Monday 14th October 2013

A rare day off today so I had the opportunity to go into town – Hoedspruit. It’s not big but it has the basics and most importantly it had a phone signal so I could email, Skype and update the blog.

Everyone going in looked very different in their jeans etc, no khaki today. Also seen as the temperature had plummeted to 24 degrees people were wrapped up.

I must appear anti social to some as I really enjoy the opportunity of just hanging out on my own when going into town.

I went from cafe to cafe and ended up in a bar and in between I bought some essentials including some treats for when I do my assessment game drive in a few weeks.

I do like people’s company but I get plenty of that in camp and anyhow I don’t think they’d really want to be with me when I’m Skyping my family back home or uploading photos to the Internet.

Really great speaking to some of those I’ve left behind and it was great to catch up on how they’re doing, chuffed with my brother doing the Chicago marathon.

Didn’t have time to feel too down about missing those back home as it was back to camp to start preparations for tomorrow’s assessment (there is no such thing as a day off) and then it’s cramming hard for a whole load of further tests over the next two weeks.