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.