A few more pics...

Ah yes please! Another mild day of 36 degrees.

The view from Space 12 looking westwards. That is the Luvuvhu River with all the green trees on its banks.

More view from Space 12 looking eastwards.

This is our pet dog. His name is Jorge (pronounced 'Ghor-gaey' in a thick spanish accent). Please note that he is not a real dog. He, or she, for that matter is actually a Yellow Spotted Rock Dassie. Its getting tamer and is pictured here lying outside our front door. Sit Jorge, Good Jorge.

In the words of Rudyard Kipling -'The great, grey, green, greasy Limpopo River'

Totally bone dry like a desert.

Same river. Nice beach. In a few months after the rains this thing will be pumping with a shed load of water.

Limpopo again. Looking east. Oh wait there is one puddle in the far right.....

The Limpopo Floodplain, and Makwadzi Pan. Nice road over some open ground before heading into some riverine forrest.

Trusty Landy No.1 in the 'Load the Guests onto vehicle area'

Jorge in a tree eating a leaf. Yes this is a ROCK dassie, not a tree dassie. Gorge must be ahead of his time. He is a nocturnal tree climbing rock dassie....

Sundowners with a Honeymoon couple at another Limpopo Lookout

Some Northern Lala Palms.

Some buffs kicking up dust in the late afternoon light. They love this long grass in the floodplain and can almost be seen daily in this area.

A view from the landy into a fever tree forrest.

Fever Tree forrests across the floodplain.

Bob on balcony of Space 12, admiring the view.

Dutch Mayhem

Hectic. A good description of what the general vibe in camp has been like for the last 3 days while 20 crazy Dutchmen have been 'letting their hair down' after a rough overland trip through the Mozambiquan side of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. These 40 year old buddies rocked up on Thursday in 5 landys covered from head to toe in a thick coating of the finest dust Mozambique has to offer. A week or so without a shower - and dust sticks to a sweaty human being like a dead fly does to syrup on toast. So what were once pale caucasian males arrived with a darker than normal hue. Their stay at The Outpost was kind of like a luxury end of tour celebration after a pretty rough camping trip. And rough they did look.

When I say 'Dutchmen' I mean 20 Hollandse jongers - old chaps from Amsterdam that have been friends since varisty and every decade or so mission off on some sort of African adventure. Last time they did Zim, and now it was South Africa's turn. As you can imagine Hollanders are not used to the heat, and they're also not impartial to some chilled white wine, which is why after their 2 night stay their bar bill reached a considerable 12 grand. Not so much in Euros I know but the picture Im trying to paint is that the atmosphere was rather jolly indeed.

Yesterday morning started off with a bang for me, as after their 5am wake up call (which takes me 10 mins to do as the furtherest room away is 600m roundtrip walk up a wooden boardwalk) all the dudes rushed out of their rooms in a way-to-over-zealous fashion only 2 mins after I knocked?! Normally guests kind of saunter down to the bar area 30 mins after wake up. This then lead to a coffee drinking frenzy as 20 hung over dutchmanne attempted to gulp down substantial amounts of caffeine before the morning activities. Poor planning on our behalf meant that only 1 barmen had been assigned to make 20 peoples coffees, so I was having to learn very quickly how to make double espressos el pronto. Once we had them loaded 14 of them on to the 2 vehicles (6 went for a bush walk) things went relatively smoothly........ until the afternoon drive.

Yesterday's afternoon game drive was ..... errr ....... manic, challenging and bloody hard work to say the least. It should have been easy, a leisurely routine game drive to Lanner Gorge for sundowners. We had Vikki, a friend from Eco-Training, helping us out as a 3rd guide on a freelance basis who was doing her first stint at The Outpost. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. Trying to make things easier for her I suggested she use Land Rover no.1, which is definitely the best landy of the 3 we have. 4km down the road a get a call from Vikki on the radio saying that her landy is buggered, and that she heard a loud metallic snap and then lost 4 wheel drive and was now stuck at the bottom of a challenging little incline, in which we always go up in low range. EEEK.

