Day 18

-->

This morning, we went out on drive with Andrew and Claudia to look for cheetah and hyena. We headed down to Pidwa South, stopping for various general game on the way. We saw another steenbok, which was awesome! They are so cute! It was really cold again this morning, I guess making up for yesterday’s warmth! The sky was clear and beautiful, and we drove along looking for tracks. We found some hyena tracks and cheetah tracks, but nothing fresh. After a while, we found rhino tracks again, but there weren’t any good signs to find him. We continued making our way through PSO to Garonga, and ended up seeing the Garonga Safari Camp, which is another private lodge. It was really lovely there, and we also saw the private airstrip and a farming area. They are growing their own fruits and vegetables in a really protected area, multiple fences and nets to keep animals out! While on the airstrip, we got word that one of the farmers next door to GAR thought our lions had broken out again. Apparently, one of their cows had been killed. Two years ago, 9 of our lions were killed by the next-door farm because they were out on their property and were a threat to their livestock. So we switched gears into fence patrol. We drove the entire Garonga fenceline, looking for tracks that were around there, as well as holes in the fence, or holes dug under the fence. We found a hole that may have been made by animals trying to jump the fence, but it was too high for lion to jump through cleanly. We found lots of lion tracks going up and down the fenceline, but nothing that looked like they got through. After a while, we got word that the manager of the reserve had gone to talk to the farmer, and they decided it was a leopard that had killed one of their cows. Leopards can get over the fence, easily, if they want to. So we concluded that hunt, and began just following the lion tracks. Lukas had the bush camp team driving in the same area, looking for lion as well. He located a group of four in a drainage line, and then they began hunting. It was Midget, one of the mothers of the Makhutswi pride, her two sub adult boys (Zamula and Ubhuti), and her older son, Kalahari Jr. We followed them for a bit, offroading through the thick bush, and tried to get some nice visuals. They were definitely on a mission, so we followed until they got too thick into the drainage line. Lukas and Andrew went separate ways in the trucks, and walked the drainage lines from opposite sides, trying to pinpoint them, but we couldn’t relocate. The blocks are large, and if the lions were to lie down in the bush, you could miss them at 2 meters. After criss-crossing the block on some smaller, over grown roads, we gave up the chase. We had seen them a few times, and gotten to ID them. It was already 11, and getting quite hot, so we headed back to camp. We got home around 12, after stopping a few times. The girls made us lunch, leftovers and fresh veggies for sandwiches. Then, Stewart and I cleaned up the kitchen, and I went to work on my mapping. I worked until almost 3, and then we left on our afternoon drive. We spent a while looking for some tracks in a drainage line, but we found nothing. We saw the typical game, zebra, impala, wildebeest, along our drive. There are a lot of groups of sub adult male impala this time of year, like bachelor herds. Then we headed out to a spot far in the South of the reserve, right in the corner of a fenceline, where we found Nandi and Nkosikasi resting after having their dinner. They had killed a wildebeest and feasted until they were both very very full! They lay there in the slowly setting sun and slept lazily. We saw the head of the kill, which was really cool. We sat with them for a while, and eventually Nandi got up and moved to the other side of the vehicle, passing only a meter from the side. Then she went and laid down right by Nkosikasi. They weren’t going anywhere tonight! So we left after a bit, and headed to a dam near Kristi’s Kamp to watch the sunset. It was BEAUTIFUL! We stayed there for a good while, watching the sunset and the 7 bathing hippos in the water. There were a few young ones, and they all gave us quite a show, blowing air and splashing water, opening their huge mouths, and swimming quite close to us on the bank. After we had watched them for a while, we headed out on our way home. We were quite far south, so we headed home and looked for a leopard along the way. We found some more little duiker, the second smallest antelope in Africa, but no nocturnal cats! We got home earlier than usual, around 6, which gave us some time to relax and work on stuff before dinner. It’s not very cold out, so I decided I wanted to sleep on the observation deck tonight! I’m trying to convince Molly and Emily to join me, and they said they will do it on a day we have to get up early for a drive, so in case we don’t sleep well, we can just sit on a car the next morning, instead of do manual labour. Haha. Fair enough. The girls made chicken potjie (pronounced poit-kie) tonight for dinner, and it was quite good, although I wasn’t very hungry for some reason. We ate late, around 8, and then we all drifted off from the fire around 9. I worked on my data for a bit before Claudia sent me off to my building so she could turn off the lights. After the ellies being in camp last night, I realized how quietly and unnoticeably they can slip in. 

Sunset over the dam! With hippos!

 Nkosikasi and Nandi being lazy, as always!

Day 17.

