Fun And Games

After the stress of the previous course I took a day off to go get loosed in the mountains. Talking to the other guys they had suggested a day trip up MT Lebanon as a nice day trip, only a bit over 2000meters above sea level. So on the morning of the 4^th me and Sanele woke early and embarked on our little stole. Going up wasn’t as bad as expected and at the peak we were treated to a fly by from the cape vultures. It was a rather awesome experience to be sitting about these birds watching the flock of about 30 fly beneath us and begin to circle. We then pushed on to the beacon stopping to fill up on some good old mountain spring water. Once at the beacon the top of the mountain become a bit thin but this allowed for spectacular views of the country side below. On our way back we bumped into a heard of buck and some baboons, before eventually making our way back to base meeting a few more creepy crawlies on the way. The following day was quite the contrast as I was on standby meaning I had to feed the cranes in the morning and sit around waiting for something to happen. But on the 6^th it was business as normal with a course of 96 boys coming. For this course I was assigned a group for the whole time and luckily I had quite a good enthusiastic group. So for the forest exploration we had good fun climbing up the river, followed by a good game of stalk the lantern. After all this I was ready for bed but just as I was about to head off there was this almighty bagging on the roof. Personally I was happy to stay inside and to leave what ever was on the roof to its own business. But the others weren’t so there we were at 2300 running round the house, Sanele in his boxers with a stick, matt with his damaged wrist from an earlier accident and myself armed with the mop looking for whatever made this noise. But as you can tell nothing ate us and whatever it was had gone so it was finally time for bed. A morning of wall climbing followed by some bunda bashing (wild walking) on the way to bushman paintings in the scorching heat, must have been around 35^o, but no one died and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves so it was all good. In the evening it was another night of stalk the lantern.  The following day was rather hectic up early to pick up the ladies before starting on the days activities but these were cut short by the mother of all thunderstorms, which put a stop to all proceedings, then in the evening I had to try and get 96boys into and to shut up before I could go to sleep. But the rat in my room had other plans but not been in the mood for a rat in my room I called matt and Geoff and with stick, spear and bin we managed to chase it away. The following day the course left and down at the office I met a baby crown crane. The crane decided it liked me so for the day I was on crane sitting duty, trying to teach it to forage and that it wasn’t a human, you know the standard. In the evening the daddy of all storms hit making yesterdays seem like a wee breeze.  Me and mat were just chilling outside watching the storm role in when I looked behind me and too my horror saw that it was also approaching from behind and we could see the rain falling ever closer, so we grabbed our chairs and raced for cover and just as we got under the porch the crash of rain on a tin roof arrived. For the next hour or so we watching and listened to the thunder and lighting crash through the valley. In the gap of the storm we went in search of the hit tree but failed to find it but the paths ran like rivers with the fresh rainfall. The following day I was meant to have off but as the only qualified driver left on sight I was called in to be support for the course. The basically met a day of driving. I had to get a bus onto the tar road, me the experienced off roader was supposed to pull the bus out if it got stuck. Luckily the bus didn’t get stuck so it was all good. When I got back I then had to drive the boss and his wife to the tar road to pick up another car. No pressure Jonny. Then in the afternoon I had to drive and drop the calf carcass off at a neighbouring far. It will only be a short drive to the house I though. Wrong it was a proper off-roading session over big rocks and river you know the stuff, to what I though was the drop off sight. However upon returning was told I had put the dead cow in the camp sight. But in the evening we had another bonfire to chill in front of so its all good. The next day I spent cleaning the mud I had plashed all over the off before enjoying my first proper evening off, oh it felt good to put my feet up.

The Bus Driver, The Sympathiser And The Fat One

There’s always one teacher in every school that a bit of a hypocrite, the one that’s just blames others for all their mistakes, the one that’s so old they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a kid. Well I was about to meet this one such person who would make the next course the toughest one yet. After my course left we had a days planning before they arrived. This was to be our first educational course and to help matters the teacher coming was meant to be quite the hand full. Well on the course day they arrived (2hrs late) and I met the fat one, at first not appearing to be too bad just a bit snooty, so the first day went off without a hitch. The following day was an early start as I had to drive to the next village to collect the cooks. After breakfast it was off to do an educational hike round the forest and plantation. This was going fine until we arrived at the forest and the fat one insisted that the other group not visit the plantation. So to avoid giving our group an unfair advantage we just took then on an exploration of the forest, climbing up waterfalls and so on, much more fun than any study sheet. After the mornings slight hiccup the rest of the day was plan sailing. Doing GDs and Obstacle course was fine, but this group has to be by far the worst and least organised team. In the evening I was called out on an emergency supply run, fetching medication from one neighbour to give to the other; although it turned out to not really be an emergency at all. However it was a good excuse to go for a drive and practise on dirt road in the poring rain, a lot of counter steering was done. Night duty was painful, the kids were kept up till 2300hrs doing work in silence whiles been pumped full of sweets and hot chocolate, so when the work was done it was no wonder they didn’t want to go to sleep. But after a painful hour of pleading with them to go to sleep I final got them all in bed and could get some sleep myself. The next day I was fetching the ladies again and I learnt along the way that I couldn’t really drive and drink coffee at the same time. After breakfast it was off to do a small environmental trail, but the fat one had other plans insisting on a full ecology talk and then a trip too the bushman paintings. Well there was just not enough time for this and by the time magic waterfall had been added to the wish list we arrived back at camp 2hrs 30mins late with some very hungry kids. Back at camp I was called out on another errand to fetch the missing potji pot before re-joining the group to do a crane tour. The rest of the day went smoothly after this and we made a big fire with flames taller than me to celebrate the last night. Round the fire we made stick bread and the sympathiser reassured us that we had done a good job and reminded us that we only had to spend 4 days with the fat one. The last day, it was nearly all over but there was still time for a few more dramas. Firstly my alarm not going off so I was late picking up the ladies but luckily it was an easy meal to prepare so breakfast wasn’t delayed. Then we were demanded to put on the Entabeni Olympics so we did so before doing the final prizing giving session, but it’s not over till the fat lady sings and she demanded more work be done. So we waited patiently outside with the now nervous bus driver (there was a group at 1300 to pick up and right now it looked like it was going to be a late pick up) who had been good company waiting for them to finally GO!