Day 44, Cheers :'(

June 25^th. My last day of travel for the trip of a lifetime! Almost 12 hours of sleep, after running on very little for the past week! Everyone at camp had already been up, and gone on a set route drive by the time I was waking up. Well, it’s a long set route drive, so they were still on it, I’m sure. When I got up around 10:30 my body time (and 4:30 FL time), it was almost time to be served breakfast. I freshened up a bit and then decided to watch Life of Pi with my meal. I was all out of Africa documentaries, but I figured, this one had tigers and other awesome animals still! For breakfast, I had an omelette with chicken sausage, fruit, and yogurt. The omelette was surprisingly good! The sausage was not. I really love the cute little cups of coffee and tea that SA’can Airways serves you with your meals. :)  I eventually turned Life of Pi off, because there were too many interruptions from the PA system, and flipped through the Sawubona (“Hello” in Zulu) magazine, planning my future voyage to this country. :) We landed in JFK around 12:30 SA’can time, 6:30 local. Then began the most annoying experience of flying. I had to go traipsing through the airport, wait in a huge line for passport control, go to baggage claim, get my two suitcases (the handle of one which will no longer pull up), go through declarations, drag my bags around, stand in another line to check them in again, scurry around to the outgoing area, take the shuttle to a different terminal, go out back to where domestic ticketing is, and stand in another long line to go through security all over again, with all the people who are just now arriving to the airport to take a flight. Eish. I finally got through security and headed over to my gate. By the time I got there, it was around 8:30. I attempted to freshen up a bit, cause sleeping in a plane over the ocean leaves you looking rough! I got a coffee at Dunkin Donuts, yum! And then headed over to my gate to hit a wifi spot with a plug-in. My place was supposed to board at 10, but it apparently didn’t arrive from the international terminal until 10, so they still had to clean it and do a security check before they let us on. Yay for delayed flights! They let us board a little after 11, and we took off a little after 1130. I spent the whole flight reading 100 Heartbeats and learning about a lot of cool organizations dedicated to the conservation of really awesome animals! Then, we finally landed around 2:15. I was back in South Florida. Looking out the window at the airport, I saw palm trees and saw the beating sun, which I knew would be joined by oppressive humidity. It was finally the moment I had been dreading for about 5 and a-half weeks. Sorry to everyone who is back home, but I just wanted to turn around and get on the next flight to Jo’burg! My mom, grandmother, sister-in-law, and nephew met me at the arrivals waiting area, which was very sweet of them all. It was good to see them, but I just didn’t feel complete. I guess I have to go now and get my mind back in the real world. You know, figure out what I am doing with myself, and how I can get back to South Africa most quickly. I left the French girls, Jon, Lauren, and Daniel under strict orders to tell me about any and all predator sightings, and send me pictures as well! At least I will still be working on my predator research for the next few months, so I can pretend I am still there, hey. It has been amazing: a trip I have been dreaming of since I can remember. Everyone at Siyafunda was awesome, and my last 6 weeks exceeded any expectation I could have imagined. South Africa stole my heart from the minute I stepped off the plane in Hoedspruit and inhaled. Sala kahle, South Africa, I will be coming back for you soon! Ngiyabonga, baie dankie, and cheers!

Day 43

June 24^th. D-day. This is it. How I wished that I could go back to bed and wake up 5 weeks ago! I pulled myself out of bed at 6am, and made myself go take a semi-warmish shower. I knew a hot shower that early was too good to be true. Either way, I was awake. I packed as much as I could in the dark of my stuff that was left, while Alex was asleep in the next bed. I got most of it done, and then I went to make myself some toast and coffee. I ate breakfast with Anna and Jamie at the picnic table, enjoying the quiet of the morning. Then I went to go try to figure out a little bit of my plans for leaving. I had to check in for my flights and get my times figured out. I also had to organize some data to leave on the computers for the rangers there. It took me quite a while to do all that. I headed back to my room around 815 for final packing. At this point, I just began throwing everything into bags. It’s hard to organize your thoughts enough to plan for a 26 hour travel day and figure out what you need/don’t need on you as well. I kept getting visitors to my room to assist my progress and watch me pack my huge suitcases. It was pretty amusing I guess. I just starting handing Jamie things that weren’t going to make it home, and she and Leon were calling dibs on things as I handed them over. Finally, I was ready to go around 9:10. I scurried into the car after hugging and saying goodbye to Monica and Andrew. Everyone else was coming to town with us. As we drove to Hoedspruit, I watched the bush for any last sightings, and saw some impala and giraffe! : D They came to say bye! No cheetah boys along the fence line like I’d hoped though. We drove in mostly quiet, and I tried to soak in every last minute of the beautiful view and wildlife around me. Especially the mountain view, which still can never get old to me! When we got to town, we stopped at Sleepers to order our lunch to be prepped for us later. Then, Jon, Lauren, Daniel, and I set out to hit the city for a bit. We headed over to the shopping area and poked around in a few stores. Jon needed to go to Pick N Pay, so we all went with, and I ended up getting a few South African staples to take home with me. Got to bring a little bit of the country home if I can. :)  I also got Jamie some Nutella, cause I kept stealing hers all week! Haha. Then we leisurely walked back to Sleeper’s and hung out there, waiting for everyone. I had brought my journal, and asked everyone to write me some phrases in their native language. I had learned a lot of terms and sentences in other languages throughout the trip, so I wanted to write them down so I would remember. I also got pictures with everyone, even those who refused! Haha! We had ordered our food to be ready between 12 and 12:15. I ended up getting the Boboitie burger again, because it was SO good last time, and I didn’t know how long it would be til I got another! Jon had gotten the Camberbet (cheese) and Marula borewors burger, which I had wanted to try anyway, so we swapped some burger with each other. Both were sooo good! Marula jelly on a burger is quite yummy! Toko got held up at the license office, so he didn’t get to come to lunch, nor did I get to say goodbye to him. Jamie and Leon took us all to the airport around 12:50, and we were there by 1. There was one last lone giraffe female on the side of the road, my last SA’can wildlife sighting! We got there and got checked in quickly and easily. Phil and I were on the same flight, which was great! The time finally came where we had to say goodbye to everyone. I’m pretty sure I hugged everyone at least twice. It was so strange to say goodbye to people I have been living with for the past 6 weeks, who now felt like a family. :( Phil took me to the little sitting area to wait, and we discussed his next project, photography in Kenya. Lucky him, his adventure is continuing! I really should have planned to travel for a few weeks in South Africa or go to Tanzania for a while or SOMETHING. Going home feels so anticlimactic, especially after hearing how most of the other volunteers I have been with had a few weeks of some other travel after leaving Siyafunda. Our place was ready to board around 1:15, and we went through a very small security procedure to get in our little plane. As I walked across the tarmac to get into the same turboprop that had brought me here exactly 6 weeks ago, to the day, I realized how much had changed. I have learned so much, grown so much as a person, been challenged in different ways, and found a part of the world that made me feel so alive, and so much more like myself, than anything I previously experienced. I deeply inhaled the last South African air I would get for who knows how long, and remembered how I could instantly tell, when I hit the tarmac 6 weeks ago, that South Africa was unlike anything else I knew. I looked back over my shoulder at the little airport building, remembering how nervous I was when I approached it 6 weeks ago, and when I saw Dean and Cy for the first time, wondering if the rangers would be nice, if I would fit in at Siyafunda, and if I would have fun. Everything from that first time at the airport came flooding back to me. Phil and I boarded the plane, and I had one last look at the airport that had been my gateway to the beautiful lowveld I now loved dearly. I sat in the row behind Phil, next to the window. I spent the whole flight just gazing out at the scenery, and writing in my journal lists of things I didn’t want to forget. Quotes from rangers and volunteers, interesting lingo that my new international friends had used, trees and animals I had learned, and pages of my favorite memories from the trip. We arrived in less than an hour, and were in the airport by 330. Phil helped me collect my luggage and go through to the terminal, where the Marshall’s met me to help me navigate the international terminal. I said goodbye to Phil and set off. We had to get my suitcases weighed and checked in, which took a while to organize. I found Lukas and Rhi in the food court area, and decided to hang out with them for a bit. We had originally planned to do a little sightseeing in Jo-burg, but the Marshalls and I decided that it probably wasn’t worth the trouble. We would have been leaving the airport right at 5, so the traffic would have been pretty rough. According to everyone, there wasn’t too too much that would be exciting to go see in such a short time that we could make it to and back. So, after chatting with them for a while, they set off and I joined Lukas and Rhi. Rhi left about 30 minutes later, and Lukas and I went through security to get to our gates. Luckily, they were right next to each other! We just sat and hung out for about an hour, reminiscing over the awesome last 6 weeks (for me) and year (for him) of our lives in the bush. We were both pretty bummed that we had to leave already, and we were trying to plot ways that we didn’t have to go back home quite yet! It was really nice to hang out with him in Jo’burg, because at least he felt my pain of leaving! But, inevitably, the time came for his flight. After saying goodbye to my awesome ranger, I headed over to my gate to wait. I was all settled in the chairs around my gate for about 30 minutes, before they cleared the area. We were set to board at 19:40, but at 7 o’clock, they kicked us out to put us through security again! We had to stand in a long line, get patted down, and get our bags searched. Sheesh, USA. After that, we waited for a bit, and then got put onto our plane. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of the middle set of 4 chairs. But fortunately, there was no one on my left side! So I had a bit of room, which is definitely good on such a long flight. We took off at 20:40, and dinner was served shortly thereafter. I got the fish, because when they got to us, my choices were fish or fish…. It left much to be desired. I am sure that everyone at camp was enjoying some yummy bacon carbonera at that time, or else it was spag bol tonight. Either way, it would definitely beat the fish! I decided to watch a movie while I ate, and I flipped through the movie and TV selections. Guess what I found? Africa, the documentary narrated by David Attenborough. The Kalahari episode, which I watched a few weeks ago in camp. So I watched it again, with pleasure. :) It made the parting from this continent a little less sad. After dinner, and that documentary, I moved on to a documentary about the past 60 years of David Attenborough. Got to keep in the same vein of entertainment, because honestly, nothing else sounded at all appealing. It was actually a really good documentary, but since I had gotten up at 6am, I was pooped! I fell asleep a couple times, so I decided it was time for bed. I snuggled up with my blanket, curling up in the extra seat (yay extra seat) around 11. Once I shut my eyes, I did not open them until 7am. And then, I went back to sleep. Most beautiful sleep I have ever had on a plane. I slept all the way until around 9. Then I just stayed curled up, and tried to sleep some more. I ended up revisiting parts of my trip in my mind, watching the memories like a movie, and then eventually fell asleep again until 1030.