 This morning, we had a rhino walk at 6am with Claudia and Andrew. When we left, it was still dark out, but not as cold as usual. It was really cloudy this morning, so it trapped the heat in. I barely needed my thick jumper. We drove around for about an hour, til we found some fresh tracks. We had originally followed some tracks on foot for a few minutes, but they weren’t fresh, so we turned around and then drove around to find others. We finally got on a track and got out to walk it! We walked for over an hour, following a trail through the bush. We were learning to read signs such as poo droppings, mud droppings, scratch marks, prints, and urine trails. We actually found a cool spot where they had probably spent the night. It was full of tracks going everywhere and had body impressions as well. We eventually came out of the block, with no sighting. We walked down the road for a bit and met back up with Andrew. We drove around to try to find where they came out, but although we found some more tracks, we couldn’t locate anything really fresh. The blocks of bush in that area are huge, so they could be essentially anywhere. We had seen two elephants earlier in the day, a male and female that were really calm and just walked around us to continue their journey. Just as we were checking one of the last dams for rhino tracks, the bull elephant came charging out of the bush! He was in musth and irritated, and showed it by flapping his ears and raising his trunk. Andrew was on the tracker seat in the front of the truck, so Claudia quickly reversed down the road because he was much too close to this angry ellie in musth. But then, Riff Raff (the bull ellie) decided that was a jolly good fun game to play, so he began to charge the truck. He realized he could make us back up by advancing. So we stopped reversing and the rangers began to shoo him off by yelling sternly at him and banging the truck. We had to make him know that he couldn’t mess with us. He mock charged a few times, as well as tossing his head and trumpeting. It was such an intense experience, seeing this two ton animal heading straight for our vehicle! After a while, Riff Raff backed off and moved into the bush, throwing sand with his trunk as he went. Not a happy ellie. He came around to the side of the truck to sniff us, and started moving around behind us. I was in the back row, so we just sat really still and he got fairly close to us, just checking us out. Then he decided we were no fun, so he moved down the road. We had just come from Solar Panel Dam, so we figured he was going there to drink. We turned around and headed back. We found him, lumbering down the road. He saw us following, and turned straight into the bush. We turned off our engine and watched him, as he began to bully the trees around, as if to prove his strength to us! It was the craziest thing, because he first starting pushing a merula tree straight towards us, though it was too far to hit us. Then he stopped, moved around the tree, and promptly pushed it over at a right angle to us. It fell directly across the road. Then he moved back to the far side of the tree, so he had essentially created the tree as a roadblock between us and him. Then he sat happily munching the merula leaves and watching us through the branches! We wondered if he pushed it that way on purpose because he knew we couldn’t follow him anymore. Or if he did it because he knew that the openness of the road would give him more access to the leaves. It was so cool, to think how intelligent these creatures are! We watched him for a bit, and eventually we turned and headed back home. It was definitely an unexpected event on our rhino drive! On the way home, we crossed paths with a puff adder, but weren’t able to catch it to get close pics. When we got home, I headed into the kitchen to make lunch. Wolfgang and I were on food duty, and today’s lunch was jacket potatoes. I put all the potatoes in the oven, then worked on preparing everything else. Wolfgang made a supposedly delicious tomato and onion salad (yuck to me), and also a green salad. I heated up chicken stirfry leftovers, beans, and grated some cheese to go on as well. Then, as the potatoes cooked, I made chocolate oatmeal cookies for everyone. We had a lovely lunch, with cookies after, and just leisurely ate. The longer lunch took, the less time we had to dig up tree stumps for the volleyball court maintenance! Haha! We did maintenance from 2 to 3, with bush camp there to help as well. It went quite fast. Then we cleaned up and showered for our 330 drive. We were supposed to do just a monitoring drive, but we got a call that our new bull buffalo was being delivered today! So we all headed out to the Buffalo camp. We waited there a while, for everyone and the bull to arrive. Then, we all squeezed into one truck, and followed the procession in. The release of the bull was unceremoniously quick. He basically burst out, looked around, and trotted into the bush to disappear. After a while, all the other vehicles (Makalali, Garonga, managers, buffalo transporters) left, and we headed in to find the herd. We located them without telemetry (cause we had forgotten to bring it) and watched them for a while. After counting and observing, we headed out. We had gotten word of two male lion on a certain road, so of course, Lukas and I (and most everyone else) were keen to head out there.  