Monday 24th March 2014

I joined Rhodes as his “Back-up” for his trail which comprised of a father and daughter from Canada. The idea was to go pan hopping for most of the morning, so much so we took a “bush breakfast” with us so we wouldn’t have to rush back to camp. The pan hopping was good although we were thwarted by first buffalo stopping us from crossing where we originally wanted to go and then both buffalo and water preventing us from taking our second route.

The buffalo encounters, three of them, were all good. For the first two we were able to enjoy from a great vantage spot where we could watch them from a safe and comfortable position. These two herds of 100+ came together to make one big herd.

I wasn’t walking this afternoon, instead I was slashing the firebreak so we could run again – it’s been too thick lately. The elephant ear is the main culprit and it’s really tough to chop down, I’ll definitely take the machete out next time. Once I was finished I was back in my tent having showered and I was shaving. Alisi comes in with my laundry and says, “James, if you get a chance tomorrow morning can you look for that snake?”. “Which snake?” I reply standing there in my towel, to which she says, “The black one that lives in here”. I had a quick look under the beds but found nothing. I’ll definitely not be walking around the tent without my torch tonight.