My last South African meal. Boboitie burger. Delish!

 The porch at Sleeper's!

 Goodbye to the mountains I love.

Day 42 :(

June 23^rd. Today was my last full day here! Soooo sad! I woke up around 8 and got some breakfast. I annoyed Lukas for a while as he packed, and worked on transferring some pictures to each other’s computers from the trip. We all hung out for a while and relaxed until Lukas had to leave at 11. Toko took him to the boom gate to catch a bus. We all said goodbye, but then the Nissan wouldn’t start. Typical. So, Leon, Jamie, and Andrew had to push start it! What a great way to go! After he left, it was time for us to clean the Cruiser. Everyone felt like having just a lazy day, but we had to do work. So we washed and swept the car, did data entry, cleaned up the kitchen well from the week, and some other small chores. Then, we all sat around and ate lunch on the picnic table outside the kitchen. We just kinda sat there, with our tea or coffee, and vegged for a few hours. We were talking about future plans, which was sad for me, because I finally realized that I had to go pack! I tried to avoid it for hours, but at some point, I was going to have to face it. Phil was at the hide on Xikankanka Clearing, and we wanted to go check on him. I had asked Jamie to teach me to drive the Cruiser, because Lukas didn’t have a chance to in the past week while he was still here. So we convinced Andrew to let us go. Jon, Lauren, Daniel, and Anna and I went with her, and we headed to the airstrip. I got to drive first, and since I have never driven a manual, I was prepared for some struggles. But I did surprisingly well! Jamie told me that I was quite good at it! I didn’t stall out once! I had some nice sightings on my first official drive, including about 5 warthog, some zebra, and a herd of wildebeest. At one point, I was about to shift into 3^rd for the first time, when a wildebeest got a little too close to the airstrip. Jamie told me to pump the brakes (the only way to slow down because the brakes don’t work properly), which I did. I came to a complete stop right as the wildebeest decided to run across the road. He was followed by a handful of zebra and about 30 more wildebeests, babies and all! My first drive in the African bush, and I get a whole wildebeest stampede! Of course, Jon had just turned off the camera that he was taping my driving with, so I didn’t get a video of it! But how great is that, an awesome wildebeest sighting on my first drive :) I’m pretty sure I achieved honorary ranger status with that! The driving was awesome, and we all had fun. The Europeans were so good at it, because they all drive manuals anyway! The boys put the vehicle into 5^th gear even, and I didn’t even know our 5^th gear still worked! After we all had a chance to drive a while, Jamie took us to go check on Phil. We did a Ferrari safari down the road through Lufafa because we didn’t want to be out too late. She thought she was on a certain road, then all the sudden we passed a dam, and she was like, “When did that dam get there? This is odd.” All the sudden, we hit the southern fence line, and she realized she was not where she thought! After taking a short detour through Lufafa, we made it to Xikankanka Clearing. It was actually quite nice to go the long way around, because it was like getting an afternoon game drive! I was kinda bummed that I wouldn’t get a drive on my last day, so it was really cool! I also jacked the front seat, which is my favorite place to be in the vehicles. :) We saw giraffe and impala on the way, and a zebra with a little tiny baby. We only spent about 5 minutes at the hide, to check on Phil and give him some food. Then we headed home, stopping for firewood. Last firewood collection for my last fire! :( Bittersweet! When we got home, I took a quick shower, and then went to enjoy my last sunset on the observation deck. It wasn’t the best sunset I have seen, but it was pretty awesome because I just sat there and listened to the bush for over an hour. I could hear and see some waterbuck grazing to my left. I also heard something walking around and rooting beneath the deck, which was probably the resident warthogs. I’m pretty sure I heard the ellies down by the river, breaking branches off trees for their dinner. I was just gazing at the scenery and trying to absorb it all. The trees, the smell of the breeze, the sound of all the birds, and the colours of the sky. I could actually identify most of the bird calls I heard, which was so cool to me! Just sitting there, enjoying the most amazing country and wildlife I have ever seen, for the last time in who knows how long, and I actually teared up a bit. I don’t know when I’m coming back, but I know it won’t be soon enough. I left the deck and went down to see about packing. I made Judith come sit in my room and talk to me as I packed, so I wouldn’t be so lonely. She entertained me by talking about lions the whole time, which was fine by me! I actually had a surprising amount of room and weight available, after I took out the 3 kilos of batteries my parents sent me. I also took out all the extra granola bars and snacks and made room for all my souvenir purchases :D It took me a while to pack, and luckily, when I checked about dinner, Phil had it all under control and told me to continue packing. I did almost everything, except my last minute stuff, and managed to get everything in and all my breakables wrapped in clothes. Dinner was ready in just a little bit after that, so I joined the gang around the fire for my last dinner and last fire! We were eating some concoction that Anna made up, basically mince with peas, baby marrows, onions, mushrooms, and spices, over rice. I had sautéed some butternut squash, yumm! And, as they taught me here, I put some sweet chili sauce over the meat and rice, yum! We enjoyed the fire and sat and hung out, reflecting over the time there. At some point, it came up that I had WAY too much luggage, and Andrew pointed out that my luggage weighed more than me! Oops. I guess they don’t understand that my parents sent me with a grocery store and a pharmacy in my bags! Everyone got tired pretty early, and began trickling off to bed. Most of the gang went to bed, and Jon, the French girls, Leon, and I stayed up talking for a while. A bit later, Jon and I went to go watch an episode of Africa. While I was getting ready, they found the civet in the yard again. I came out to watch him and follow him around, and we lovingly named him Frank. He was digging in the trashcan by the fire and pulled out someone’s beer can! Oops! We got to get pretty close to him and have a really awesome view. Then, we followed him around the corner of the staff house, and as we did, Andrew jumped out through his back door and scared the living bejeebies out of us! Apparently he had been waiting them for quite some time! We went and settled in to watch Africa with David Attenborough on the beanbags, but I was so tired, I ended up sleeping through quite a bit of it. I decided to call it a night a little bit before 11. I knew I had a lot of work to do still in the morning, so I needed to sleep.

