Week 1 - Survival of the Fittest – Thanda

Firstly small apologies re lack of pictures as we at present are restricted on upload information but have hopefully managed to sneak a quick photo in.

Also please note there may be a little too much of chatting this time as we want to provide an idea of what our day is about for the few people who are slightly more interested in what we do rather than funny stories (sorry to the rest of you!). In future we promise it will be more of the scary and fun.

As always no matter how much planning you do (10 months worth in our case) someone is always there to spring a surprise. On this occasion good old BA! Nice lady on the front desk advised us we must pick up our bags at Johannesburg, so we did. Well sort of, one arrived and one didn't. Next three hours of people saying don't worry it will be at Richards Bay and Dawn pleased we had separated all our gear across two bags against the fact that for the first time we are about to loose one of our bags. It did turn up and finally we were on our way.

Congratulations though to South African passport control - 5 minutes and we were through.

As with any trip when you are being picked up you look for your name on a little board and thankfully we were quickly escorted off the premises and off on a drive north towards Thanda. We were with three other ladies, one from Italy, one from Australia (Marty who we are now with for two weeks) and one from London - all not quite sure where we were staying and what we had let ourselves in for.

We had 2 people exchanges (anyone would think we were people trafficking with different characters from around the world all going to the different camps organised by Wildlife Act) and finally ended up at Thanda.
Bags were all dropped off and 10 minutes later we were rushed off at high speed literally dropping everything to catch the end of 5 White Rhinos being released.

This really was superb to see and watching a Rhino wandering down the road as if drunk during the end of his sedation was amusing. The Rhinos had come up from HIP (where we will be going to shortly) to be released on some new land that Thanda has expanded onto.

Xtreame Safaring 

This is a phrase that we designed on our last safari with Jenny and Ivor in Sabi Sands Game Reserve near Kruger Park in South Africa. Bottom line three day two nights of safaring with about 8 hours sleep and the rest of the time split between about 3 hours of eating and the rest being bounced around in a safari vehicle. This was totally exhausting but very smelly based on us only managing a shower near the end of the trip.
What is the definition of smelly? - this relates to the three other people you are with e.g. how long would you last to sacrifice sleep for a shower when you are VERY tired? In our case this was nearly three days! Please note this was after being bounced around in a safari vehicle in 30+ degree heat.

Back to our trip - Xtreame safaring returns to a certain extent - 2 days in a plane and on safari to be provided with another decision, a cold shower which is only a dribble from a clogged up shower unit or not bother and hope it is better tomorrow? Guess which one we took? Unfortunately the hot water did not arrive and a cold shower it was - Following day the hot water arrived and we now feel alive again - We know we are in Africa so just get used to it! Is the phrase, but not when everyone else has hot water!. This especially came home when we were advised the swimming pool that was available a couple of weeks ago had to be drained for water for showers etc due to someone stealing the water pump for the camps bore hole!

By the way the reason for the cold shower - someone had forgotten to turn the on/off switch on our boiler to ON!

The Day/ The Lifestyle

What do we get up to? We are up at 4.30am ready to empty shoes and clothes of Geckos/spiders beasties etc, get breakfast and off at 5.30 looking for the Wild Dogs. Once and if found by telemetry (a strange gadget using radio waves and an H shape metal receiver -  imagine a coathanger on a stick and you are pretty accurate) tracks the dogs and when we have found them we have to log location via GPS signals and make notes. Sounds easy until you find out the best distance the radio receiver goes is only say 1km and that is if on flat ground and the dog is sitting still! – all in a 32 sq kilometre reserve!

Once found and not until 8.30 (in case they move) we then go tracking Rhino, Cheetas etc, before returning for a quick bite to eat about 12.00, a possible snooze and more specifically going shopping for our food (every 10 days as at this place the shop is an hour away – best purchase being bottle of Gordons Gin less than £8), washing etc etc – all in all great Xtreame safaring and we have been advised in Tembe where we are going to later it will be possible to do 12/14 hours a day if we want!!

In the afternoon we are back out again at 3.00 just to find the dogs again where they are usually still sitting out of the sun. Main aim here is to see where they are off to, so tomorrow morning you might have an idea of where they are.

All large animals (big 5 and obviously the dogs) have to be logged on a chart to be inputted later at the main camp where we are today Friday.

Back home at 6.30 to have a G&T and cook tea followed by bed at 9.00.

Best Bits

* Rhino release
* Not being at work
* BEING HERE!

Tip of the Week

Don’t sleep on your back – Gecko pooh does not taste nice!

Lots of love and see you in approximately 9 Weeks!

David and Dawn xx