1st April: Who's a Fool!

Pic of the Day!

Morning Drive.

( Johannes)

Lions ( Mahlatini Males) / Peru – Flooded Crossing.

Buffalo ( Breeding Herd) / Vielmieter – Sweetwater Pan.

Elephant ( Kambaku) / Peru – Sohobele Dam.

Elephant ( Kambaku) / Motswari – Motswari Dam.

Rhino (2 White Rhinos)

Afternoon Drive.

No guests.

Daily Synopsis.

One of the beauties of living in the bush is having no concept of time, that would include day and date, some of us struggle with even the year. It does however have one down side, or should I say, one day, and that would be April Fools!

With us having only one drive out in the morning, the majority of us were spared being caught out twice, as we were busy putting the final touches on Sharalumi Cottage before it's grand opening on the 5^th April. We however were caught out by head office who had set up their scam the day before.

After a pretty busy time we were all looking forward to a day when we had no guests in camp. It would also give us the chance to put the final touches on Sharalumi Cottage, followed by a relaxed afternoon and a valued night off. Being Leigh's, our F & B managers, birthday, we had a night on the town planned. We then received the unfortunate news that we had a last minute booking and that a group of twelve would be in camp for the evening. It was a well laid plan, with the booking being a 50^th Birthday and a whole bunch of special requests that would have us all hands on deck. Waking on the morning of the 1^st, we had kind of come to terms with having lost our afternoon off and our night out. During morning meeting we went through the days activities and assigned duties, when the phone rang, hmm..................... Strange head office would phone during our meeting, looking back at it the alarm bells should have started to ring! Leigh took the call and from her expression, jig & loud squeal of hooray it looked liked our day was about to change once more. She was notified that the booking was a phantom, Happy Aprils Fool!

After being caught good and proper, Leigh set her sights on sharing the feeling. She approached Elliot and Inge for help with her idea of calling in a Lion sighting feeding on a Buffalo. The only difference would be that the Lion and Buffalo would come from our Curio Shop, in the form of stuffed replica's. Elliot played it perfectly and called in that he found Lion tracks while on bush work and would follow up. He proceeded to string everyone along until he finally called in finding the three Mahlatini Males with a Buffalo kill in a riverbed where they both are frequently found, obviously not always at the same time. The responses started to flood in and it was a mere seven minutes till the first cars arrival! They had it set up perfectly and had parked in such a way that everyone would have to pull in front of them before the secret was revealed. It would appear that losing track of time and date is not only restricted to those that live in the bush. The reaction on both the guides, trackers and guests face's was first one of utter confusion, which was slowly replaced by the dawning of the date and the realisation that they had been had, all ending in lots of smiles and laughter!

Receiving guests again on the afternoon of the 2^nd we will have a Sightings Update for the afternoon and the next couple of days, and then will commence with the more detailed updates again from the 4^th, when I return to drive.