The excitement following morning started when Leah showed me a lion print. As I was on my way to find a nice, private spot... Needless to say, I finished up pretty quickly! The prints were really fresh, and were probably made by the lion we had heard during the night. Imagine how safe we felt - with nothing but some thin tent material and a bush between us and lions that "had probably tasted human flesh before"....
We decided to try and see if we could get up close to the lions, since the spoor was very fresh. So we missioned off, walking at a pace close to one that can be described in the likes of a "death march". I found it rather funny when Fred* skrikked spiderwise^ when we disturbed a francolin, and spent a good few minutes giggling behind him. He wasn't so impressed that I found it funny.....
The wind was against us, and the lions kept increasing their pace, but since we were travelling in the same direction, we kept at it. At round about mid-morning, we saw a large herd of elephants crossing the river, to our side. We needed to give them some space, so we wouldn't accidentally walk directly into the middle of the herd. Evidentally, we didn't give them enough time, because about half an hour later, we very nearly did walk into the middle of the herd. We had a few anxious moments when one of the ellies could see us and hear us, but couldn't smell us, which made her rather nervous. She decided to retreat into a clump of thick bush (Natal gwarrie), which gave us space to move on.
Lunch was a rather picturesque spot, under mangosteen trees. I had an in-depth chat with Leah about careers and trail-guiding, and then proceeded to take photos and have a nap.
After lunch, we started looking for places to cross the river. Dave was still quizzing me on tree names. And I was only starting to get them.... Then we had more excitement: We ran into two hippo, which were having an afternoon nap. Hippos are the most unpredictable animals, but when they decide to charge, there is no stopping them, apart from killing the animal. The only warning we had of the hippos was the chattering of oxpeckers. Most of us didn't realise that we had run into hippos, until we saw them vaguely disappearing. About 5 minutes later, the rangers had us running behind another bush, as one of the hippos, instead of running for the water, ran further inland... This was more scary, since we would then be walking between the hippo and its preferred refuge, thus almost inviting ourselves to be charged at (not that we actually had a choice!). We got past it safely (phew!), and then had to find a campsite...We eventually did, and I had a quick swim. In fact, I got unto the water, splashed myself a few times, and hurriedly got out. We hadn't chosen the safest place to camp, but then, we didn't have a choice in that either. There were no protective rocks for us to collect water and wash dishes from, and as it got toward dusk, there were strange ripples and swirls around the place where we were doing such activities. A massive barbel (catfish) managed to give us all a fright when it appeared at the feet of Fred...
Supper was a much less crunchy affair, and I managed to get rid of all the dried fruit and pasta sauce I was carrying, as well as all the booze I was carrying (Which made me very very happy). My hips had gotten bruised from my pack, so I was decidedly happy to get rid of all that weight.
That night was not without its own excitement: A leopard coughed when Fred was communing with the Ogre, the river presented its own mystery, and we were camped on almost a plain, with no bushes behind our tents to afford us any protection. Added to that, we had decided to try and finish all of the alcohol... Leah, Roger and I were both amused and alarmed by the antics of Sue and Bill (a couple, in case you were wondering), who had decided that they both needed the loo at bed-time. The three of us were warming our hands before going to bed, when we saw what looked like a mini-disco happening around one of the trees. Leah suggested that they were doing yoga with the tree, but I think they were just trying to start their own dance party...
That night, the snoring continued, much to Roger, Leah and my consternation. We had tried to pitch out tents as far away from the snorers as possible, but before we had even closed our eyes, it started. A comment from Roger sent Leah and I into fits of giggles for a while, and when that died down, we managed to get some sleep.
*I'm still changing names for this 'series'.
^Skrikked spiderwise is a somewhat unique term that my mom uses to describe the movement when someone gets such a massive fright that they jump sideways with both legs.
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