Cape Crusader: Will it charge or not???

Wednesday 31st March 2010

This morning we drove with no real intention but ended up having another close shave. I took some pictures of our scenery:

And one of my car-sharers. Left to right is Michelle, Ana, Ashley and Lina:

We had stopped on a track to check signals when a large bull elephant appeared in the bush to our right, several metres away. The elephant was staring at us and our engine was off. Switching it back on would risk startling the elephant and possibly upsetting it. We were therefore resigned to sitting the situation through. We were at the mercy of whatever mood the bull was in. Luckily his mood was a relaxed one, as he wandered over to us, stopped and stared for a few seconds before walking away in front of us. I scrambled to reach my camera and got these shots:

During this experience I remained relatively calm. Perhaps this was due to the recent lion experience. More likely though is the fact that the elephant was on the opposite side of the vehicle to me and I therefore had several women acting as a human shield!

In the afternoon I was assassinated by being carried to the hammock by Richard and Gary before Ashley touched me with a stick. Earlier, due to the stress of the game, I had considered suicide by sitting in the hammock whacking myself with a stick.

In the evening we went to Evangelina, a restaurant and bar near to the base. It was a fun night and I can only vaguely remember being in the restaurant's pool. I also had a shot or two and decided to sleep through sections of the evening. Last thing I remember was being in the pool fully clothed and chasing the labrador, who had stolen by flip-flops. It wasn't until Thursday morning that I discovered that I had been taken care of by Ana, who told me to change out of my wet clothes before going to bed. I remember nothing from the pool onwards...thanks Ana!

Here are some pictures from our night out. First up is me and Lina: