Tuesday 20th May 2014

We didn’t have too long walking this morning, just over three hours. This was purely down to spending time with an elephant bull in musth on the drive down to Hlangaluwe. No encounters but we can’t have missed both elephant and buffalo breeding herds by much judging by the tracks and signs littering the dusty landscape.

We were walking through relatively thick bush at Mpimbi on the banks of the Limpopo when a natal spurfowl burst out of the grass at my feet. I’ve not jumped like that for a while. I stepped and swung my rifle round towards it. To save face I turned round to the guest walking directly behind me who was chuckling and said, “That’s what they call a heart attack bird”.

Further on in our walk it was a lot more relaxed with an elephant bull encounter who barley shot us a glance as we walked into about 40 metres. For two of the guests this was the first time in Africa so she was understandably nervous but did brave it and appeared to thoroughly enjoy it from the open mouthed gape as she watched him feed.