We were up and ready to leave when Poifu arrived with his mokoro at the camp shortly before 7. We crossed the main river to Chief's Island and went for a morning hike. As we crossed the river, Klaus and Poifu saw a hippo. I, of course, had taken off my glasses and was busy putting sun screen in my face, so when I finally was prepared, the hippo had dived away.

The first animals we spotted that morning were a herd of giraffes, this time together with a herd of impalas. We followed them for a while and 'stumbled over' two elephants just next to us.

Then we walked for a long while without spotting anything. Poifu put in a good march speed, Klaus and I were both tired after the previous hikes (this was the third 3 hours full speed hike Poifu had taken us on in the last couple of days).

Poifu all of a sudden got alert. He stopped us and walked a bit further. He had seen a python busy feeding on a bird. When we later questioned him how on earth he had been able to spot that snake, he replied that you have to listen to everything around you. The other birds had been warning each other about the snake, and thus he knew.

In the afternnon we went to see Poifus village Takasimba (a.k.a Ntswi Camp) which was very interesting. All the male inhabitants work as guides for Gunns camp (which includes Gunns camp, Semetsi camp and Bush Camp).

Everybody lives in these huts made out of termite mound material. Since they don't have any cows they can not mix in cow dung. But they use cans (from e.g. cola) instead to stabilise the construction (see picture).

Mokoro Guides

For all we know Poifu, our mokoro poler and guide, is a brilliant tracker. He pointed out many animals that we never ever would have seen otherwise. He also knew the names of each and every one of them, knew their habits, how they feed or catch pray, etc. What a shame he wasn't particularily talkative, to say the least. I'm sure he could have told us stories all night till the camping fire died out. In the beginning he even gave us the impression that he was a bit lazy and tried to cut corners. Speaking to other guest and their experiences we found out that some guides seemed more motivated than Poifu. However, having the choice we probably wouldn't have swapped Poifu with any other guide. We particularily credit him for showing us his village - that was very interesting and most other guides would probably not have done nor even suggested it. It was really nice to see how he lightened up when he showed us around and told us about the animals, and also when he was in his village.

/ Linda & Klaus