GBRT : South Africa 2012

Sunday, and a day of rest for the team before the start of the serious business on Monday morning. Just as well too for those members of the team still recovering from the previous night’s frivolities, particularly Rick who was still wearing dark sunglasses indoors at 5pm.

Today also sees the day of the inaugural entries in the Irish to Afrikaans translation competition. The first entry happened whilst Alwyn was sat down to breakfast with DC and Gary. Alwyn had ordered toast, and was asked "white or brown" by the waitress, to which he responded "white". The waitress stood there for a while, and then asked the same question, to which Alwyn responded with the same answer. At this point it was clear that not all was well, as the waitress continued to stand in the same place. When asked whether there was a problem by Gary, the waitress responded "Why do you keep asking me to wait?"

The second was the result of Simon's communication of an aborted trip by some members of the team to Kimberley. The buses set out along the N8, but very soon hit roadworks. Given that they would have been hard pressed to make it anyway, they decided to abort and instead visit a crocodile farm (obviously). Unfortunately when they arrived, it was shut, so they aborted completely and came back to the hotel. In recounting this story to one of his shooting companions, he got a confused look. When pressed, the shooter asked of the crocodiles "why were they shot?"

Some of the team headed out to the Bramley's farm for a lunchtime Braai, and to pay the team's complements to Peter and family. They were greeted by a group of Eland (the largest antelope in Africa) just beyond the boundary fence. They were also treated to a lesson in water divining by Peter, a skill which only Alwyn seemed to possess, managing to successfully determine the location of an underground stream. Indeed he was so good at it that even when trying not to make the divining rod move, it still did.

Following the successful water locating experience, Gary, Alwyn and DC picked up Steve Thomas, and headed out for a game of golf, with DC and Steve taking on the relative youth of Gary and Alwyn. Thanks to the handicap system, the lead was traded between the two pairs up to the final hole, where age and experience triumphed. However, it could all have been so different if Gary's last shot had made an extra six inches, and therefore missed the lake.

An early dinner for everyone this evening, in time to get a good night’s sleep and be up for the start of shooting at 8am tomorrow morning.

Quote of the day goes to Lauren for "We're just up here on the right". Erm, that's your left Lauren - might explain some of the wind calls...