BootsnAll Travel Blogs

Back at Joburg, I met up with Martin and Mark (ACE) and got transferred back to the Botswana border at Platjan. Here I met up with Charlie again who drove me and Frazer (new student) into Tuli letting me sit on the Tracker down to the camp.

I only stayed at the camp for the first night (in the love shack) and then moved up to the house, so Stuart and I could concentrate on prepping for the Tracker course

We set up camp in Lost hills with a tent for each of the participants and then set off to Alldays to pick up Rob, Adam, Lee, Yutte(sp?) Geoff and Guido

they all turned out to be nice guys and we had a lot of fun sorting out haw to organise camp and then starting the tracking.

We did one humongous walk the one day: starting around Lost Hills after some ellies we had heard (but never caught up with) then along to the Rockies and then down to Mamatumi!!! a canny old walk THAT one!…with 42 degrees showing on my watch – in mostly shade! thankfully there was water at Mamatumi, otherwise I think Stuart may have had rebellion on his hands..and a couple of dehydrated corpses!….easy to laugh about it now tho.

Still no ellies, so we moved camp to Lekkerpoet anyhoo. This time we had some success, in finding leopard, hyena and eventually LION track, which we followed for most of the day without actually catching up with the lions…until we got back inthe hilux to leave and instantly the liones was spooted inthe spotlight beam!!!…a nice sighting as she wandered along even sitting and posing for us in the grass!

Back at the camp we were warned by Adam about the ‘flat stone‘ …….we had brought a ‘bucket’ shower which we hung from a tree in the rocks at the bottom of Lekkerpoet hill – 50m from the camp. however, Lee had gone to ‘see a man about a dog’ and had walked off into the rocks to find a suitable place – he had just crouched down to …well, you know…when he looked up and realised the shower outlet was dangling right above his head!!!! he’d only managed to find a toilet spot right underneath our shower!!!! too late to move, he did the business and then placed a flat rock over the ‘evidence’  so the rest of us had to actually stand on that rock to have ourshowers that night. YUK!!

Half way thru the course Geoff had to leave us, due to his pacemaker (that we didnt know about!) playing up!!!…bit of a shocker to me and Stuart, but  at least it happened back in Koro camp and not out in the bush

The rest ofthe course went along well with the smaller group getting on well and improving in tracking skills dramatically

Eventually we came to the assessments which took place over 3 days – amazingly both Rob and Lee got Tracker 2 level! (along with Charlie who had joined us for the assessments and also got a level 1 Trail certificate too) I managed a Level 1 Tracker, which I guess is OK, though really I had hoped for better

Well, its been 7 months since I was in Africa – I was missing it

OK, I was missing it AND Stuart at Tuli had emailed me to ask if I would go over and help him run the Tracking course now offered by ACE and then help to run Koro camp after Charlie sadlyleaves it.

16th Sept and I’m off with Virgin to Joburg then by hire car to Kuruman where I met Ikey (in his by now very battered Cruiser) and then to Clive’s farm again ( I was there twice last year with Ikeys ‘lot’) to catch Sable, wildebeeste, kudu and others. Twas nice to see the gang again (Tokman, Des, Hannas) but now with Hannas brother and a new guy Michael. Was also good to see some of the ‘boys’ again – including Rasta, Gunman and Samuel(s). Catching went well with no major mishaps, tho I did get kicked by a darted Sable as we picked it up in a sheet of tarpaulin, which tore freeing a rear leg (the Sable’s not mine)

me and Ikey also skived off and drank lots of coffee in the town whilst the guys were busy building/dismantling the boma …ah well – he IS the boss!

next we were off into the Kalihari – me driving the 4.5l Cruiser with a rhino trailer in tow (another phrase I never thought Id be writing. We stopped at a nice farm with the farm manger (Gideon) and his wife joining us for a braai that night. Next day we were up early (as usual) and catching Kudu, Zebra and Wildebeest..today I was doing 3 jobs: the first red door, the 2nd red door and also the truck door too!

End of the day’s catching but still the middle of the day so we went off to deliver some kudu at a guys farm. Sadly as we released them, one fell from the back of the truck and broke its neck. as everyone got down from the truck, i stayed sitting on top (no-one had said we HAD to get down) at this point the truck started moving…faster and faster till I realised they were actually leaving the farm, not just moving ON the farm!…no bother, I thought, I’ll just stay here and enjoy the rid – which is what I did….until we drive thru the thorn trees. man THAT HURT!! my arm and side got shredded as I was whipped and dragged along the top of the truck….luckily chicks dig scars, eh?

When we left the farm that evening – after a number of beers…we all jumped into a Cruiser pick up (backie) and speeded along the dirt roads back to our lodging – en-route, our driver decided to try and catch a Springbok which was running along the road in front of us…he managed to hit the poor thing (though it was unharmed) but also managed to spin us off the road in the process – another life experience!

Next day we moved to another farm for more catching, however it being my last day with the team, Ikey drove me back to Clives farm to pick up the car and return to Joburg.