So I rushed back to see if I could help. You may snigger here if you've ever seen me trying to do anything mechanical. Trues bob, I got there looked under the landy, tried to drive it up the slope once, failed miserably as the wheels just spun like crazy and only 2 had power. I then said 'Ya, it's stuffed.' and quickly radio'd the camp for some more capable help. In the meantime I suggested that Vikki take my landy with as many dutchies as she could fit, and get on over to the gorge in time to see the sun go down. She squeezed on 10, so I was left stranded with 4 okes and 1 buggered land rover over. What else to do but prematurely delve into the cooler box in an attempt to ease the stranded dutchies frustration. 4 ice cold zamaleks did the trick.Thank the Pope, Ralson & Abby (our 2 amazing bush mechanics) arrived with great haste and also declared that the landy was knackered. The problem was that they couldnt take it back the way they came due to an even nastier incline so they needed to get it up the slope in front to be able to take an easier road back to camp. Many would have thought it impossible but after 3 attempts, and after a mighty long 'run up' Abby bombed up and over the rocky incline with wheels spinning, rocks flying, exhaust bellowing black diesel fumes, and exitable dutchmanne shouting applause!

So, at last we were now free to continue on our way to the Gorge, only me and 4 dudes crammed into a Ford bakkie, with 6km to go, a treacherously rocky road to negotiate and min time remaining to get their before sunset. I know you cant call this real stress, but as far as the bush goes it was quite stressfull for me. The Ford, and the brand in general is an inferior offroad vehicle to a mighty landy that is for sure, but nevertheless I bombed it down a very rocky road and made it to the Gorge just in time to see the big orange Super C fall over the horizon. Ford has no clearance and I seriously feared that me scraping the bottom of the car all over the rocks would do nothing for my future career ambitions at The Outpost. Its a touchy subject - as the chef recently seized the engine on a trip to Louis Trichardt so everyone watches that bakkie with eagle eyes.

And so, yay, we made it, everyone was happy, the dutchies drank some more white wine and loved the view from the top. I thought my worries were over for the day, when someone hollered my name, 'Pieeeerrre, Koos has dropped his cell phone.' One plump chap had let his cell phone slip out of his hand and fall down into a crack between some large rocks into the depths of the mountain. He tried his best to get his round little figure down into and between the rocks but was about one meter short of the target, his anguish clearly visible. I definitely was not looking forward to it but I sheepishly proceeded to squeeze myself down down down into cracks too small for a starving ethiopian into the bloody mountain side. By some miracle of yoga, I managed to lower myself a full 2 meters or so down into the depths, feeling more than a little claustrophobic, and less than a little enthusiastic to experience death by mamba bite, whilst being stuck in a rock crack atop some remote mountain top 100 of miles from any medical attention. Luckily I came out unscathed and had a dutchman's cellphone clutched in my paw. The less than well known saying 'Good deeds like this do deserve good tips from dutchmanne' did lurk in the back of my mind.

Anyway the great thing about this place is that everything is temporary and passes fairly swiftly in the end, and now the dutchies have checked out and life returns to normal after a whirlwind of activity. I did have a nice sighting this morning of 3 rhino in the road. 1 huge bull, a cow and young calf. Considering that there are only 7 in 27,000 hectares, to see almost half the population is always pleasant and a lucky encounter. I've also being seeing some nice leopards quite near to camp, and as usual a shedload of buff and ellies. Lions are probably the toughest of the groot vyf animalia to locate as there is a resident pride of 12 at the moment that hang around in the thick riverine bush near the Luvuvhu bridge area which is not always the easiest place to spot them. I had a streak of African Wild Cats last week - 3 in 3 nights which was pretty cool. No aardvarks or pangolins yet, but there is sign of them being out there so its surely just a matter of time. My greatest nemesis is definitely the Pels Fishing Owl, which continues to allude me. I will have his number in the end though - that is for sure.

As our first stint draws to a close, Andria and I will return home next weekend. ie Sat 31 Oct and will be in Joburg until the 14th November or so. Will be so great to catch up with all friends and family. Oh ya, I will be off in the Klaserie from the 2-6 Nov, doing a walking trail for Transfrontiers which Brian has so kindly offered me. I cant wait to get some encounters so that I can start walking at The Outpost. Which is really where the true beauty lies in this pozzi, as it is best accessed on foot. 43 more is the number I need.