Driving like a champ!!

  Black face Impala!

 The little path to the observation deck :)

 Cute waterbuck face! :D

Day 41

June 22^nd. After being up too late last night after our drive, we had bush clearing this morning. I woke up around 7, but couldn’t pull myself out of bed before 7:30. My hip was randomly in spasms, and I couldn’t really put weight on it without lots of pain. So getting ready and hobbling to the truck was really fun. We left around 8, and went back to the same clearing spot we have been working at all month. On the way there, we ran into Toko and the bush camp-ers, whose truck had broken down. We had to go back to the truck and tow it home to Twines because it wouldn’t start! Then, we headed back to work in the bush. We have moved pretty far down the road by now! I started out with a panga, but because of my hip issue, I couldn’t lift my left leg high enough to step on the branch to get it at the right angle to panga it, so I traded for some clippers. Such a sad decline after becoming a panga-pro. We worked from about 8:30 til 10:45, and boy did it heat up fast! I teamed up with Toko again to be the branch pusher/dragger/clipper/whatever he needed. He is definitely amusing to work with. I got attacked by lots of nice thorns, almost like a good-bye present from South Africa. Lukas told us to each pick one last tree to take down before we left, so I did some panga magic on a nice bush willow! It was a pretty hefty tree, and I learned that my accuracy is not the best. But at least I am determined! We got home around 11, and we showered and cleaned up so we could go to a local orphanage for children that either have HIV/AIDS or lost their mothers to it. We left around noon for the orphanage, and went to Blue Cottages for lunch on the way. I got the chicken creole, to try to be native and South African! It was pretty good and a little spicy. Then, we drove through some native villages on the way to the orphanage. We got to a local supermarket, and we all pooled some money together to buy some treats for the kids. We got them atchai, which is some kind of spicy chutney-like fruit spread that they love. We also got some Mopani worms, which are dried, crunchy catepillars that local people often eat. They can be cooked in a stew of some kind, or fried with batter, but these were just dried in a bag. Toko opened the bag and ate one, so of course, we all followed suit. It first was just crunchy and dry, and had really no taste. But it was a powdery aftertaste that killed it! I had only eaten half, but I didn’t want to give in! So Justine, Daniel and I forced ourselves to do the full thing. You have to commit to things like that, hey? Judith and Lauren weren’t so brave. Haha. It was definitely interesting. We choked them down and tried to get through the powdery texture. Then we paid for all the goodies for the kids, and headed out. On the way out, we popped our heads into the next-door hairdresser, and we greeted by a bald flamboyant man in 70s bellbottoms doing the local woman’s hair. Only in Africa. Then we headed out to the orphanage. We got there around 3, and our van was instantly mobbed by children. There were about 50 kids there at the time, as 20 had gone to visit relatives for the school holidays. We were given a little info about the orphanage’s origins and history, then given a tour. We made instant friends, with cute children that wanted to hold our hands and walk with us. We played in the crèche for a little bit, with the little ones. I made a little friend who had the cutest laugh ever. I just danced with him and tickled him, and it was precious! We pushed some swings for the kids, and just hung out with them for a while. Then we moved on to the dormitories for the older girls and boys. I made another friend, a little girl named Magi. We played with them for a bit, and they happily helped to unload the treats we brought them. Then, Toko brought out the Mopani worms, and the kids went crazy. I’m only kind of sure they knew they were worms, but it was like Christmas! He couldn’t hand them out fast enough! Apparently, they are excellent sources of protein, and to locals, they are a real treat. They happily munched their worms and danced around with us until we had to leave. We had an hour trip home and we had plans for a braii that night for Lukas’s going away dinner. When we got home, around 6, we had some time to relax a bit. Lauren and I baked chocolate cupcakes, like I had attempted to last week! We got them cooked, cooled, and iced by the time the braii was ready. We were having a proper feast for our braii, complete with t-bone steaks, butternut, potatoes, onions, and fresh green salad. We all ate til we were stuffed and happy. I brought out the cupcakes, which were a huge hit as well! We all hung out late and chilled around the fire, telling stories and enjoying each other. The Siyafunda rangers had gotten Lukas a wooden lion carving as a going away present for him, so they gave him that as we all thanked him for being an awesome ranger. We all stayed up late and cooked marshmallows over our open fire and just enjoyed the bush. It was a blast! And the lions were going crazy! At one point, a lion roared and all the rangers were pretty sure he was in the block RIGHT next to camp. It was insane, how loud and forceful his roar was. They kept it up for a few hours, calling off and on. There were at least 3 different groups of lions calling! We think two of them were the Makhutswi ladies and Xinpoko and Masana, calling to each other. Lukas had them at the river today while we were at an orphanage, and he had an amazing 2-hour sighting with all the Makhutswi's and the two dominant boys. Nine lions in total, lying on a beach. You can’t beat that sighting as a going away present! He said they separated at the end of the sighting, and based on the calls we were hearing, that’s who they thought it was. At one point, we also heard what sounded like a fight between some males. It was just an incredible night full of fun and beautiful lion calls. What a way to cap off the trip. :)

 Beautiful mountains on our drives

 Mopani worms. I ate one of these buggers!

 The kids at the orphange LOVED the mopanis!

