Wednesday 8th January 2014

It was a big reunion last night as people slowly met up at Emerald Guest house from many different corners of the world. The ‘back to school’ feeling quickly went as soon as I arrived. I got such a warm welcome, it was good to be back with everyone and we got stuck into catching up, pizza and beer.

The journey to Makuleke was long, about eight hours, but it wasn’t unbearable, I watched a few documentaries on the iPad mini and enjoyed the scenery, especially seeing so many baobabs (Adansonia digitata).

We were all made to feel very welcome by the Back Ups, Dee the Camp Coordinator and our instructors, Bruce and Ben who we’d met before and Alan who is going to be with us for a week until Sean returns.

Compared to what we’re used to the Makuleke camp is luxurious. We’re billeted in large thatched tents which come with proper beds, a deck, and an ensuite but weirdly the biggest luxury is having a wooden door – no more having to bend over to unzip the tent.

After a briefing we had time to get a run in around the fire break which is 400m long. There’s an outer break to of 1.2km and we should get to use this when Bruce is happy with our situational awareness. In this respect, situational awareness roughly translates to, ‘how likely are we to run into the back of an elephant’.