People come and go all the time
at the lodge, staying for anything from 1 night upwards. 3 other couples arrived the same day as us
and generally we shared vehicles with one or another of them on all our
drives:-
Amy and Brad – a lovely couple
from Australia only over for 8 days but packing in all they could. They gave
Melbourne as their hometown but it turns out they live only 2hrs drive south of
Geelong where Toby and Jay are, so in Australian terms are practically
neighbours (cue for song!). Amy is a nurse
and Brad a sheep farmer but I have to say the most a-typical Aussie sheep
farmer imaginable; he’s rather slightly built, pale and quiet. Prior to taking on the farm he’d been a
roving shearer but now as well as running his own 1200 sheep herd he also did
ultrasound scans on other farmer’s ewes to confirm pregnancy and check for
twins.
Patti and Billy – from Michigan
and the most delightful pair you could wish to meet. Sadly both had lost their partners in recent
years but having been friends for a long time they were now travelling
companions too and they were a great double act. Patti was lively, sparky and full of chat and
jokes and Billy said not a lot but when he did it was usually hilarious.
Mr and Mrs Czech (certainly the
lady was called Dagmar but we never were sure of his name). They were in our truck the first day and he was
thrilled to see my Canon cameras; unfortunately he’d left his battery charger
at home and having been on safari for a couple of weeks already he had run his
1 (twit!) battery down and therefore was unable to make use of his huge 800mm
lens. He did have a Sony with a pretty
decent lens but not quite the same.
Sadly Mr spoke only a little English and Dagmar absolutely none but they
were a lovely couple and so grateful that I lent them the battery charger each
night they almost genuflected whenever they bumped into me. They’d been on safari many times before and I’m
sure had loads of tales to tell and I’d love to have seen some of his photos
but sadly the language barrier made most conversation past hello impossible.