Let me start by saying that the whole experience of living in the bush at Karongwe was simply fantastic, and a better month I have never had. Learning about wildlife, botany, astronomy, ecology and all sorts of ologies in such a natural environment was wonderful: and after initially being indifferent about the whole ‘qualifying as a FGASA Guide thing’, by the end I was desperate to pass and relieved – elated even - when I finally achieved a comfortable pass in the final theory exam – 75.06% for an exam with a pass mark of 75%.
Slightly tragically it has even got me interested in birds, for which I am being continually ribbed by my new wife. Still, she’s probably just upset that I saw an uber-rare Taita Falcon, and she didn’t....
But I digress.
One of the highlights nature-wise for me (apart from the, ahem, disputed Taita Falcon) was on one of my practice drives, when I crashed elegantly round a corner in the Land Rover - sorry, ‘Landy’ - to be confronted by a lovely little baby elephant in the middle of the road, looking at me sheepishly (or more correctly, elephantish-ly). I brought the Landy stylishly to a halt with only the minimum of screeching by E and the brakes, and we all settled in to observe the little fella. After only a few seconds however, mummy elephant appeared, and looked slightly annoyed at our presence, and trumpeted to her other half – who then appeared right behind us. I switched quickly with Jaco as he knew what to do in these situations – drive asap away from the area! Before he could however, a further friend of the ellie appeared out of the bush just to our right, and then in an instant about a dozen other elephants materialised – it is oft remarked upon, but still extraordinary, how such enormous and loud animals, that leave such a trail of destruction, can move almost completely silently when they want to. We were left totally surrounded by these magnificent beasts, and there was nothing to do but sit quietly and let them move on – despite Jaco’s instructions to absolutely, on no occasion, to EVER get this close! Especially as one of the males was clearly in musth (or ‘wanting for some sexy time’ as one guide put it) and thus not a happy camper - and prone to charging at any moment. But move on they finally did after a lot of munching and mooching around us, leaving me with a firmly imprinted impression of their power, having watched them, from a very close distance, uproot very hefty trees with the effort of a child swatting the top off a dandelion with a stick.
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