GBRT : South Africa 2012

First full day in South Africa, and what a day it was. We started bright and early at 5:15 with a wake up call for the morning jeep safari. Conditions were perfect, not too hot, and with no sign of rain, except for Simon, who managed to get a bit damp whilst still indoors, courtesy of a sightly leaky monkey above him.

We were soon hot on the game trail, spotting white rhino, zebra, giraffe and lion in quick succession, with a smattering of smaller animals thrown in as well. No sightings of the world’s largest leech (1m long) however, but that's probably just as well, given Lauren's warning - "Three sucks and you're done". 

Back to the camp for some breakfast and extremely strenuous lazing around, accompanied by sleeping for most of the team to make up for the early start.

The afternoon safari started at 4 for most of the team, although Simon abstained, presumably thinking it unwise to venture into the bush smelling of monkey. The afternoon didn't produce as many animals as the morning, although we did collect another of the big five in the form of some rather splendid buffalo. All the animals seemed fairly unconcerned by our presence, meaning that Gary's advice when confronted by a dangerous wild animal to take one step sideways before turning and running (to avoid slipping in *&%$) wasn't required.

Sundowners and snacks followed before heading back to the lodge for dinner (yes, we are generally spending all our time currently either sleeping or eating!). First course was a tomato soup, which in Simon's case came with added moth. Rather than putting out of it's misery, Simon proceeded to wash the moth, despite the protestations from the rest of the team that this was unlikely to help it.

Post dinner, people either headed to bed in anticipation of another early start, or in the case of some of the team (James, Gary, Alwyn, Peter and Ben), stayed up to investigate the neglected recesses of the lodge's drinks cabinet - an activity that seemed like a good idea at the time, but much less so as I type this. Many mampours, springboks, jagermeisters and Gary's slightly odd choice of an Amarula and rum shot later, the rest of the team followed their more sensible teammates in catching somewhat less than 40 winks.