Day 40, pt 2

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We left on the drive at 8 and bundled all up. It wasn’t really that cold yet, and we started out on our patrol. Not too long into the drive, we saw a lesser bushbaby in a tree. A few minutes later, we saw a genet, and followed it up the road a bit. We drove for a bit more, and suddenly there were lion cubs running up the road in front of us! I didn’t see the adult, but Jamie and Leon did. We tried to follow them but they went into the block. We circled around and entered into the drainage line where we expected them to head, but they apparently had gone a different way. We had a pretty interesting time getting out of the drainage line though! There were some huge rocks and we had to trample some trees to finally get out. We think it might have been Bella and her cubs, because Andrew saw them in that area earlier today. After abandoning that mission, it was about 930. We drove on a bit, but Jon wasn’t feeling well. I was sitting next to Judith, and she and I were taking little “doo-doos” on each other shoulders. When I woke up, we were at Twines to drop Jon off. We left again, and drove along the river for a while, in some really nice leopard habitat. It had gotten SO cold, especially down by the river. At this point, I had on leggings under jeans, two pairs of socks, a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, two kinda thin zip up hoodies, and a proper thick jumper, plus a hat and a scarf, AND a thick lap blanket over my legs. I was actually quite cozy, except my nose and cheeks going numb, and eventually, my toes going numb. We saw a black-backed jackal running up the road for a ways, which was really cool. Around 10:30, we stopped at a t-junction on a little rise for a drinks break. Jamie had been awesome enough to pack us a hot box. So Judith and I played barista, and made everyone steaming hot cups of coffee and hot cocoa, complete with cream and sugar. I had also packed some peanut butter sandwiches for whoever wanted them, and some other people brought snacks, as well. We all sat there in the truck, sipping our hot drinks with our snacks, and talking about the stars. Leon told us about some of the constellations, as well as some of the local traditions and stories about the stars. A couple people had to pee, but they didn’t want us to go far, so people took turns using the nature lavatory right behind the truck, while the rest of us sang or whistled. It was so funny, and it brought the French girls into a rousing round of singing songs in French. We left a little before 11 to continue the drive. Not long after, we saw a spotted hyena in the road. We watched him as he joined two more hyena in the bush. They ended up circling around the car, pausing to give us nice photo opportunities, and then making their way down the road. We turned around and followed them for a while, until they moved off into the bush. They were super calm and actually very curious, because they got really close to the car! After we lost them, we continued driving around to see what we could find. After those hyena, we saw some impala, nyala, and zebra along the road, just chilling in the night. I was getting sleeping again, so I accidentally took some “doo-doos” on Judith’s shoulder again. But Jamie kept hitting these huge bumps, which she SAYS was accidental. Hm… suuureee. Haha. Around 12, we heading back to bush camp to drop off Lauren and Daniel. Somehow, on the way home from there, Judith and I started to make all the animal calls we knew. We were making predator noises to call them to come to us, since earlier we had made hyena calls. Obviously, that one worked! Justine joined in, and the three of us were laughing and making strange noises. We kept asking the rangers what different animals made, even though they pretended they couldn’t hear us. They love us though! :D We were all pretty cold and ready for bed at this point, and right when we were about to turn right onto the road where Twines is, we saw elephants in our way! There was a whole herd right in the middle of the clearing by camp. We shut off the engine, and waited for about 20 minutes for them to calm, move around, check us out, and clear out. There was a little baby with them, and also a bull in musth following as well. We got to see some really cool actions and interactions of the pride. For example, one female came close to us to check us out, then went directly behind us, and then turned to each side of the road and tapped her front foot on the ground, as a signal to the others in the herd. Also, the matriarch, or one of the other ellies who is fairly dominant in the herd, came out from the bushes, rounded up the ellies in the road, and then faced us and backed up with everyone else bhind her. You could tell she was dominant because she guided everyone else and put herself between her herd and the possible threat. It was really cool to see how she protected them. She watched us for a while, backed up slowly, while the herd backed with her, then turned and moved down the road with them. It was definitely an awesome sighting. The moon was full, and you could see them so clearly, even without a torch or spotlight. We just sat in the silence and listened to them feeding and moving around. You could hear the low rumbles they use to communicate amongst themselves, as well as the slow footsteps as they pass through the thickets. Definitely an awesome end to my last official game drive. I may have partially gotten frostbite in my toes, but I saw lions, hyena, jackals, a genet, and ellies all in one drive! Plus, the sky was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun singing and making animal calls. Definitely one of my favorite drives of the trip. :D

 Look closely, there is a hyena!

 Full moon on the drive :)

Day 40!

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June 21^st. I was supposed to get up at like 6:30 today to work on my project, but of course, that didn’t happen! I got up at like 8am, and made myself some oatmeal and coffee. Then, I headed to the data room to work on my project. Andrew had asked me last week if I wanted to give a little data presentation to the group about my predator research. I told him I would, as it would be a good opportunity for me to bounce some ideas around and really figure out what my project is focusing on. But I have been SO busy lately, and since I went to bush camp the other day, I haven’t been home much. I haven’t skipped any drives this week, cause I don’t want to miss anything! Well, I decided to skip the ellie drive this morning, because I hadn’t prepped for the presentation at all. I spent most of the morning working on trying to show a trail following a predator, using all the consecutive sightings we had. I was stuck trying to figure out how transform data in a certain way, and Leon spent a few hours trying to help me. I finally figured it out, and then began to work on making some maps that I could show people this afternoon. The drive got home around 11, so I talked to Andrew about what I should emphasize this afternoon. They had seen the ellies they went for, plus the Tembe sisters from last night, which had apparently left the kill. After throwing ideas around with him, I created a powerpoint during lunch, with my goals and maps to show them. The presentation went pretty well, and I think everyone was pretty keen on my project. There were a lot of helpful questions, and we talked about the errors that are sometimes in the data, and how to make the data more accurate. It was cool to bounce my ideas off people and see their reactions to what I am doing, and see what they thought was interesting or cool. Then, we left for drive around 3. We went for lion observation, and decided to go check out that kill from last night. Leon and Lukas were quizzing us on trees and bird ID as we drove. But on the way there, Lukas suddenly turned around and steam-rolled back across the reserve. We didn’t know why, but we knew it was a predator! Judith and I were hoping for a leopard! Too bad, so sad. It was lions though, which was awesome! The Mahkutswi pride, complete with two sub-adults and 3 young cubs! Sooo cute! It was a little hard to see them well because the bush was thick, but we stayed for about an hour. We drove home along the river, looking for leopard or any other nocturnal species. We got home early, about 5:30, and it wasn’t even completely dark yet. When we got home, I helped the French girls make pizza, and Daniel, Lauren, Jon, and Lukas hung out in the kitchen and chatted with us as we cooked. Jamie and Phil came in as well, and it was just cool to hang out and banter like a family. We made really delicious pizza, and ate around the fire at about 6:45. We have a midnight drive tonight, for anti-poaching patrol. We will be gone from 8 to 1 am, and we are going to royally freeze! We are bringing food, coffee, and hot tea to sustain ourselves. It is definitely going to be a fun experience! ;D Hopefully, as we are driving around, we will see leopard or other cool nocturnal things!

Driving with the boys, airstrip and mountains ahead!

I spy a little lion!

Day 39

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June 20^th. Waking up at bush camp was such a painful experience! I slept well, only waking up a few times to switch positions. When my alarm went off at 7:00 am, it was too soon. I was nice and warm inside my sleeping bag, but I could feel the cold on my face, and it burned! Andrew had said something the other day about pulling your clothes into your sleeping bag to warm them, so I decided to try it. My clothes felt like ice, so I snuggled them for a few minutes. I ended up actually dressing inside the sleeping bag, which takes a degree of skill! But, getting out of the bed was still awful! While washing my face and brushing my teeth, my fingers went completely numb. I got ready and packed all my stuff up as quickly as I could move, half-frozen. I was ready around 7:40, and got to scarf down a cup of coffee right as the Twines gang were pulling up in the Cruiser to pick us up for road clearing. Jamie and Leon picked me, Lauren, and Daniel up, and we all headed to the clearing site. On the way, we saw fresh rhino tracks on the road. We got slightly distracted by them, and followed to see if we could find them. We were thinking it might be a female with a week old baby. We ended up losing the trail, and not finding them at the dam we thought they might have headed to. So we went back to the road-clearing plan. We didn’t get there and get started until about 8:30, and it was still pretty cold. We worked for a while, and Jamie and Leon asked us to collect firewood as we were clearing. So we were working on pulling some dead bush willow branches off a tree, when Leon accidentally twisted his knee, which he had injured previously. He couldn’t walk on it, so we had to go take him back to camp. Then, we went back to the road clearing and worked for another hour or so. It got quite hot all the sudden, because it was a nice clear sky. We got back to camp around 10:45, and I took a nice, hot, uncomplicated shower, unlike at bush camp! Since I didn’t cook yesterday, since I was at bush camp, I elected to take over Jamie’s lunch shift. Jon and I chopped up fresh veggies for lunch, and I made egg salad so we could have some nice sandwiches. We ate around 12:15, and it was quite yummy. Everyone was relaxing for the afternoon, and I went to make myself a cup of coffee. Of course, while I was innocently minding my own business, getting a coffee mug, Lukas decides to pour a glass of cold water down my neck. Great. Well that started a pretty epic water battle. It eventually became Jon and Lukas against me, and of course, they were mostly dry and I was soaked! I actually changed after the first few buckets of water and sat in the sun to dry off, cause I thought it was done! But then, of course, the boys couldn’t leave well enough alone. Typical. But it’s okay! By the end, they were both soaking and Lukas was even muddy. The water fight lasted a good hour, all around the camp. Then, we all went to shower off, and I got a second hot shower in one day! So lucky. :) We left on drive at 2:30, and it was supposed to be a buffalo and lion drive with Leon and Lukas. Well, we had heard there was a lions on a kill that morning, so we went to find them before the buffalo. We spent a few hours trying to find the dang kill, because the other people gave us really bad directions to the site. Eventually, we found it, but we had to defer to the Makalali rangers, because they called in to respond first. Eventually, though, we got into the sighting and got to see the Tembe females taking a little snooze, no kill in sight. We stayed with them, and they later got up and moved off into a different bush. When we followed, we found them feeding on their kill, an adult waterbuck. It was such a cool sighting, even though it was through some bushes, cause we got to watch them feed and interact. We stayed with them for about 2 hours, and all the trucks had finally left. We got some great pictures, and Phil (the photographer) and Leon were taking cool night shots with the spotlight and their nice cameras. We had decided to scratch the nyati (buffalo) from the drive tonight, in order to stay with the lions longer! On the way home from the sighting, we saw three hyena, two adult and a subadult, in the bush. We off-roaded to see them interacting and laying down, which may indicate a possible den site. We were able to get some good pictures in a clearing, and it was an awesome sighting. It was definitely the best hyena sighting I have had, and we watched them for a good 15 minutes. Then we headed home again, and arrived a little before 7. I made some tea, and worked on my computer a bit as dinner was finished up. Then, we enjoyed a nice hot chicken poitjie that Jamie had made for us while we were on drive. Everyone decided to turn in early, and I headed to the lounge to catch up on my blogging from the past few days, as well as work on my project. I am presenting some of my research to the whole gang tomorrow after lunch. Which is super cool, for one, but also, I am not as far as I wanted to be, so it will be difficult to do. I am staying home from driving tomorrow morning so I can focus on working on the project.

