We make our way quickly back to the car park and Ian points us all in the direction of the small roofed-over pavilion off to one side. Inside, a set of cardboard lunch boxes have been set out for us by Joshua, but he dashes off to the car as Ian calls him over. The two of them are back in a few moments with the first-aid box.

“I don’t want to bandage you up,” Ian tells me as he opens the box.

“Good, because I don’t want you to either.”

“Let’s just use a couple of alcohol wipes to clean you up and mask any smell of blood.”

“We’re not over-reacting, are we?” I ask as he gets to work.

“Probably, but better to be safe. Besides, it needs to be cleaned up properly in any case.”

“Can’t we leave him as he is?” Andrea asks with a smile. “He might attract a leopard. It’d be worth it!”

Brian gives me a nudge and slides a lunchbox in my direction. His own seems to be already discarded. When I raised my eyebrows in question he nods. “I told you to make the most out of breakfast.”

I tentatively open my own lunch and take a look inside. There’s a hard-boiled egg, a sandwich that is most likely cheese and, wrapped in clear film a thing that is probably a chicken drumstick but that looks more like it came off a cremated sparrow. There’s also a small chocolate bar, a banana and a cuboid carton of fruit juice – the sort that you pierce with the attached plastic straw to drink.

“Yeah, I can see why. This is pretty grim.”

“I did a day safari in South Africa once. Apparently, African packed lunches are the same everywhere,” he tells me with a smile. “To be fair, you can’t really go wrong with a boiled egg and a banana.

At least I’m not the only one who seems unimpressed. There’s a general feeling that it could be better. At least we are under some shade and the fruit juice is actually palatable. Indeed, the banana is as good as the ones I had at breakfast.

There’s a murmur of polite conversation as we sit around the table and eat that is suddenly broken by the arrival of some tiny visitors.

“Dwarf mongoose,” Ian tells us as a handful of long-tailed sleek creatures invade the pavilion looking for scraps.”

It takes me a moment to re-orientate myself and get the camera ready, but the little mammals are very accommodating and clearly very used to being around tourists. One or two crumbs and crusts are surreptitiously dropped onto the floor and they are quickly squabbled over and devoured. In many ways, these little creatures are every bit as enjoyable an encounter as the lions were earlier.

This is much closer than I ever needed to be to the wildlife, but also clearly not particularly dangerous. They are pretty obviously used to coming and scavenging around tourists and don’t try to do anything too bold.

Well, the adults don’t. The youngsters seem far more inquisitive and fearless. I didn’t see it happen, but I’m sure that one of them ran over my foot. It’s a very pleasant interlude overall. The food may have been a disappointment, but a few minutes to sit outside of the vehicle and relax is most welcome.

 

Once fed and watered, the afternoon continues with a slow drive around the rest of the park. It’s an afternoon filled with many sightings, though none perhaps as exciting as the lions of the morning.

Coming from an island that has lots of farms and livestock – even if my own family background isn’t a farming one – I’m struck by just how much bigger than a domestic cow a buffalo really is. They’re absolutely enormous and it is difficult to see how lions can ever hunt such a big creature successfully.

Our brief glimpse of the black rhino is perhaps the highlight of the afternoon. Sadly, it’s a fleeting view as this one doesn’t seem particularly keen on being seen. It simply turns away from us and disappears into some dense brush within just a few seconds of being sighted. I don’t even manage a photograph, my arm being a little sore from my earlier fall and getting slightly stiff.

The fact that it is mid-afternoon at the time and pretty hot doesn’t help. All of us, Ian included are a little lethargic, a combination of the heat and lunch. If we weren’t on such a tight schedule, I think we would have rested for a couple of hours.

By about four-thirty, I’m beginning to feel that we’ve seen everything and it soon becomes clear that Ian thinks so too.

“Joshua, let’s head slowly back to the gate,” he tells our driver at last. “I think we’ve had a pretty good day so far and we could all do with a few hours of quiet.”

We aren’t the only ones with the same idea. As we start to approach the main gate, we find ourselves in quite a convoy of similar vehicles, finally finding the other two thirds of our group who have taken separate paths for the day.

I’m grateful for the fact that we are lodged so close to the park now. Our quick drive back takes only a few minutes, even allowing for the increased traffic on the main road as evening approaches.

As we all alight in the parking area of the lodge, Peter has a few quick words. “Dinner at seven-thirty,” he tells us with a smile. “Geoff tells me everyone who wants to do the bird checklist is welcome at the bar around seven. The only other thing to note is that we leave before nine tomorrow, so don’t miss breakfast.”

“How is the arm,” Brian asks as he collects our key and we walk back towards our chalet. “It looks pretty angry.”

“It is a little stiff and I can feel a bit of heat in it, but it’s not that bad. Not looking forward to a shower though.”

“Do you want to go first? I’m assuming you want to do the bird checklist?”

“I’d like to, is my going first okay with you?”

“Yeah, I don’t need to do the bird list and I don’t drink alcohol, so the bar holds little attraction for me.”

“You don’t drink at all?”

“No, three years now.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to pry.”

“Don’t worry. I long ago accepted that I had a problem. I also accept that I have it under control.”

“Well, I’ll remember. Soft drinks are okay, I assume?”

“Sure. I’ll let you buy me a coke sometime.”

My arm really is getting a little stiff and, when I get into the shower, it is pretty clear that my hip is a little bruised. Should learn to pick my feet up, I guess. As expected, the first contact with hot water stings like hell, but I manage to suffer in silence. A couple of minutes under the stream of warm water helps a lot and I emerge, wrapped in a towel, feeling a lot better overall.

“You’ve got about ten minutes,” Brian tells me as he removes his wristwatch and places it on his bedside cabinet. He’s already down to his boxers and I have to say that it’s difficult to look at him without obviously staring. Apart from the scar, he’s really in very good shape. Not something that I thought I liked.

“Thanks. I’ll see you at dinner.”

Once I’m alone in the room, I get dried off and dressed quickly, grab my laptop, download my photos from the day and head off towards the bar. I quickly spot Geoff and Tim, along with a couple of others, at a table in one corner.

“Oh, good,” Tim tells me as I sit with my laptop. “Geoff likes the old-fashioned pen and paper, but I’ve got a copy of the full list in Excel. Do you want me to email it to you?”

“Thanks, Tim, that will be great.” While I wait for the email to come through, Geoff makes fresh introductions to the others at the table and I order a gin and tonic as that seems appropriate for an African evening.

“First day at the list is always a big task,” Geoff warns me once I get the file downloaded and opened. “We’ll go through the list in order and tick off any that we have seen.”

“I probably don’t know what most of them are,” I tell them honestly.

“Not a problem. We’ll show pictures if you’re not sure,” Tim tells me. “If you’ve got any we haven’t seen, you can show your photos as well.”

The whole process does indeed take the best part of half-an-hour. There’s not too much disagreement, but I do have trouble following some of the time. By the end of the process, I can’t believe that I’ve seen more than forty different species. Geoff and Tim inevitably have a few more, but I wasn’t trying to get photos of the numerous, to me similar looking, plain brown birds that were almost everywhere.

I’m also delighted that I managed to see something that they didn’t. I’m sure they’ll catch up, as they assure me it is a species that should be common everywhere.