Take it easy...........

Love

P & A

a monotone weekly guide's report anyone?

It’s been another hot and dry week at The Outpost. The first proper summer rains have not yet arrived although the skies have threatened once or twice. The daily maximum temperatures have consistently been between 35-40 degrees. A large veld fire, visible from the lodge at night has been burning for the past couple of days, but SANPARKS has it under control.

Even though no rain has fallen it is great to see many of the trees beginning to come into leaf. Most noticeably – the Baobabs. Tiny green shoots are visible on many of the trees, the first one I noticed was a large one down in Lanner Gorge. Another first this week was the call of the Piet-my-vrou (Red Chested Cuckoo) heard from the lodge at sunrise while having coffee before the morning game drive. Definitely one of the first arrivals of this intra-africa migrant species.

Sightings have been good this week. Last night we spotted another young female leopard on Lanner Drive at dusk whilst returning from Lanner Gorge. This morning a white rhino cow and calf were encountered on the Outpost Home Run road only 3km from camp. Buffalo and elephant are all over the place, and herds of buffalo are regularly seen drinking from the Luvuvhu in front of camp from the guest spaces. 3 elephant bulls have also been hanging around at the confluence for the past few days, together with th resident nyala, impala, kudu and troops of baboons that frequent the beautiful area around the confluence.

Although we haven’t had a decent lion sighting for a while, last night they were reported to have moved north of the Pafuri Main tar road, so hopefully this will increase our likelihood of sightings, as they can be quite difficult to spot when they are around the Luvuvhu West road. It seems as though the pride size is now 12. There are 4 young cubs of a few months old. African wild cat have been seen twice along Pafuri Main.

Birding is always good, and it was very enjoyable to have 2 enthusiastic birding guests in camp for 3 nights recently. It makes a nice change to spend the 3hr drives only covering 15km, instead of the usual 50km or so. Yellow Billed, Marabou, Woolly Necked and Black storks have been seen along with all the usual raptors. Dark Chanting and Gabar Goshawks and Crowned Eagle sightings have been good to see. blah blah blah :P

A few pics...

1.65m - the length of my nthondo. Joke. The depth of the swimming pool. The one that tries to lure you in on a hot summer's day. 43 degrees last week = eeeish

The Main lodge area. Very open, a lot of space, all concrete screed and steel. Good for the hot weather.


The pool

The Pool again. We like the pool :)

A good cushion bed for afternoon snooze after cooling off in the pool...

The Luvuvhu River at Sunrise from the Bridge. Pafuri Main Road. 2 dagga boys, centre left. Usually plenty crocs, nyala, bushbuck, baboons and monkeys about too. Supposedly a renowned spot for catching a glimpse of the elusive Pels Fishing Owl........ hasnt happened for me yet.

Bob & Pee. Sundowners at the Luvuvhu - Mutale confluence, before it was ended prematurely by 2 ellie bulls. Maybe Andria's camo pants aren't working??

Andria in the Luvuvhu....errrr..... yes - this river has one of the highest densities of crocs in Kruger.

Andria, Brian and Karin on a sand bar in the Mutale River. (A tributary of the Luvuvhu)

Some nice big fresh Ellie tracks down at the confluence.

One of a brazilian baobabs on the concession. Loose, sandy soil, hot, dry climate = perfect for Baobabs.

A Giant Kingfisher. No, I do not have a giant zoom. This chap was 1m from the landy, perched on the bridge at dusk.

The breakfast & lunch area. Just 2 guests in camp. + Andria & I. Map of the concession on the wall.

The view from Lanner Gorge, as the Luvuvhu winds its way eastwards to meet the Limpopo at Crooks' Corner. Approx 15km away.

the weather - 'she's hot'

It's been another busy week for us at the lodge. I've been guiding solid for the past 7 days and so definitely looking forward to the 2 day gap we have starting on Wednesday. Gap days rock. There are so many appealing things to do when there are no guests around. Like last Tuesday morning for example, when Andria and Karin woke up with Brian and I at 5am and drove us out to Lanner Gorge to drop us off there so we could do a long walk back to camp along the river with the sun behind us. Lanner Gorge is one of the hidden gems of Kruger - quiet a few people would have heard about the place but very few get to visit it because there are no public roads anywhere near it - just one dry, rocky path that the 2 lodges on the concession are allowed to use to ferry the privileged few up to the lookout point. Its basically an ancient gorge that the Luvuvhu River has cut through the sandstone rock dating back brazilians of years.