Giraffe family! So cute!

Sleepy Nandi after a nice big meal!

Day 38

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June 19^th. This morning, we had a rhino walk at 6:30. I woke up around 6:01, but I was really tempted to just stay in bed and not do the walk! But I don’t want to miss anything this week, cause it is my last chance to do all of these awesome things! So I forced myself to get up and go. It was SOOOO cold, and we all bundled up. The bush camp gang came with us, so I was sitting next to Daniel, and ended up scooching really close to him to share a blanket and body warmth. The African cold mornings are a great way to make close friends! So much snuggling on the trucks in the past few weeks! We drove an hour up to Pidwa, then began to track the rhinos. We ended up not seeing anything super fresh, but we followed a track from yesterday into the bush. We had a nice hour or so of walking around and following tracks. It was really cool to just enjoy walking in the bush, not knowing what is around you, but listening for any sounds. You become a lot more observant. We found some areas where you could tell the rhinos were moving around, laying to sleep, and getting up again. We saw tracks for a youngster with the adult, which was cool. But we decided to get back in the truck and check around some dams. We didn’t pick up anything fresh, so after doing some driving around to look for tracks, we headed home. It warmed up nicely on the drive home, which is about 45 minutes long, so Justine and I took some nice doo-doos on the drive (Doo-doo is apparently South African slang for a nap!). The sun, the fresh air, and the car bouncing is a perfect combo. :) When we got home, I decided I was going to head to bush camp for the night. I have been wanting to spend a night there at the bush camp since I have been here, just for the experience, so I decided tonight was the best option I was going to get! I quickly packed up my bag which many layers of warm clothing, and headed there with Toko, Lauren, and Daniel after dropping the Twines gang off. When we got there, I stowed my things, looked around a bit, and then began to cook lunch with Lauren and Daniel. Today’s menu was corn fritters, which I am a big fan of. I showed them how we made them in the past, and we quickly got a nice hot pile of fritters. The stove there in the tent kitchen is gas, and you light it with a match after opening the gas flow. It was definitely a cool experience to cook there. We ate on a cool deck under a tent, and it was very yummy! After lunch, I decided I would take a nice bush shower, because I think it would be cool. The showers there are in a bathhouse that has a foot of open between the wall and ceiling, so you get some nice sunshine and air. You have to boil your kettle of water, and then put that hot water, plus however much cold water you want, in this little sack, which you pull above your head. Then, you open the faucet and let the water pour out of the bag onto you. Well, I added too much cold water to the bag the first time, so when I poured the hot in, it was only lukewarm. I was really hoping for a nice hot shower, since yesterday I had a lukewarm shower at Twines. So, I let some of the water out, and then boiled another kettle of water. When I mixed it again, it was the perfect temperature. So I strung the bag up and jumped in. What I found was that the showerhead on the bags were all clogged with calcium or lime deposits, so the water came out like a trickle. It was all well and good, and I made the most of it. But to rinse the shampoo out of my hair, I ended up just using the cold-water tap. At the end of my shower, I had quite a bit of hot water left in my bag. Rather then waste it, or wait ten minutes for it to slowly trickle out, I decided just to dump it over myself from the bag. It was very lovely, like a strong hot shower should be. All was going well, until I got to the bottom of the bag. I apparently dumped little chunks of calcium/lime deposits straight over my head and into the lovely clean hair. Such a depressing realization. I tried to rinse it out with the cold tap, but it wouldn’t come out, and we were supposed to leave for Twines in ten minutes. I didn’t have time to boil more water, and there was no way I was going to put ice-cold water in that bag to wash it out. So I just threw my hair up in a bun to drive to Twines, and as soon as we got there, I jumped in my nice hot shower and washed my hair again! Such a relief! So apparently, bush showers are not a good thing for me! We got ready to go on a combined drive (bush camp and Twines), which was an ellie drive with Andrew and Jamie. I wasn’t going to go, but I decided I should just go ahead and not miss out. It ended up being a pretty interesting drive. We used the telemetry set to find the ellies, which was pretty difficult because they were along the river, at a part where there aren’t a lot of roads. We ended up visiting a huge lodge that is owned by a rich family that wasn’t there, so we got to go visit the lodge and check it out a bit. It was gorgeous, and the view of the river and plains below was incredible. I could get used to a view like that! Then, on the way down the hill, we went on some pretty steep roads that weren’t really on the map, and did some awesome off-roading adventures. We accidently ran into a tree trying to make a sharp turn, which was pretty funny, even through we were going really slowly. We eventually got to a point where we found a roadblock of a large knobthorn in the road. We couldn’t chop it down, so we all bailed out of the car, and Andrew did some serious off-roading over some trees to get through the block. We had to circle around blocks to keep finding the signal, and they led us all the way to the very west side of the reserve. We eventually got back on track with the dang ellies. We got to a corner where the fenceline came in towards us, but the ellies traveled along the river where we couldn’t drive. We had a visual of a few feeding, by using binoculars. Andrew and Jamie walked toward them to get a better view, and helped us to confirm the plant they were eating and whatnot. We left the sighting a little bit later, and headed to look around for some predators. As we were on a hill, making a game plan, we turned the car off. When Jamie went to drive again, she gunned it, but in reverse. It was both scary and hilarious, to suddenly shoot backwards down a hill. We all died laughing because we were all prepping to shoot up the hill (including her). Sometimes it helps to check your gear stick, hey? We got semi-lost on purpose, just exploring on the way home, and picking random roads to take. Jamie was exploring and familiarizing herself with the roads, as we looked for predators and nocturnal animals. We got back to Twines with the gang, and then Leon took us back to bush camp, cause Toko was off doing something. We were set to make macaroni cheese for dinner, and Toko had thawed mince, so we threw that in there as well, and made a yummy beef and cheese pasta dish. It was really interesting to cook in the dark, by lantern and torch. But it worked, and the food got made, and was yummy! Toko arrived back to bush camp, so we all ate around the fire and talked for a while. It was very cold there, but around the fire, it was so nice and warm. Eventually, though, we had to go to bed. That meant dousing our warm fire, lacing up the kitchen tent, and getting into cold beds! I was staying in the second bed in Lauren’s tent. I put on multiple layers of socks and clothes, as well as multiple blankets. We were in bed by 9 or so, and I am pretty sure I had 4 blankets, plus my sleeping bag. Lauren and I talked for a while, and then I curled up and read a book my Kindle for a while, listening to the quiet bush with the occasional hyena calling. I asked her to wake me up if she heard a leopard, because I wanted to hear one really badly, and off to sleep we went. I was plenty warm and quite comfortable in my cocoon of blankets.

