April A to Z – Memories!

The fun just goes on. Today is the halfway point of the A to Z and boy, am I meeting many new folk and having fun! The whole experience has been a bot of a memory roller-coaster! Taking me back to places and past activities I most likely wouldn’t have been reminded of if it weren’t for reading some of the others’ A to Z’s.

I was going to do M for Music until I visited Susan’s G for Giraffe post. The memories that visit sparked had me retrieving one of my prized possessions! An ancient photo album containing a few pics I managed to “steal” while on Land Survival in 1985. I say steal because we weren’t allowed cameras… or smokes/ tobacco. I managed to smuggle both through but that’s a story for another day.

OK… back to Susan’s giraffe post. Here’s the comment I left. Also, some of the photos from that old album, which are copies so please excuse the quality. Remember, they were taken in 1985 with a very small compact instamatic!

Back to giraffes. Many years ago, I was part of a group doing a land survival course in the Klaserie Game Reserve. We lived in the open… no weapons apart from knives. One flare between the group to signal at night, if required. We found the giraffes to be inquisitive… they’d follow you at a distance as you walk through the bush. One morning, we woke… to look straight up at a large fella who was stooping down to see where all the noise was coming from! Me, apparently snoring… 
(To briefly explain… we would make small boma’s for ourselves (groups less than 4) before the sunset, either crawl in beneath the low branches of a thorn thicket or chop branches to encircle ourselves. In larger groups we would split the sleeping duties and the standing guard duties! FUN!!)

Yes… that’s what we woke to… this fella gazing down at us! I hope you enjoy the gallery… the memories are special!

Here’s the official group photo taken at the end of the three-week experience… if you should recognise any of the others please let me know!