A for Aardvark

I've been here three weeks now but it feels longer. The days tend to be slow because of the heat and lack of physical activity. I usually wake up as the sun rises around 6.30am. (I can see it from the shade net window on the tent, like a enormous sliver of melon rising through the trees). After coffee, Elle and I take a walk in the bush before it gets too hot. There are lots of little dusty paths through the bush made by the locals and Elle likes to scan these for 'spoor'. She's teaching me how to identify certain animals by their tracks. (About four months ago, a local stole a pair of lady's shoes from her tent and she was able to track him down to his home from by following his own shoe imprints.) This morning we found the spoor of a honey badger and an Aardvark which is actually an Afrikaans word meaning 'earth pig'.

Breakfast is either Pro-Nutro cereal made of wholewheat or the African version which is called Morvite, which sounds, looks and tastes like something you find in a builder's yard. Mixed with milk or water, the trick is to get it into your digestive system before it becomes a mold cast of your bowl.

There's always lots of chores to be done round the camp. Elle brushes out the tent everyday and for several minutes she's enveloped in a desert storm. It's a constant battle. The dust gets into everything. Your hair, your clothes, camera and computer equipment. Nothing is spared. (The water is black after washing clothes in a bucket!)

I try to write for a few hours each day but the increasing heat fugs your mind. The afternoons become slavish. Elle usually takes a siesta while I struggle on with brain melt. We have a couple of drinks around five (...a G&T for me old boy!), dinner about six before heading out to the park for the night to check on the hyena 'baiting' site. If the hyenas pitch up, we don't usually get back until after midnight. Then sleep.