My bedroom tent I shared with Lauren.

Giraffes near bush camp :)

Panoramic view from the Patel's lodge

Beautiful infinity pool view!

A really awesome tree along the river  :)

 the colours <3

Day 37

June 18th. I woke up today at like 6:11, and we were supposed to leave at 6:30. Oops! I scrambled to get ready, and ran out to meet the others at the truck. We were all sleepy and cold. We bundled up in our blankets, and set out for our Set Route drive. It was Set Route 3, which was the first drive I ever did here! It seems so long ago, when I had my first drive, and yet it feels like yesterday! It was really cool, because I haven’t been to some of those roads since that first drive, so it was cool to see them again. It started out pretty quietly. We stopped for a lot of different bird species, because Leon was driving us, and he loves birds. We saw a few general game animals, just in groups of one or two. We also saw a black-backed jackal, running across a clearing. All the sudden, we rounded a corner and saw a lion in the road! It was Masana, the handsome dominant male that I love. As we got closer, we saw he was with the two Tembe females, Nkosikasi and Nandi, as well as his partner in crime, Xinpoko. Yes, the same Xinpoko that was mating with Lady Balfour just a week ago! The boy gets around!! We had a really awesome sighting with them. Nandi and Masana were lying right on the road, very calmly, and let us get lots of pictures of them. Then, Nandi walked off to meet up with her sister and Xinpoko, through the bushes. There was a little bit of roaring at each other, and some rustling around, so we weren’t sure if they were going to be mating or not. In a few minutes, the ladies came out of the bush straight towards us. Nandi walked back to Masana, batted him around with her paws, and walked off, as if to tell him, “Come hither.” Of course, Masana got up and followed! Smart man! The Tembe sisters met up at the back of the truck and continued down the road. Masana stopped at the bush line to sniff and scent mark, and at that time, Xinpoko came out of the bush for the first time, straight to us. He went up to Masana, and the two of them rubbed on each other and then passed by. Xinpoko followed the girls, and Masana went back into the thicket. There was some calling amongst them, which was beautiful! We followed the girls and Xinpoko, and he sprayed multiple bushes as he walked down, establishing his control over the area. They all stopped at the end of the road for a bit, before crossing the t-junction and moving into a thick block. Masana came strolling up from behind us, apparently satisfied with his patrol, and trailed them into the bush. Definitely a beautiful sighting so early in the morning! It’s definitely awesome to see lion on a set route drive! We wanted to call it in for the Makalali rangers, but we had forgotten a radio! Jamie was hoping to establish good connections with them, by telling them about the sighting, so they would begin to build a respectful and sharing relationship. But we had no way to contact anyone! As we continued on, we saw a lot of zebra and wildebeest. We went to a lot of dams, and did some more birding. Jamie spotted a really cool skull on the road, from a nyala. It had one horn with the keratin sheath removed, so you could see the bone underneath, and one horn still perfect. It was really cool. I wish I could take it home, but idk if I can get that through security! I brought it back to camp, and I will definitely get pictures! Eventually, we got back to Weaver’s Nest Dam, with the cute baby hippos. It also had some zebra and wildebeest, and an old male giraffe. We had only seen one impala the whole drive, so far. When we got to Xinkanka Clearing, there were a few impala, another giraffe, and a big group of zebra. This group had two wittle fresh babies! One of them looked like it had gotten attacked by a hyena though :( We also saw matabele ants, which are these huge and really fierce ants. They ravage termite pounds and travel in huge hunting parties, and if you kill one, it releases a special pheromone as it dies. That causes all the other ants in the colony to come to where the dead one is, and they will attack people, with apparently a very nasty sting! We also saw a group of white backed vultures circling an area, which was probably a nice predator’s lunch or dinner yesterday. The drive was pretty long, and our bums were getting sore. Also, the sun never came out, so we were still cold. It was nearly 11, and we still had one and a half typed lines of roads to go through, out of a 4 and a half line set route list. We stopped to pick up a piece of barbed wire that was left on the road, and we couldn’t restart the car! Apparently, some wire had gotten loose. We collected firewood as they tried to fix it, but we had to push start the car. Even that didn’t work! We had no radio, a car that wouldn’t start, and no cell phone service. Phil and Jamie walked up the road to try to find cell service, and Jon and Leon tried to fix the car. Finally, they got it started, so we decided to head straight home and not push our luck. Not two minutes later, it died out again, but we had learned how to make it start. We successfully got almost all the way home before it shut off, on a hill too! We finally made it home, whew! We were all hungry and tired, and while we were waiting for the car to be fixed, we had started talking about pancakes. So Justine, Judith, and I made pancakes for everyone. While they were frying the pancakes, I ran to take a quick shower, which was only lukewarm, because the day was so cloudy :( But then, we finished up preparing the food and had an absolute FEAST! We all had peanut butter, nutella, bananas, jam, cinnamon, sugar, butter, and syrup on delicious homemade crepes. We made enough so everyone could eat 3 or 4, and we all seriously chowed down! It was soooo good! :D Then, we cleaned up and relaxed. I helped Judith with learning how to use QGIS for her lion prey selection project, and then folded and put away my laundry. We had our afternoon drive at 3:30 with Lukas and Leon, to find elephant for Justine’s research. I was in charge of the telemetry, so I guided Lukas to where I was receiving signal. It took probably an hour to get a good signal and then track it, but eventually, we found two herds together along the river. We observed them for a while and took notes for Justine about the feeding behaviors. She wants to record and analyze what plants they are eating, how much, how they are removing the plant material, etc. We watched the herds for a while, and then a single male who didn’t move with them. He got really close to me, like walked 2 meters from my face. It was so crazy. He was perfectly calm, chewing on some leaves, but he could have reached out and touched me with his trunk. Or perhaps, pulled my body out of the truck! Most of the time, when ellies have been that close, they have been either in the dark or in front of/ behind the truck. I have never had one standing so close to me as I was sitting right on the edge. It was so cool to look into his eyes and see him flap his huge ears at us and sniff us all well. We moved on along with him, then left to go find the herds again. We couldn’t locate them again, so we drove around a while to see what we could find. We headed out to Xinkanka Clearing, where we saw impala, wildebeest, and birds mostly. I was hoping to see some eye shine from some hyena that were looking for dinner. We did see a small cute steenbok lying in the grass though. The night had gotten pretty cold, but it wasn’t so harsh because it had been cloudy all day. We returned home with nothing else too out of the ordinary. I went to work on entering my data from the last drive last week and then from today. I am on general game this week, because Judith is on predators. General is so rough though; I literally had 20 separate entries to make just from today, instead of maybe one or two. Sheeesh. Oh well. Dinner was ready around 730, which was potato and chicken curry. It was really scrumptious, and we sat around the fire to eat and relax. Everyone started turning in around 830, which was pretty early for us. I know that everyone’s been a little tired, and we have a walk first thing in the morning as well.

One of my favorite ladies, Miss Nkosikasi!

 Good morning to you, handsome Masana!

 Following Xinpoko down the road.

 I love the way this picture came out. The little family is all bundled together, and the lighting makes them look beautiful!