We got to the spot, and off-roaded to find Xinpoko and Masana being lazy boys in the falling dusk, napping in the thick bush. We sat with them for a bit, and they began to lick their paws and stretch, a sign of getting mobile soon. Sure enough, they got up and began to move. We had to get out the block the way we came in, so we lost visual, but we were able to relocate lying in the middle of the road. Then they moved again. We followed for a while, and they looked as if they might be hunting. Sniffing and looking around. A Makalali truck joined us, and we let him go ahead with his clients to follow them. Then, suddenly, they vanished, like ghosts! We drove around for a while, and followed a road, just looking, almost in vain. We had gotten so far without seeing them, and suddenly, there they were. Laying in the grass and road! They had moved SO quickly through the bush, and lay ahead of us waiting! We stopped and watching them for a while, and Masana gave us a little excitement by sniffing the air very intensely with his nose high in the air. We thought he might be scenting something to go hunt. We just sat in the dark and enjoyed them being so calm and so near. In a bit, they decided to move again. The Makalali truck had rejoined us, and we let them pursue, as we headed back to camp. It was only around 6 at the time. When we got near to home, Claudia called and told us there were ellies near camp. As we pulled close, we could see and hear them. Since they are not nocturnal, you can’t shine your headlights on them, or it will temporarily blind them. So we ended up turning off the car and lights and sitting in completely darkness, just listening. It was amazing. The stars were incredible and the ellies were just munching away next to us! We sat there for probably 15 minutes and just enjoyed it. They finally began to move off to the side and behind us, so it was safe to drive again. We got home without an incident, but soon discovered that there was a bull in musth chilling in our camp! He was standing right behind the fire pit, on the tree line! We were told to walk carefully around the camp, looking to make sure the ellies weren’t nearby. I went into the lounge to let Kira onto my computer, and Claudia called us to follow her. She led us on the back porch, and we stood not 15 feet from a huge male ellie. Since we were on the porch with a roof, he could not reach us, even if he charged, so we were safe there. It was incredible. We just watched him calmly eat a bougenvillia tree. Suddenly, he seemed to just snap. He turned and charged into the camp, towards the fire pit and the pathways to the volunteer housing. Andrew began to yell at him and try to get him to move back out of the camp. We all ran through the building to the porch on the front to watch Claudia and Andrew shoo him backwards to the tree line again. He went behind the building, and Andrew followed him. Just then, Kelsey, Tom, and Lukas decided to leave to go back to bush camp. They informed Kira, who had gone into the office to get her things. I poked my head in to make sure she had heard they were leaving, and I heard yelling from the yard. I turned to see the male elephant not 4 meters away from me! He was 2 meters from Lukas, who had Tom and Kelsey behind him. They started backing up to go into the office with the rest of us, as Lukas yelled and shooed the ellie to back up. He had apparently charged around the back of the building and into the front yard right at them! They got him to back up and move, and Andrew came to assist. They got him to almost the road from the driveway, and he finally calmed a little out there. He was so close to them, so suddenly! And he demolished some small trees in the process! Well, we all thought the excitement was over. I headed into the lounge to my computer for a bit. But then I heard yelling again, at an elephant! I hurried to the door, listening to Andrew yell to Claudia that the male was back and in the middle of camp! He had come around the opposite side of the kitchen and barreled towards the chairs and fire pit, where Stewart (the new volunteer from Scotland) was sitting. I watched Andrew back it up, then Claudia and Andrew chased him out of camp by banging pots and yelling. He backed up all the way out to the road, then just stood there and flapped his ears at everyone! Eventually, he calmed down a bit and moved off. It was definitely an exciting elephant night! Then, we had a yummy South African dinner of some type of bangers, cabbage, and beans. It was very traditional, a little spicy, and although not something I would have ever chosen, actually quite tasty. We sat around the fire and talked, with no more ellie incidents to deal with, until about 9.