After wishing Andria and Karin farewell (they had to negotiate the 10km back to camp alone in the landy) we began the descent. It was hard work, and took us about an hour and a half just to get down to the river level from the lookout. I got a bit worried at how long this stroll was going to take considering I had to leave for the airstrip by 11am to pick up my next guests. Anyway - it all worked out well as we crawled back into camp at 10:30 after a tiring but awesome 5 hour walk. It's impossible to get lost as you just follow the river upstream as it winds its way through the sandveld and eventually end up right in front of the lodge. Having descended the steep slope we had a great sighting of a breeding herd of ellies drinking in the river - we watched them from the large boulders jutting out of the river. When we were around 150m from them they must have picked up our scent and then bolted at a steady pace away from us also following the river cos its too steep on either side of the gorge to exit at that point. We never did catch up to them again but was cool following in the footsteps for alot of the way upstream.

We also came across 2 large herds of buff enroute who seemed pretty skittish and went crashing off as soon as they saw and/or smelled us. It's quite awesome to listen to the pounding hooves of 100 plus large bovines shaking the earth as they flee. Later on we viewed a few hippos in one oif the deeper pools aswell as a schneaky croc trying to stalk some fish to no avail, as the water was too shallow and they could sense him coming from far away. Other than that we saw some another big bull ellie, some nyala, kudu, impala, warthog, baboons and quite a few birds including an African Finfoot (only the 2nd Ive ever seen). It was a great walk in the end.....errr.... excluding the time when we encountered the 2nd bull ellie only 30m away and as we were making our retreat I got completely snared by some long white thorns which didnt make for the most efficient getaway.

Andria has been putting her treadmill to good use. She's started running at sunrise (5 30am) as its the only time of day when its cool enough to do anything strenuous. She also likes to do hill training on our steep driveway into camp while we are out on morning drive. She also gets to enjoy the pool after running while there are no guests in camp.

And now for the weather report. What a surprise - it's gonna be HOT, HOT, HOT. Wednesday last week was the hottest day I have ever experienced. 43 degrees in the shade according to our thermometer by the bar. On game drive it felt like there was a permanent hair dryer blowing in my face, and I seriously wondered at what point a person's eyes simply shrivel up and fall out?! I have never had the moisture sucked out of me like on that day. No matter how much you drink - your thirst is unquenchable. Even in the shade anything metal gets too hot to touch. That night we shnuck down and had a dip in the pool after the guests had gone to bed, which alleviated the pain momentarily. Andria has resorted to sleeping with a wet sarong over her with the fan blowing all night. Luckily that heat didn't last too long and its now down to a moderate 35 odd degrees.

On Friday I had more American guests - the guy looked like a cross between George Bush and George Clooney. He was a really cool though. very chilled out Californian. On arrival he said that he'd seen most animals on his previous safari to Tanzania except the leopard. I told him ya ya, leopards are awesome but theyre a pretty rare sighting and tough to find in these parts with the limited road network and massive area, even though there must be plenty leopards around as you see their tracks everywhere. For example - I may see tracks every day but in the month that Ive been here so far Ive just had the one leopard sighting.

So we go out on afternoon drive and see cool things, like a breeding herd of 35 ellies crossing through the long grass in the Limpopo floodplain and with big herd of buff nearby too. 3km out from the lodge on the way home I've got the spot light out and I'm shining all over the show expecting the usual bushbaby or maybe an owl, when all of a sardine there's a beautiful female leopard lying 2m off the road very close to the landy. Now being a landy, as I hit the brakes it squeaks like crazy - but by some miracle the leopard doesnt run off but just stands up next to us. I was mighty surprised as I've driven this road a million times and just by the power of repitition reinforcement you start to expect not to see such great things. I know this is silly as the bush is completely unpredictable. The leopard then walks parallel to the road for a while giving us a great view and then later dashes off behind the landy and disappears. It's amazing at how when you're looking at something so beautiful your eyes are greedy. You just cannot get enough of looking at the thing. I think we all felt that.

