Monday 16th September 2013

Group ‘a’ arrived back to camp last night thirty minutes later than expected, they got lost apparently.

But at dinner they announced they’d been watching a leopard for thirty minutes. This put them ahead of us on sightings, although we, group a, still have elephants on foot to our name.

I was seriously jealous but my time will come. Our new instructor, Graham who we’re learning so much from since he has arrived is so into his leopards. He has raised two cubs, written a book and seems to growl every now and again in away that you imagine would be understood very clearly by a leopard.

This mornings highlight on the bush walk was trying to work out who killed what on a CSI style investigation, the victim was a barn owl, the culprit a Verreaux’s Eagle.

On the evening drive it was CSI again but this time the culprit was a male lion that had made a kill. There was nothing left other than drag marks on the floor and some hyena tracks.

Heading back to camp through the dark we gave some eles a bit of a shock and they repaid the favour. The first one came out of nowhere trumpeting at us as we were driving along so Margaux floored it and then thirty yards later a second one came shouting at us from the other side.

Lots of study today as our first exam is on Wednesday, I think I’m really going to struggle. There’s so many new words to learn on top of the theory.

Studying is hard as different people study in different ways, I personally like to find a nice quiet corner, so that’s my aim for tomorrow.

There’s a whole bunch of new insects and toads chirping away tonight on top of the African scoops owl and furry necked nightjar. There’s also hyena in the distance. Still I think I’m not going to struggle to fall asleep.