Moli informed us that today's walk was going to be a bit longer and probably hotter as we were going to head up a sand river to see if we could see kilpspringer, hyrax and perhaps hyena which sometimes den or rest in the rocks.
Enroute to the sand river we encountered a small herd of elephant with a young baby; they definitely smelt us and hurried off towards the undergrowth surrounding the river. We then saw two big males who unknowingly lolloped towards us - we moved behind some rocks so as not to compromise them - or us!
When we got to the sand river we headed up the right hand bank to the top, as we did the bed got rockier and eventually after checking out a couple of pans to see how much they were drying out we walked along, up and over, the rocky bed. I couldn't stop admiring the power of the water in smoothing and eroding the rocks and leaving amazing patterns.
As we walked up the riverbed sunbathing hyrax scuttled to safety; then as we rounded a corner we saw kilpspringer standing on the rocks high above but they soon ran off when they sensed we were in the vicinity.
With the grass drying there were lots of spikey grass seeds which despite my ankle gaiters worked their way into my socks and boots especially as we headed back down the river on the left hand bank! At the end of the longest, hottest and spikiest walk the cold bitter lemon in the jeep on the way back was very welcome.
Our evening drive caused Moli to go into birding heaven as we saw Heugelins coarser on the road to the right of camp which we went to explore before going back down towards the river. We then saw D'Ardauds barbet one of my favourites and the final bit of Moli's heaven was a flock of cut throat finches, so named as the males have a red slash on their throats ( today's photo) - a bird which he first saw in a bird book as a youngster and was desperate to see in real life so it became one of his iconic species.
On the mammalian front we saw a young elephant with what looked like a broken leg - he had real difficulty walking but unusually he was being protected by a group of males.
We also saw another aggressive tuskless female.
Our lunchtime find was nibbled debris -something had nibbled through two bags ( plastic and fabric) to get to my nuts and raisins in John's draw - it had also set up a trail which ants were following - they got zapped with doom! I then opened my draw and saw two little dirts and put 2&2 together and realised there had been a mouse invasion - when we told Moli and Noelle they guessed it might be Salt and Pepper two little harvest mice they had rescued and fed as youngsters then released - to torment guests!! Not really ........ we shouldn't have had the nuts - but you realise how poor our sense of smell is in comparison to theirs as they must have smelt them out. Anyway the nuts and raisins were put in the fridge which killed the ants - when removed they made a very edible snack for our return flight.