My next off-the-wall theory (and this is based on what I'm beginning to experience) ( errr - more conservative scientist like readers should skip this section) is that it seems that what is happening is that guests are creating their own game viewing reality. I know it sounds funny, but its uncanny how often people will think and say 'ah I really want to see a leopard' or some other unlikely rare creature, and then trues bob -whamo you end up seeing the thing in the flesh. Its happened quite a few times already. I reckon your expectations and beliefs about the bush more often become reality than not. So - Im definitely enjoying being with the different groups of guests who all arrive with their own ideas on what a safari experience is -> which keeps on giving me totally unique & different experiences each time. It's quite amazing indeed.......

To all you birders out there - the birding is kicking off nicely, the migrants are rolling into town.European bee eaters arrived on 1 Oct and can be heard overhead increasingly now. Broad billed Rollers have rocked up too, adding a bit of colour to the scene. Cuckoos are becoming more vocal and the other bee eaters and kingfishers should be back soon soon soon. Raptor sightings are schweet here. Black, Tawny, Martial, Wahlbergs, Fish, Bateleur & African Hawk eagles are all over the show. We've also seen saddle billed, marabou, woolly necked and black storks all in on pozzie at the same time too in the dry Limpopo. And yesterday my first 2 exclusive birder guests arrived - theyre only interested in birds and couldnt give a sheert about any mammals or big 5 bollocks. It makes a really nice change and Im loving driving just 15km in 3 hrs instead of the usual 50.

okdoki - Im due for some lunch, and then its afternoon drive time - Today I'll be heading East with the sun behind me along the Limpopo floodplain....... looking for some voeltjies

Sundowners....

Two nights ago Pierre, Karin, Brian and I went down to the confluence of the Mutale and Levuvhu rivers for a bit of a sundowner. I will try put some photos up soon. We parked the landy and made our way down the well-trodden path, which had elephant tracks EVERYWHERE! But we figured if there are tracks then we dont have to worry too much because then the ellies are gone already. Besides we had seen them down there 2 days earlier so we were pretty confident that they were not going to pop along for a visit right this very minute. So we walked down, Savanna in hand, and proceeded to walk in the river, sit on the logs, take photos and just have an alround chill session whilst taking in the beautiful scenery. Brian had decided to wander off across the river and have a look around up the other side, which in hindsight, I'm pretty happy that he did. While walking around up there, Brian came across an old buffalo skull which was pretty cool and something I wanted to see up close. So what did Andria do? She waddled across the river and up the bank too so I could also investigate this find....

Once up the other side I saw Brian peering off into the distance. I approached the buffalo skull to have a closer look. This was about the time when Brian indicates to me by putting his hands by his ears and flapping them. I mouthed 'Are you joking?' He was like, 'No'. I was then like, 'Where?' This was all in silent language by the way so not to disturb the animal. He points, I look. Eish! An elephant! And not too far away either. So I asked what side of the river it was on, and he was like it's fine because they are on that side of the river. The side where Pierre and Karin, and the Landy I might add, is. Alrighty, that's enough information for me.... Bye! So I turned around, made my way down the bank, plopped back into the shin high water and let Pierre and Karin know there was an elephant not too far away and that I would like very much to get back to the car. Pierre and Karin too didnt waste any time and we were making our way up the opposite bank, keeping our eye on the ellie which was now viewable to them as well. Looking back Brian was slowly making his way back to the other side of the river. He is too chilled!

