What would I normally be doing at 6.03am on a Monday morning? Probably sleeping, maybe thinking about getting up to go to work. This morning, I've already been up for over two hours, been out walking for a little over an hour, and am currently standing with some of my fellow students in the middle of the African Bush looking at, and discussing Eland (a type of Antelope) dung - apparently it's very similar to giraffe dung, but giraffe dung has a groove in it and tends to be scattered over a wider area due to it dropping from a greater height…

This is day 3 at Mikaleke Camp in the very north of South Africa, overlooking the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Mikaleke Concession is the last truly unspoilt wilderness in South Africa, the land being still owned by the very protective Mikaleke Tribe. There is one road that runs straight through the middle of the land, and any members of the general public who make it this far north are not allowed anywhere but that one road. The only "buildings" in the area are two very small luxury lodges and the Ecotraining camp where we are. Our camp has about a dozen permanent tents, a communal dining tent, no electricity, no mobile reception, no wi-fi. We are truly cut off from the outside world, with the nearest village or town probably about a 2 hour drive away.

As at Kirongwe Camp, the routine here is that our group of 15 students has been split into 2 groups, each completing a 3 hour bush walk and a 4 hour game drive each day. Unlike Kirongwe, however, which was a 'mild' 30 - 35 degrees centigrade, here the daytime temperature seems to average about 40, dropping to about 35 overnight - not the most comfortable with no air conditioning or fans! Still it does have some advantages… Last night, once we got back from our bushwalk we were stood in the dining tent having some drinks when a male elephant came wandering through camp (other than the obvious way of telling it was a male(!), you can also tell because a male elephant's forehead is straighter and less angular than that of the female). He probably spent about 30 minutes wandering through camp eating from various trees, including spending about 10 minutes eating from the trees that border the veranda of the dining tent - during which he was probably about 2 metres away from us at times. On another night we had a honey badger in camp.

The walks at Mikaleke have been fairly tough going due to the heat. On the whole they've been educational as opposed to focused on game viewing (which is easier on the drives). A lot of the course is based around gaining knowledge of the whole ecosystem including the trees, grasses, plants, birds, tracking animals etc. I'll not go into detail here, but if you want to know how to identify a Tamboti Tree (it gives off poisonous fumes when burnt so you need to avoid it when making camp fires) or if you want to know the difference between a hyena paw print and that of any of the large cats, then just ask…! For those who are interested the photo attached to this update is Hyena dung, which is white due to the amount of calcium contained in the bones that hyenas eat.

Having said that on a couple of the walks we have tracked elephant. On the first walk we tracked a breeding herd to a waterhole and then made our way round to the far side of the waterhole to watch them. At first we thought it was a small family group, but elephants just kept emerging from the bushes and trees. In total the herd consisted of 23 elephants ranging from babies about one metre tall, right through to fully grown. On another walk we spotted a young bull elephant down by a different watering hole. We approached quietly, ensuring that we were downwind of him, and spent time watching him from about 100 metres away. Prior to this trip, I've only done one walking safari and we didn't find any animals. Here, while walking, we've seen elephants, buffalo, hyena, kudu, impala, nyala, warthog, hippo, and crocodile. On these bushwalks, although I've been much closer to elephant before, there's something about finding the animal tracks, following them, getting an initial sighting, working out how to get closer based on terrain and wind direction, working out where the exit points are for you and the animal should they notice you. It's certainly more of a thrill than viewing game from the safety of a Land Rover!

We've got another 2 nights here at Mikaleke and then back to Kirongwe for another 3 weeks. I feel as if I've learnt so much already, but I'm sure that there's still a lot more to go. Last week I didn't even know that there was such a thing as an obligate commensalism symbiotic relationship, let alone the difference between that and a mutualistic symbiotic relationship…!