Day 36

We left for town around 8, after taking lots of pictures and the girls hugging everyone. Then, we went off to the boom gate that lets you out of the reserve. We stopped to wait for the bus to pick up the girls. It got there at 9, and after loading their stuff in and taking more pictures, they set off around 9:30. We continued into town, and stopped at the Kamegelo Center for some to do some more shopping. We left there around 11 and went to the Pick N pay area. John and I stayed with Lukas to go to the airport to pick up the new people. We got a British girl named Lauren, and two Dutch guys, named Leon and Daniel. Leon had done Bushwise before, and did a 6 month placement here last year. Then he returned home to do Uni for a year, and decided to come back for the summer as a sort of internship. So he will be here as a ranger for the next ten weeks. The other two are here for the first time, and they are going to Bush camp. After getting them, we all went to Sleeper’s. I got oxtail with rice and veggies, which is pretty traditional South African. Lukas and I walked over to the butcher while waiting for our food, to buy some steaks for the braii this weekend. I also bought ostrich biltong, just to try because it sounded fun. Phil was awesome and let me steal a cup of his filter coffee at lunch, which was so yummy! My oxtail was actually quite good, even though I had to fight through the bones to eat it, lol. After lunch, we all went to the Pick n Pay area to get groceries and whatnot. I had to do some secret planning to get some gifts for the rangers, so John helped me with that. We got done there around 3, and I asked Lukas  to stop quickly on the side of the road by Kamegelo to buy a carving quickly from the locals there. Then, we headed back to camp. We got in around 4, and I put in my laundry and got all settled. I went out for a nice sun set on  the observation deck, and it had gotten kinda chilly out already! I had a really lovely sun set, then on the way in, stopped to have some deep conversations with Jamie and Lukas. We ended up talking until dinner was ready. We ate around 7 around the fire. It was spaghetti bolognaise again, which we have had multiple times. But then I saw Lukas and Jon putting sweet chili sauce on theirs, so I did as well. And it was great! Apparently, in SA, sweet chili goes on everything! And it made it really good, and different than usual! Yum. We hung around the fire for a bit, but then decided we wanted to retire to the lounge to watch funny videos and hangout.  We all relaxed for a while, and Phil and Lukas worked on photo editing while the rest of us just chilled on our computers and whatnot. We stayed up pretty late hanging out and talking, which was really fun.

 Saying goodbye to my awesome American friends, with "Yummy" aka Jamie.

 Mountains on the way to town. Still obsessed.

Day 35

June 16^th. Such a wonnnderful time to sleep in this morning! :D I woke up around 10 and took a (lukewarm) shower. Then, I got some cereal and tea and was joined by the other Americans at the table. I began to try to catch up on my blogging from the past two days in the lounge for a while. Everyone was just kinda relaxing and sleeping all day, which was sooo nice. For a while, Justine, Judith, Jamie, and I just sat in the sun by the porch and chilled. It was so nice to have a day to just be lazy, cause our days are sooo busy here. Especially the past few days! We all did our laundry and data entry for the week, and just relaxed, Jamie and I went to turn on the David Attenborough Africa documentary series around noon, and the French girls and John joined us to watch it while the Americans packed. We watched a really cool episode about the savannah! After that, we were supposed to clean the vehicles. When John and I went out to help, they told us they had it under control and it was almost done, so we got off the hook, woot. We all chilled a bit more, and caught up on other work. We had a drive at 3, so we all made our own lunch and whatnot beforehand. I was supposed to go on Toko’s drive, but Kayla decided to go with Jamie, and told me to come with them too. Since the Americans were leaving tomorrow, I decided to go with them and Jamie. We headed out, without any set-in-stone plan. We did some Ferrari safari driving, which was super fun. We drove alone the river, looking for leopard, and did some lessons on trees native to the area. We headed east, looking for tracks, and found some tracks of what we think were brown hyena. That was really cool, because it’s much less common to see a brown hyena then a spotted hyena. We heard a lion sighting called in nearby, so we wanted to respond to it. But there were already multiple vehicles that wanted to respond as well. So, we drove around a bit to kill some time, and collected firewood. The brakes in the Cruiser don’t work well at all, so you have to pump them to get any braking power. Incidentally, we swung around a corner and met a Makalali truck, so Jamie had to take us partially into a bush to avoid them since she couldn’t slam on the brakes. That was a fun time. When the traffic died down, we went to the lion sighting. It was at a crossing called Washeshe, which is on a sandy beach. Unfortunately, we were in the Cruiser, and Jamie didn’t realize that, unlike the Landie, you have to physically turn on the diff lock on the front wheels. So, we got stuck in the sand right as we crossed the river. Luckily, the other trucks had left the sighting, except one, which was on its way out. Toko was there, so he helped us get out. We weren’t actually stuck, cause once we had the diff lock in, we were good to go. We maneuvered ourselves over to the sighting, and stopped to get pictures of the lions. It was Desiree and Lady Balfour, and they were laying along a river bank, relaxing. I was glad to see Desiree again, because when we saw her last week, she had a pretty nasty wound on the inside of her right back leg. After a while, she began to roll around and lick her paws. Then, she abruptly stood up, and began to walk through the bush. Lady Balfour popped up from her nap and followed her out. I got a good view of her leg, which looked like it was healing well! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture of her leg, but I did see it well through my binos. We crossed the river and went to follow the females, but we lost them in the bush. We couldn’t get a visual, so we just headed down the road in the direction they headed. Around a corner, we saw two trucks stopped into the road, so Jamie stopped as well. One of the lionesses was sitting right smack in the middle of the road. We watched her for a few minutes, and then she moved into the block. Both lions looked like they were hunting, so we were ready to follow and see what happened. But the two trucks that were there were Lufafa, which contained the children and friends of some of the landowners. There were all drinking, including the drivers, and then proceeded to drive up and invite us to their party tonight. No thank you. They were being super loud and annoying, while we were just trying to watch some lions hunt. We saw a zebra cross through the bush, and I could hear Desiree in the bush really nearby. I was expecting them to go for it, but I think all the noise from the drunk people were distracting their hunt. We were hoping they would leave when the lions disappeared into the bush, and we were going to follow the sisters more. But the Lufafa trucks decided to drive into the drainage line, off the road, toward the hunting and irritated lionesses. Honestly, I wish the lions would have charged the trucks to scare them straight. It’s so aggravating to have a great sighting and research opportunity ruined. We looked around a bit, but couldn’t find the lions in the bush nearby. Nor could we hear them with our engines off, because of all the noise from the Lufafa trucks that were now parked in the bush. We decided just to call it, and left the sighting. We headed off to see what else we could find in the night. We had a very interesting drive, because every time we wanted to stop to look at something in the bush, we had a rolling stop, and had to reverse back to it. Poor Jamie had to deal with the dang truck. But we did see a bushbaby in a tree, which was really cute! It hopped around the tree, and then out onto a bare limb, so we had a great visual! As we were stopped to record it, we heard a distant hyena. Since we are all pro at hyena noises after the sleepout, a couple of the girls and I started to make hyena calls. We moved ahead a bit, but then Jamie stopped to get a good look at the map to figure out where she wanted to go. Just then, a lone hyena came strolling up the road to us. That was super unexpected, but apparently our hyena calls were quality! :D It was a really awesome sighting, as the hyena was completely calm and just ambled past the truck at about 5 meters. After he was gone, we moved on again. We also got to see a genet, which was cool! I saw his small slender body slipping into the bush, with a long striped tail. It looked like a mix between a cat and a mongoose. Definitely a unique sighting! By then, it was past 6:30, so we headed home. It had gotten pretty cold out, so we were all snuggled up. We got home past 7, and we all just relaxed in the lounge for a while before dinner. We all snuggled up in the lounge and watched a movie as we waited for dinner to be ready. I skyped my dad and grandfather to say Happy Father’s Day, and then dinner was ready. We had borewors, mashed potatoes, and peas around the fire. Everyone was pretty pooped, so most of them went to bed early. Lukas, Courtney and I relaxed in the lounge for a bit and watched Inception before bed. We have an early departure for town tomorrow, 8 instead of 9 or so like usual, because we are dropping off the American girls to catch their bus. Then, we are getting two new guys I believe. So ends a week of crazyness, but so much fun!

 A pretty crossing over the Makhutswi,

 Lionnesses asleep on a riverbank. What a scene.

 Beautiful Desiree :)

 Captured the yawn! Win!

Day 33 (pt 2) and Day 34

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June 14th. 

