Well it seems that I am still unable to attach any photos which is a real pain as there is so much to show you all! Oh well I suppose at least I can tell you about what we have been up to??

Now where was I...oh yeah the guinea fowl shoot - what an absolutely lovely entertaining day that was - certainly not to be missed! And the guinea fowl do very well as not many are actually shot!

We went with Clint, Mike Bullock and Albert along with about 12 or so 'beaters' all dressed in their blue overalls against the ever present thorns. It was an early morning with Mike meeting us at Clint's place. We then met Albert on route who had bought his son along Reece (or could be Royce) who was a lovely kid. We drove out on the same road to Deception Valley and once we reached the cut line we were on the look out for the elusive quinea fowl.

Mike was travelling in our car with us then Albert behind and Clint following with the beaters in the safari vehicle. We had been going about 30 minutes when Mike & I heard guinea fowl when we stopped for a pee. So we waited for Clint who took along time catching us up! When he arrived he was frustrated as we hadn't spotted a flock back further - said we must have been all talking too much.

Nevermind we all got ready for the first drive which was going to be the beaters going in on either side and doing the famous 'zulu' buffalo formation..... guns lined up on the road and waiting, waiting - only to see the flock fly off way too the left outside of the beater cordon - oops they had out smarted us from the beginning!!!!

Oh well back to where Clint saw the flock 'right by the road' but alas not to be found - so 2 nil to the guinea fowl. We came upon another group quite quickly and decided to go for plan B or was it C???? Where everyone walks up together into the bush - beaters in between the guns - why not? Only to be outsmarted by the birds again - God these birds are good!

Lots of laughter and scratches later all returned to the vehicles. Funniest thing is that the African beaters with us all think the white people are mad - why make the birds fly when they are so much easier to shoot on the ground - I ask you??

So we carried on and in the course of the morning I guess we had about 6 drives and bagged about maybe 8 birds. Plans B, C, D, E and F all got tried and then we decided to stop for lunch. Clint raced off to find the 'local knowledge' a couple of local farmers who joined us as beaters in the afternoon run.

My God I don't think I have laughed so much in ages (this was certainly one of the best days out for me). The other really funny thing was that the local guns:- Clint, Mike & Albert all wore shorts - Martin and I oopted for long pants and thought they must have known something we didn't.... only to be probably the only two at the end of the day that didn't look like they had been wrestling with the guinea fowl instead of shooting them - all cut to bits by the vicious thorns.

Well we had a magic day and one that we will remember for along time to come, although I don't think we will try any of these tecniques at Leighfield! We took a bottle of Sloe Gin with us and on sunset it was duly drunk by guns at a mighty pace I might add! I only managed to get a tiny bit... what a surprise to you all.

Loads of love and hugs to all xxx