9th May
The night was pretty uneventful and we wake up refreshed. Charl goes off to work (2 min walk to the office) and I attempt my first run. I decide I can only manage one dog at a time on a single track path hacked through the thicket. I’ll be honest, it was not the most relaxing of runs, its goes something like this, dog on lead which straps around my waist we start running, dog needs a wee and stops abruptly jerking me back, dog goes for a wee, we continue, dog runs close behind me, me unintentionally kicking him in the face with every step, pulls dog in front, dog runs really slowly in front of me nearly tripping me up, as he is unsure if I am coming or not, until dog hears something in the bush, dog charges off pulling me by the waist as I stumble over rocks and acacia thorns, yank dog back on track, continue to run slowly, run, stop, pull repeat, run, stop, pull repeat… the cycle continues until I put that dog back and get the next one. I manage 2.5km before I have had enough/I’m too tired/the altitude kills me, not my best run yet but we tried.
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| View from the hide |
The rest of the day revolved around getting our belongings, cleaning and arranging the house, it is a beautiful old farm style house, with three big ensuite bedrooms so *Karibu to friends and family to visit. Most importantly we get the internet and TV set up, a desk put in (for all the work I’m going to do at home) a dining room table and all the bedrooms set up. I whittle away time in between by watching the sunbirds and purple grenadilla in the bird bath in front of the house and put up a bird feeder to encourage more birds. In typical geek fashion I also set up a ‘birding station’ with bird books, tripod camera and binoculars by the front windows in case of any particularly special visitors.
The evening is spent having dinner, watching TV and attempting dog recall training, mainly me calling the dog manically while waving chicken around while said dogs run off in two different directions chasing animals with their noses to the ground.
- *Karibu – welcome in Swahili
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| View from the front door of the house onto the bird bath |
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