We walked to the landy quickly-ish and stood by the car and watched the ellie more calmly now. On a closer look, one ellie soon became two ellies! Brian then eventually made it back up the hill and we decided to drive closer to have a better look at these guys. One was a monster! He was seriously big, and his buddy was smaller, looked more like the runt of the litter as he had a left tusk that veered off to the left rather than inwards towards his trunk. They checked us out as the one rubbed himself on a handy baobab while the other one scrapped the ground. They moved into the road and walked away from us but not before giving us the routine elephant-stand-in-the-road-ears-wide-and-look-ominous-for-10-seconds-at-the-landy-and-then-turn-and-walk-off-pose. I mean every ellie you come across does this, and if it's their attempt to put some authority on the situation and make us feel as big as a pee, it seriously works. Respect. We then turned around and made our way back to the lodge, happy with our close enough call with elephant/s in the river. Yeeha!

My elephant encounter

So last night I was merrily enjoying my night off and watching Carte Blanche when I heard the serious sound of rustling leaves. I chose to ignore it at first but when it happened again I decided to take a look through the window. Now you must understand that these windows are covered in gauze (to prevent mosquitos from coming in) so it makes for peering through, especially in the dark, a tad bit difficult. So I took Pierre's super LED torch and pushed it up against the gauze and through the window to light up what I could. I didn't see anything and the noise had stopped. So I sat back down and carried on listening to old Derrick. Noise went again. Now I was convinced there MUST be something rolling around in the leaves out there.... my first thought was a jackal or hyena or something to that effect. So I decided to turn on the outside light that lights up the stoep to see if that would provide any help to my noise investigation. It didnt really, so I picked up the torch and scanned again this time passing the light over something flapping. Wait a minute, I thought. And so I looked a little harder. Another thing you need to understand are that my eyes are not the best, especially at night, so straining my eyes was necessary to make out that the flapping vision I was seeing was indeed attached to a rather large male elephant. Confirmed by one times male business hanging out! Eeekkk, he is in musth. I fumbled to turn off the torch because I thought he would then know that there was something where the light came from and approach. I ran to the intercom phone in our house and called reception. I knew Pierre had just got back from a drive and would want to know about this. That and I was also pooping myself with this elephant outside. Forget the fact that there were brick walls all around me and I was pretty safe, my legs and hands were still shacking. Fight or flight had definitely kicked in.

So I called and Brian picked up, so I told him. He was like 'Cool'. I asked where Pierre was, and he said that he had just walked in. So I told Pierre who rather nonchalantly also said 'Cool'. Silently I was like WTF? There is a flippin elephant outside, like 4 metres from our doorstep and I am inside pooping myself and all anyone can say is cooooooll! I asked Pierre if he was going to come up to see it and he was like in a little while. Again, WTF moment. I was like, you don't want to come see this for yourself? You see, we have doors on both sides of our little house so Pierre could still get in safely without disturbing the big guy. He was like I have to see what the guests are doing. Alrighty then... It was just going to be me and Jumbo. Awesome.

So I ran back to the window and put the torch on and shone it at the elephant which had moved closer and was busy scrapping the ground with his foot. Very cool! I then realised he was looking straight at me so I turned off the torch. He was still looking (because he had moved closer, the light on the stoep was illuminating him just fine)and swaying closer if you know what I mean. So I thought, I wander if he is attracted to the light? Haha! When I told this to Pierre later, he was like, Andria, its an elephant not a moth. Anyways, I made a silly decision to close the curtain by the window and try and peek through the side of the curtain at him. So I did that and when I got around the side to peek, he was gone!!!! Where did he go? And so silent and so nimble? At that moment I heard him to the left of the house so I ran into our bedroom to see if I could see him through there. I couldnt, but what I could see was a torch light shining where I had heard the noise and it wasn't my torch. It was Pierre! He was on his way to look at the elephant, which I had now stupidly chased away. Pierre and Brian burst into the door on the other side of the house and I was like, he's gone :( I just closed the curtain and he disappeared! So Pierre (gun-ho Dundee), just unlocks the door and swings it open. Now the door makes a leettle bit of a BIG noise when you open it, which can frighten the smallest of God's creatures. We then heard the ellie still on the left of us but now it sounded like he was moving away fast because we heard rocks moving so we thought he must be going up the hill. Hectic! Rock climbin olifante! Nice one. Just as he was moving off, Pierre did manage to get a glimpse of his bum moving between the trees but then he was gone. The night's animal action had come to an end! What a night. What a sight! Loved it! I was visited by an elephant and all the staff at the lodge were quite excited by the fact. Hope he comes again, I will definitely try not to chase him away next time, maybe he will let me even sit on his knee..... Bye for now!

