Log

Charley Boorman Log- Day 33

In which Charley meets some very friendly scorpions whilst off-roading with SA Adventure.

Now, I’ve never claimed to be great around creepy-crawlies. Heights, fine. Speed, great. Bugs? No thank you.

I’m facing a bittersweet day. On the one hand, we’re going to an off-road track and we’ll let our Nissan support vehicles stretch their legs. On the other hand, we’ll also be hunting for scorpions while we’re there.

Jonathan is arguably South Africa’s biggest Scorpion expert and he loves Arachnids almost as much as I hate them. When we struggle to find any Scorpions hiding under the rocks near the off road trail he simply pulled one out THAT HE’D BEEN KEEPING IN HIS SHIRT POCKET.

Obviously, I was only too happy to accept his offer of holding the awful thing in my hand.

Actually, I should say here that personal discomfort aside, the Scorpions were fascinating creatures and the instinct many people have to fear them is misplaced. Jonathan works to educate the local populace about these ancient animals and while I won’t claim to have changed my mind about them, I certainly learnt a lot.

Next, the great guys from SA Adventure took me on the off-road course. They usually use it as a tool to educate local drivers about how to handle the surrounding countryside, but I had a huge amount of fun running our vehicles through the completely over the top dips, hills and ramps.

SA Adventure rounded off the day with a fantastic braai (barbecue to us foreigners), but I couldn’t help but check the ground for anything with pincers before I sat down to eat.

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