Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

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distance away to the four winds. Then you brush around over your tracks and cover the area you
slept in.
We more or less wandered around through the morning, then lunched at a large tree at the
riverside, then forded the river, really not much of a ford, but you have to take your shoes off to do
it. The sky was clear, though a few clouds gathering and a predicted front worried them, and they
wanted a protected camp. We climbed up a gentle slope to a flatter area, and camped in a grassy
area after some time deciding where the rhino were least often coming through. They pitched one
rainfly.
Black rhino browse and have larger twigs, cut at 45 degree angles. White rhino graze more and
have less coarse dung.
seen in the day on the trail:
impala
helmetshrike
white backed vulture, flushed from nest
hammerkop nest, with entrance hole
Louis Liebenberg is better on tracks than the Clive Walker book.
scarlet chested sunbird
male nyala
battaleur eagle
water buck
5 kudu
Some minute ticks were a bother, the early moult stages of a larger tick. They call these pepper
ticks, and they get in especially around your socks. They are almost too small to see and rather
like a chigger bite. They wear sandals and say this prevents their getting hold, though Wayne Elliot
says this is not a good idea in the bush, and that you can just leave your socks off inside your boot
and it works o.k.
There was a bit of rain during the night, and they scrambled out and pitched the second fly, but it
proved hardly necessary.
July 23, Sunday.
Cloudy day, though sometimes cloudy bright. We were off to a leisurely start again and more
wandering around, this time up a higher area.
75 buffalo, seen at some distance downriver.
2-3 dozen impala
warthog
5 impala
warthog, up close
We looked around several water holes where they reminisced about some adventures with rhino
there in earlier days.