There's an ellie on my stoep

It's 7:50pm on Sunday night and Ive just got back from another routine game drive down along the Luvuvhu floodplains. We've decided to give our 2 American guests a private dinner tonight out by the pool, which is cool cos then I can chill (we sit most other meals with guests). Its full moon tonight - so bright that you do not need a torch really when walking from the staff village to the lodge. Half an hour ago Andria phoned the office from our house on the intercom to report that there was an elephant on our stoep, and that she was quite nervous. You see a certain complacency builds up when after 3 weeks in the bush the only wildlife youve seen around your house includes the likes of impala, kudu, genets and a brazilian yellow spotted rock dassies. So when you see a large 5 ton bull elephant cruising 5m outside your back door it can be surprising.

Brian and I took a walk up there to check it out, but by the time we got there and opened the back door onto the stoep armed with my powerful LED maglite - the poor ellie must have got a fright and bolted up the rocky mountain outside our house. Many a rock seemed to tumble down - not sure why the chap didnt take the easy route down the hill - so now we have a big ellie up there with our dassie colony. Did you know that elephants and rock dassies are more closely related than you'd guess? They have certain anatomical similarities ie both have enlarged incisors (tusks), both are near ungulates in their foot structure and both have ridiculously long gestation periods (22 months and 8.5 months respectively)

Anyway its cool to have some wildlife just outside your door step. Before these 2 Americans arrived Brian and I went for an awesome walk up the Mutale River (a small tributary of the Luvuvhu). Brian is a friend I met on the Eco Training Trails guide course I did in earlier this year, who also happened to work at The Outpost a while back. He is on leave from his current job as a walking guide at Transfrontiers in the Klaserie so has popped in for a visit. So a couple days ago we set out at 7am on a 4hr walk NW up the Mutale gorge. The water level is at its lowest being the beginning of summer and no rains have fallen yet, so its easiest to walk in the river for a lot of the way. Luckily its crystal clear and for the most part only ankle deep - so it would be easy to spot any schneaky crocs. A kilometre or so into the walk we spotted some fresh leopard tracks (prob from the night before) in the sand on the river bank heading in the same direction as us. Always exciting to know that a creature as magnificent as a leopard has been down the same path you're on. We didnt end up catching a glimpse of the cat which was probably a good thing as the gorge has fairly steep sides for a lot of the way in that section and you dont really want to be in a situation where you accidently corner a leopard.

Further upstream we came across 1 shy hippo in one of the deeper pools who didnt hang around long and probably doesnt see humans very often as there are no roads near the gorge. We also saw baboons, impala and a couple old waterbuck skulls & horns. Birding wise we saw Crested Guineafowl, Fish eagles, Gymnogenes (African Harrier Hawk) and my first sighting of the European Bee eaters which are one of the early migrant arrivals. Carmine and Blue-cheeked should be following soon. It is great being on foot getting to know the area. I really cannot wait until Im properly qualified to lead bush walks as driving in the vehicle every day is limiting in some ways.

On that same day Andria went with Karen (the chef) on a shopping trip to Louis Trichardt (or Makhado - you choose). There she managed to get a cracker of a deal on a new treadmill from the Game store. So happy days - atleast she can continue training, as her 1974 treadmill just couldnt take the pace. We have donated it to the other staff who seem to enjoy walking and jogging on it. You know Andria is happy when you walk into the house and hear the pounding of feet on the treadmill and her singing at the top of her lungs to Avril Lavigne - which sounds peculiar when completely out of breath. But atleast I knew she was happy!

She is getting stuck into all the lodge admin and is making great progress. It's cool though when she can come with on drives to see a bit of this beautiful area and not the Lodge for days at a time. The weather has been really mild for the last week. 18-27 degrees and overcast- today we had a whopping 1mm of rain. But thats it for now - the next 4 days are forecast to be 35,36,37 and 40 degrees. ouch!

26 more bush days until we head home for our first 2 week break. 31 October it is. Look forward to cathcing up with friends and family.....