Wednesday 4th September 2013

Arrived at the Ecotraining camp in Selati and were given a briefing and orientation by JP and Margaux.

Everything seems straight forward and the camp isn’t as basic as I feared. Yes it’s right in the middle of the bush but it’s all very well kept.

After signing away our lives away by way of indemnity forms, the moment we’d all been waiting for finally came, who would be tenting with who.

There were about six who got their own tent and I was one of the lucky few. The tents are bigger than they look, perhaps due to single occupancy and the mattress is comfortable.

Advised to keep the tents tidy, no floordrobe, so if there are any snakes that need removing it’s nice and easy for JP.

My tent is a decent walk out of camp but not as bad as others, poor Clifford has a walk of three hundred metres to his.

At night walking back from the toilet block is quite an experience. There are hyenas calling, the telemetry signal of a lioness puts her on the other side of the bone dry riverbed and that there’s a big pile of elephant poo next to my tent.

And now for some sleep, we’re up at five tomorrow. But first, it’s another walk in the bush, torch in hand scanning for the reflecting eyes of lions and leopards or the black dark outline of an elephant. And this is all so I can go to the toilet.

It feels a bit chilly in the tent, my thermometer says 19c. That doesn’t seem too cold, perhaps it’s a little fear creeping in…

(Just been, that was nervy, pitch black with animal noises being the only thing to break the silence. The fear was definitely greater on the way back when I was closer to my tent and thinking, almost there.)