So we left for the evening around 3. We went on a short drive, which turned into another driving lesson on the airstrip. I was back with Team 1, since I hijacked Team 2’s predator drive this morning, and they hadn’t had a chance to drive. This time, everyone went except Justine and I, because we didn’t have much time, and Lukas promised to teach us next week since we will still be here. After the few girls got a chance to drive up and down the strip, we headed off to Weaver’s Nest Dam to look for hippos (since this group hadn’t seen them yet). Since I had been on Lukas’s drive that morning when he took them to see the hippos, I had already seen them that day. But it was cool when we went back, cause there was a family of waterbuck there. I had never seen so many waterbuck together, and they were beautiful! There were also some babies, and they were SOOO fluffy and cute! We sat there for a while, getting pics of hippos, waterbucks, and selfies with the animals, or course, like true tourists. :D Then, Lukas took us to a gorgeous lookout spot for the sunset. We all sat and relaxed and took pictures of the amazing view overlooking the Makhutswi. After the sun set, we headed out to the sleepout spot. We went back to Xinkanka Clearing and met Andrew, Jamie, and their trucks there. It was dark by the time we got there, so we had to drive the trucks around the clearing, looking for the fire pit. When we found it, we parked there and began to unload the trucks. We pulled out all the firewood and stacked it up in a pile as Andrew started the fire. Then, I helped him prep the poitjie and get that, the rice, and the vegetarian poitjie in their pots. After everything was on, we all sat around the fire and talked and played games as we waited. It wasn’t super cold yet, which was good. We ended up playing some rousing games of telephone, which was hilarious, because when you have Americans, South Africans, French, Australians, and Germans all mixed up with different accents, the sentences get so twisted! It’s especially good when at least 4 of the 13 didn’t speak English as their first language! After playing that, and a few other games, for about an hour, dinner was ready! We all ate and chatted for a while, just enjoying the calm, still bush. I had been wearing shorts on the drive, and had just put a jumper on over it when we got to camp. I wasn’t cold at all by the fire, but when we went to set up out beds, I thought I should put on my sweatpants. So I hopped into the truck to change in the dark. I heard some crunching grass to my left, and the fire and the people setting up their beds were on my right. So I shone my head torch over there, and there was a lone hyena, about 5 meters away from me in the truck. I told the others, and Anna came and shone the spotlight on it. We were all kinda surprised that one showed up so early, but Anna yelled at it, and it backed away. It was really cool to see it up close, because I haven’t had a really good sighting of a hyena thus far. We watched it in the spotlight for a while, until it decided to trot off. After we finished setting up our beds, some of the girls got in bed and some went around the fire. We had established a watch of 2 hour shifts, so at least 2 or 3 volunteers were always awake. Some of stayed up and did some star-gazing and finding constellations. I headed to my sleeping bag around 10:30, because Phil and I had  the 4 to 6 am shift of watch. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but I didn’t get woken up til 6! Apparently, the French girls had the 2 to 4 shift, but were wide awake at 4, so they just stayed up! It was kinda nice to sleep longer, but at the same time, I really wanted to be up doing a watch shift! I think it would have been really cool to be awake with only one other person, sitting around a fire in the middle of the African bush at 4 am! Oh well. 

June 15th. 

We all got up and started packing up our bags and all our supplies at 6. It was sooo cold, and everything was damp from dew, which wasn’t that lovely. My toes had gone numb, through 2 pairs of wool socks! We left the sleepout spot around 630 and headed back to camp. When we got to camp and unloaded the car the trucks, it was already 7. We had until 7:45 to clean ourselves up to leave for our outing that day. Everyone rushed to freshen up a bit or take a (cold) shower. We hurried to eat and then jumped in the Quantum. It was a one to one and a half hour drive, so we figured we might nap on the way. But everyone was surprisingly awake! We all started dancing and singing to the radio, and it was hilarious! The five American girls are a hoot. Even the French girls were singing along! My feet finally got un-numb, but the morning was still really cold when we left camp. By the time we got to Maholoholo, it was a little after 9 and finally getting warm. Our tour started at 9:30, and we got an informational talk about what the sanctuary does first. Then, they split the big group into groups to take on walking tours. Our group was the 12 of us, and a few groups of two or three. The first thing we did was go see a young cheetah, about 15 months, and learn about the education programs they do. We each got a chance to pet him and get pictures, which was super cool. He was precious. Then, we got a tour of the whole place, which included honey badgers, servals, lions, leopards, hyenas, another cheetah, wild dogs, ground hornbills, eagles, and vultures. It was cool to see all these animals up close and personal and learn about them. The Center does a lot of cool work, but I didn’t agree with all their practices. Some of the animals were injured and rescued, then rehab-ed and used for educational purposes, which is great. But for the animals that were completely healthy and could be released into private game reserves in the area, it seemed pointless to keep them captive in enclosures that are never enough space for these animals. Especially the wild dogs, which can’t be naturally sustained well on a piece of land less than 30,000 hectares. But, during the tour, we did get to pet a bateleur eagle, as well as feed white-faced vultures by letting them hop on our arm. It was pretty cool! After the tour, the owner came to collect us and give us a little behind the scenes tour, because we requested that. Maholoholo took 4 of our lion cubs when the rest of their pride got shot over a year ago, so he took us to see them. We walked through a maze of cages and buildings to some back enclosures. We walked into an enclosure with 3 lion cubs that looked about 5 months old. They were getting bowls of milk, and they were sooo cute! We got to pet them a little bit, and of course, I was “mao”-ing at them as well. Behind a fence, were two of our lions. They were very aggressive sounding, as they were growling quite fiercely at us. They seemed to be irritated that we were so close, even though they were behind a wall that kept either of us from having a visual of each other. You could tell they were wild, not tame, but still, I am slightly surprised how aggressive they seemed. I don’t know quite in what condition they came in, or what the plan with them was/is, but it was pretty sad to see them in that state. After we left there, the boss talked to us for a while about the problems with doing rehab and release, and how a lot of reserve and game parks are hard to work with. You can tell that the man was very passionate about what his work is, but I also felt like his views were jaded. It was definitely interesting to see his view from doing private rehab/release for years. He has definitely saved a lot of animal’s lives, and has a lot of experience. Next, he told us about a wild leopard that he had to remove from an heavily populated area where she was becoming a problem. He ended up asking if we would like to see her. He took us back through the rehab center and showed us some of the quarantine cages on the way, where animals are kept for disease monitoring when they are first brought in. We got back to where the leopard was, and she was in a small cage in her own area. She was very aggressive and not happy that we came into her room. It was so hard to see her locked up like that, and I didn’t like the way the owner handled it at all. It seemed like he was provoking her to show us how aggressive she was. She clearly was healthy and strong, and would do well released on a reserve somewhere. After we left that area, we talked to the owner for a bit longer, and then left. It was past 12, and we were all really hot and hungry. We headed straight to Blue Cottages, the B&B. I got a smoothie, butternut soup, and some type of marinated beef sandwich, which was actually quite yummy. The butternut soup was not as delectable as expected though. We looked around the shop and relaxed, which was nice. On the way home, we stopped at the ATM for the girls, and then headed back to camp. On our way, Jamie pointed out a baobob tree, which is a really traditional African tree. We made Lukas stop the van, and we all jumped out to take pictures with the tree. There aren’t any on our reserve, so we were really stoked to see one! We became complete tourists! :D We got home around 4, and we were set to leave for the pub around 6:30. We showered up, and then the American girls asked me if I wanted to come get ready with them. We actually got cute and put on real clothes, after wearing safari gear for so long! We had a lot of fun getting ready, like typical girls haha. A few of us ended up wearing our hiking boots with our cute outfits, which is perfectly classy :D We headed to Mahlahlah at 6:30, and it surprisingly wasn’t that cold out! We had a lot of fun, and the American girls definitely shook things us, by turning the little game lodge pub into a dance party. It was a super fun night, and we stayed til past 12! Everyone was playing pool and dancing and just having a great time. :D When we got back, we all sat around the fire to hang out and talk for a while, because we had decided to cancel bush clearing in the morning. Yay! :D Eventually, the tired-ness began to find each of us, and we wandered off to bed. It was probably one of the most entertaining nights Mahlahlah has seen in a while!

Handsome 15 month old cheetah boy.

 First time seeing African wild dogs! so cool!

 Honey badger don't care!

 Ground hornbill, they make the coolest noises.

 one of the sweet little lion cubs there.