleeting glimpses yesterday we had lots of hyena this morning. First up were a couple trotting along Rhino Boma Road, this wasn’t the best sighting but it was certainly better than last night. We then got a second pair as we were milling around the Cruiser preparing for our walk, putting packs on etc. As we were doing so two hyenas appeared from around the corner. They carried on before realising we were there. They then stopped, came forward, went back, came forward again and so on. We watched them, they watched us, such a special sighting. We left them to it and carried on with our walk.

Unfortunately the walk didn’t yield the buffalo herd that Rhodes was desperate to show the guests. Despite this it was very enjoyable. Other than the obvious, the hyenas, my highlight was a large aggregation of zebra crossing a dry pan, as they went they kicked up a cloud of dust into the morning sun. The whole trail has yet again been incredibly special. I’m confident everyone enjoyed themselves, well at least I hope so, I certainly did. Some great walks, memorable encounters and good company.

We had a superb sighting of a saddled billed stork on the way back, it was wading in the Luvuvuh, this is the closest I’ve been to one so I was kicking myself that I didn’t have my camera.

The trail ended which meant I had to head back to EcoTraining to swap with Duncan. He’s at Pafuri for the next three nights with Johna as lead. I’m not sure when my next trail is, I hope it’s soon as it’s brilliant experience and it means I get to spend my last souple of months doing what I’ve loved the most during my time out here, walking the African savannah.

Once back at EcoTraining I joined in on a bird lecture before skipping lunch to get a 10k in. This was hard work after all the good food over the last ten days. I spent the afternoon doing some work whilst the rest were up at Mpimbi doing some birding. As I waited for them to return I had a visit from our alcoholic thick-tailed bush baby. He.she made a beeline for the drink can recycling bin befire getting the munchies and heading to the far end to see if there were any crumbs, there weren’t.