Day 6 … a sunrise walk and then J went downhill

 Hi folks. Ian here. Jacqui has been unwell today (she's OK-ish, more later) so I am stepping up for today's blog.

An early alarm today with sunrise coffee at 5.30am before jumping in the jeep for a 4-hour game walk, or more accurately a 30 minute drive where we saw giraffe, impala and hyena, followed by a 3-hour walk and 30 minutes back through a herd of elephants, etc.

The highlight was of course the game walk. Our two guides - Luke and Chrissy - leading the way as we left the Jeep behind and wandered through the bush down to the river in search of big game. Luke had a rifle just in case we found ourselves in a sticky situation, not that any of us hoped it would be needed.

The early phase was lessons about animal prints, dung and the challenges of surviving a dry season. Next up a competition to see who could spit a pellet of impala dung the furthest. I came second with an impressive 9.5m effort behind Robin, a young Belgian man, and Katherine from Las Vegas who is about my age. Obviously the Europeans are more practiced at dung-spitting. Now ... if you're feeling a little confused it's all pretty simple. Pick up a small pellet of impala dung, there is plenty about, dust it off, pop it in your mouth, lots of saliva, DON'T bite on it, just spit.

Next up we found a dry river bed and looked up to see an elephant 50m up a steep river bank. We circled around to a high point from where we spotted 4 elephants on the hillside. We watched them in awe for about 20 minutes, moving along, breaking branches, bending trees, with no concern for the steep, rocky terrain.

From there a short walk to Olifants River where we were greeted by 2 crocodiles (a 2m one spotted by Chrissy and a 4m one that Luke saw ... "You call that a crocodile"), and 25-30 hippos enjoying a bath. All great to watch in their natural habitat, with the hippos continually telling jokes and breaking into deep chortles at the funny ones. (Google "Noise made by wild hippos").

We had a short break for snacks and then walked along the river bank (another croc) and back to the jeep. On our way back to camp for brunch we were stopped by a family of elephants slowly crossing a river bed ahead of us. In the end it took Chrissy reversing the fully loaded jeep up a hill with Luke holding on tightly in the front spotter seat to get us home to camp.

After breakfast Jacqui finished and posted yesterday's blog while I showered, packed and checked the forward itinerary. Which is about time Jacqui's body threw it in. I'll spare the details, she's not well. Easy decision to skip lunch and bail out of the afternoon game drive in favour of 5 hours rest.

The afternoon drive brought me elephants, kudu, impala, wildebeest, duiker, squirrel and an assortment of birds, including the stunning lilac breasted roller. We saw 3- hour old rhino tracks but no big boy. We were directed to a lion sighting but he had moved on.

So now we are on the minibus to Marc's Treehouse for the next two nights. Jacqui is washed out and wasted. Fingers crossed she is better tomorrow.