Crawling, loafing and pyromaniacs !

Let me take you back to Thursday morning shortly b4 9am.......I had gone from standing to crouching, to being on my hands and knees and then was fully prone inching forward using my elbows. Was I caving? No, I was in camouflage edging my way towards the lantern in a game called stalk the lantern the pupose of which is to reach the lantern (under which is an appointed person scanning for "intruders") without being spotted.

Armed and dangerous?- no specs!

It's really quite interesting having an ant's eye view of the world but it does also cross your mind "I wonder what's crawling up my shirt, down my trousers, in my hair?etc" Poor Tom and Floris both gave themselves away when they were stung by a wasp! I was really pleased with myself as I managed to get incredibly close without being spotted so I'm beginning to think what with my rifle handling and camouflage skills I really should have gone into the forces(Whaddya reckon Rivers?!) It was a lot of fun altho incredibly hot and at one point I thought "here I am crawling thru the bush on my own with no-one watching my back -who knows what could be creeping up behind me?! eek!"However,my competitive spirit helped me overcome any fears of being munched by any of the Big 5/Dangerous 9 and I concentrated on trying to win!  We had camouflaged ourselves using various shades of shoe polish and adorned ourselves with twigs and were like a big bunch of kids getting ready - it was absolutely great.

Bossveld looking cute.....

A work task this week involved gathering up all the leftover thatch from the rondavel thatching which had been erroneously dumped on the farm (miscommunication - a recurring theme here...!) We piled the trailer high with thatch and took it to the (empty ) dam ands set fire to it - had it been suitable for filling ruts or other erosion work we would have used it in that way but it wasn't. And excuse me but just what is it with men and fire? What primeval instinct stirs within them and makes them need to poke it with long stick,s get too close and generally morph into " me caveman  - me guard fire" (you may recognise this syndrome from seeing men at barbeques)  6 or so trips later and we thought our work for the day was over but no - we then filled the trailer with sand from the dam( I'd missed this task (not) given that we hadn't done it for a few weeks (backache!) and deposited it by a bridge that constantly needs packing with sand and rocks to prevent its deterioration.

Can you see us?

Yesterday was our day of leisure and I stayed by the pool the whole day reading, listening to my MP3 player and dropping into the pool now and again. It was absolutely sweltering, a prelude to a coming storm; and come it did. Amazing lightning accompanied as usual with a loss of power - however the paraffin lamps had been filled since last time so we had light and 6 of the volunteers played an SA version of Monopoly by lamplight. We'd hoped last night's storm would herald a cooler day today but if anything it has been even hotter - approaching 40 degrees C.

A game drive at Jejane,a neighbouring game farm,was organised. Jejane unlike Campfire is an enclosed farm/reserve and they only have one ellie so the level of destruction and therefore the habitat is a little different. Under the blazing sun at 11am on an open-topped bakkie it was a trifle hot BUT we saw 2 huge rhino (amongst other animals which included wildebeest, zebra , warthogs and the inevitable impala not that they're not lovely you understand....) We also witnesed an amazing spectacle which only occurs on a couple of days a year - the emergence of the winged kings and queens from a termite mound leaving it and filling the air all ariound us with thei little winged bodies.

Fun at the poolat Jejane

Having approached melting point after about an hour we were takena to a beautiful round swimming pool on the reserve whre the majoority of our lot jumped in fully clothed -I, on the other hand being uber sensible as you know me to be had put in my swimming cossie and therefore wore that. It was fantastically refreshing although the oppressive heat has continued and remains so at 8.30pm - and given the noise from the cicadas I reckon tomorrow is going to be much the same. As I sit here at the computer I'm distracted by the call of lions who sound reasonably close (i.e wothina coule of kilometres) on a quiet night their call can carry 8km.  As I'm melting sitting here I'm going to sign off and wish you and yours all the best til the next time.

Rhino at Jejane

Lots of love etc

Africa Sal xx

P.S. Big thanks to all my correspondents - esp this week Liz G for my letter x