Day 7

Sunrise at 7:30, and the start of another day at Kuzuko.

Only the men went to the Barn this morning, as the girls had to go into Somerset East to fax the order for the money transfer. We carried on where we left off, cementing yet more cracks, this time with Joseph helping us. He's a lot better at mixing cement than we are! Not many cracks left to fill now, but after breaking more of the loose brick and plaster around the big one next to the main doors and seeing the true size of it, we realise that is going to take some thinking about. Any bigger and we could turn it into another entrance!

We felt like we're really making progress on the seemingly endless crack saga, until we remember there's still plenty of work to on the outside still left to do as well!

One of the great things about working in the bush is when you take a break, there's always something interesting to look at. This is a lizard who lives in the water tank next to the bank. We have named him Mr Lizard.

Mr Lizard is watching, and we think he approves.

While the interior work might be slow and arduous, Elliot, the digger driver, has been making great strides on the waterhole, so much so that water from the underground spring is already being diverted and is slowly filling up the waterhole. It'll take time, but will be interesting to see it gradually develop over the coming weeks.

All great waterholes begin with a puddle

After yesterday's exciting encounter with Matt/Kalahari and his kill, we didn't really expect anything other than just a normal working day today, but in the afternoon Romeo, another one of Kuzuko's excellent rangers and top bloke, pulled up and told us Gerhard wanted to see us, asap. If there's one thing we've learnt since we've been here is that if Gerhard wants to see you, then it'll be in your interests that you go see him! With neither of us having no idea of what to expect, we jumped in the Cruiser and headed up to the Lodge where we met the indefatigable Gerhard. With myself, Gerhard and his electronic tracker in the front, and Max jumping in the back, we knew it was going to be good.

After a few km's driving deeper into the game park, Gerhard finally pulled up, threw the handbrake on and told us to wait in front of the truck, and to not be scared. Then he wandered away a shortish distance, tracker in hand, shouting "Avis! Avis, baby!". Max and I hugged and said our last goodbyes, just in case either of us were about to be killed.

Not too long after, Gerhard was joined by the most adorable wildcat, who greeted him like a long lost friend. This was Avis. A Caracal, also known as a Desert Lynx, named after being found abandoned in a rental car, who after greeting Gerhard came over to greet us too. Like a domestic cat, he circled our legs and purred, and obviously enjoyed the petting he was receiving as much as Max and I were enjoying giving him. It was easily one of the best experiences of our lives.

His wild instincts however, kicked in once he found a fortuitous meal of a dead monkey, which he dragged off to the nearest tree and began pulling off the fur to get to the meat. Any hint of taking it away from him was met with much hissing, and baring of some considerably scary looking teeth. While one might just survive a caracal attack, it's pretty certain that one would probably lose an awful lot of blood and skin in the process!

OM NOM NOM

As much as we could have sat there watching him for hours, the work on the Barn had to continue, so it was back down to Hopewell again, where we met the girls who had returned from Somerset East and had already resumed work on the rest of the ceiling struts.

As always, at around 17:30 the light began fading fast, so it was time to clear up and then back into the truck for the short hop home with Romeo, under another beautiful african sunset, with yet another fantastic expericence to add to our growing collection.