Elephant makeup

Above - an elephant at Dave's waterhole carefully applies some muddy water eyeliner and walks off, apparently satisfied with the results.

Bush camp

The first game reserve I went to was Timbavati, a part of the Kruger. Last week I went back to Timbavati and stayed in a bush camp - a more rugged version of the lodges, many of which offer five-star service, including jacuzzis and high-tech heating units. The bush camp offers something different - no heating at all, for example, minimal lighting (running off of solar-powered batteries), and a bathroom tacked on to the back of your tent, which makes for refreshing dawn ablutions when the temperature is not far above zero.

The approach to seeing the game is also different - the morning excursion is a walk, rather than a drive, which leads to the usual nervousness when you hear a buffalo coughing close by; and if the guides hear a lion or an elephant not too far away during the day they'll invite you to hop into the range rover and go and take a look at it. The senior guide, Dave, who is the owner of the camp and an extreme wildlife enthusiast, also took us out at lunchtime to sit at the edge of the local waterhole for a couple of hours and watch whatever was coming and going. At one point we saw a lone elephant which was walking along the side of the lake stop short, clearly startled, - and a tail disappearing into the trees - it was a large male lion which had been lazily sitting in the shade, also watching whatever was coming and going, including us. Dave told us to jump onto the vehicle - not for safety, as I thought at first, but to follow the lion.

Dave is planning to build a "sleeping platform" at the waterhole this year - so his visitors can sleep out under the stars and watch whatever comes and goes through the night. This sounds great - I'll go back when the platform's ready.

Above: leopard; leopards in trees (we parked next to them; they were two metres away, at head level); the lion that watched us sitting all unaware at the waterhole; a lilac breasted roller; forty elephants at the waterhole; the tent; bush bathroom; the waterhole at sunset.

Italian disaster

Pace the debate about whether the WC should have been held in South Africa at all, I dismounted from my moral high horse when the event got underway - and went to Ellis Park yesterday to sit in the blazing sunshine (in my corner) and watch the world champions (of football) get knocked out of the competition. Frankly they deserved it - for the entire first half of the game they all seemed too tired - or too old - to run. By the time they woke up it was too late - Slovakia felt pumped up and confident and kept knocking in goals.

The atmosphere before the game was better than the match itself - lots of fans had dressed up and painted their faces, and the sponsors offered various activities in and outside their mini-pavilions, so there was music (Coca-Cola) and dancing (Sony) and face-painting (Visa) and gimmicks like being allowed to sign one of the biggest footballs ever made (Hyundai). When the game started the chanting of the Italian fans behind us was louder than the vuvuzelas, but after the first Slovakian goal they went very quiet apart from occasional bursts of scurrilous abuse directed at the Slovak goalkeeper - who did in fact seem to feign an injury every time he was touched.

I was struck by how small the field seemed compared to how you see it on TV; and how it was impossible at times to understand what was happening on the pitch (in my corner we all had a fit of collective joy at the Italian equaliser - only to realise eventually, when there was a goalkick, that it had been disallowed); and I was also struck by how slow all the players seemed to be - but perhaps that was just the ponderous pace set by the lethargic Italians. Going to see a World Cup match was certainly worth doing once, but on balance I'd say football is better on TV - you can change channel or go and make a cup of tea if it gets too boring.