Riff Raff, peering through his roadblock Merula.

 Buffaloooo!

Day 16.

May 28^th. We started our Set Route at 6am, and the sun was just about to rise. It was a beautiful cold morning, with lovely pink and orange clouds scattered around. Our drive took us up and around new areas that I haven’t yet seen, which was awesome! We saw a steenbok, which is a very tiny antelope species that are pretty uncommon to see because they are so small! We also saw a lot of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, and warthog along the drive. We crossed the Selati River and went up north in a small area of the reserve and just kinda wandered the roads up there. We found a gorgeous lookout with a lot of rocks that we took a little break on and enjoyed the scenery. Then, as we were driving around, we saw lots of lion tracks! There is a pride of lions up here, the Askaris, that we don’t see often because we don’t come up here much. We saw some old male tracks, probably from last month, but they were solidified in the mud. Then, we found some fresh mufazi tracks! Two females, most likely from last night or this morning!! Andrew and I got really stoked, because we wanted to find them, but because it was a set route and it was already 930, we didn’t have the time to go off-course and follow them. We are planning on spending a morning up there looking for the pride in the next week or so. Since we know they are actively around that area, we can go back to find them. It was a pretty warm day, by 1030, so there weren’t any animals at any of the dams we checked. We got done with the route about 11, and headed home. When we got back, I helped Molly and Emily figure out how to put in their data, and then worked on my mapping til lunch time. We had a nice lunch of sandwiches and veggies, and I worked a bit more. Then, I read for a while as Kira made a Skype call. Then, we got ready to go for the afternoon drive. We left at 330 and headed out to see about some ellies and rhinos. We found really fresh rhino tracks, but no visual. Then we heard about some ellie sightings earlier, so we headed to the area. We ended up finding at least two herds traveling together, probably close to 20 elephants! They paraded all around the truck and a few of them got a little feisty and starting to flap their ears at us. We got delayed for a while, as the ellies were in the middle of the road. We probably stayed watching them for an hour. When a two ton elephant wants to stand in the road and munch on a tree, everyone else waits! After watching them for a while and trying to ID them, we moved on. We checked a few dams around, but found no fresh lion tracks or anymore rhino tracks. Then we headed on a search for some hyena, but to no avail. On the way home, we stopped on the airstrip and turned the lights off and just stared at the stars for a while. It was absolutely beautiful! :) Lukas pointed out some constellations that are visible at this time of year. Then we returned home, “famba a kaya” in Zulu. Gail and Peter cooked up some chicken stir-fry for dinner, and it was super yummy! We sat around the fire until 9, then we all cleaned up and headed off. Rhino walk tomorrow morning :D

Sunrise 28-5-13

 Morning on a beautiful dam.

 Hi, Gerry Giraffe. I'm afraid you are missing a horn.

 little break of the lovely Selati River.

 wittle baby ellie.

 roadblock!!

Day 15.

May 27th. 

Starting my third week here! Yowza! Today, we went into town to get more volunteers! We got to sleep in, cause we didn’t leave till 9. YAY! :D When we got there, we all got out at the tourist info center a ways down from the central shopping area. I stuck with Wolfgang, and he and I did some shopping. We went to an area where venders had their stone carvings and fabric wall hangings and other goods along the roadside, and he helped me haggle down some purchases. It was quite amusing to see a German man and an African woman haggling over my little stone animal. :) I told him he was my dad for the day, so he had to/got to help me hhaha. After a while, we made the 10/15 minute walk to the main area, and met everyone for lunch at Sleepers. Lukas had made the first pickup of the day, two young Americans! Molly and Emily, and they are 20! WOOOO! :D So excited for others who don’t use electric kettles, don’t watch rugby or cricket, think marmite is gross, and do other awesome American things! We had a nice lunch there, and I got a boboitie burger, which is a very traditional way to season beef, and it had chutney on it! I was a little nervous, but it was delish! :D Then we all wandered around town some more, going to the pick-n-pay and whatnot. I got ingredients to make chocolate oatmeal cookies for everyone this week, yum! I was going to mail postcards, but I had misheard the time to meet. I  thought I had til 2, but apparently we only had until a quarter til. So I shall mail them next week, first thing, so I don’t run out of time. After the second pickup (another young American girl and her dad), we headed to the bureau de change so the new volunteers could get some Rand. We stopped at a fruit stand, where I was disappointed at the lack of mangoes! Then we also stopped to drop Andrew off at the car place. THEN, we had to stop to pick up Claudia, the ranger who will be filling in for Toko this week. Finally, we were on the road, and it was almost 330! We didn’t get home til 430ish, and the bush camp gang for the week (Kira, Kelsey, and Tom) left pretty soon after with Lukas. I got to work on some data and chatted with Andrew a bit about new data sheets for the monitoring drive and other such things. Then, we all had dinner together around the fire. It warmed up tonight, compared to last week for sure! We all got tired pretty early, and began cleaning up around 8. We were all off to our rooms by 830, ready for an exciting new week tomorrow. Set route for tomorrow morning is up in Pidwa North, which I’m really excited about! I haven’t seen the area before, and there is a pride of lions that usually stays up there that I am anxious to see! 

My first draft map of lion pride locations for 2012. There are a few data points I need to look into to see if the IDs were accurate. But it's forming now! 

Day 14.

-->

May 26.

This is our day off, and today we (all Twines and bush camp people) had an organized outing. We went out to Kalmai Reptile Park to have an organized tour. We left at 9, and got there around 10. For some reason, they had scheduled us for a regular tour, not the 4-hour orientation tour. So after waiting an hour to try to figure it out (and playing with a snake and some monkeys), we decided to rebook for next Sunday. We went to Blue Door, which is a little B&B with a café, to have lunch and take a look at the gift shop, and then we headed home. When we got back, we all took some time to organize ourselves and our data, so some laundry, and read and relax. I worked on my mapping, trying to finish up 2012’s data so I can get started on 2011 this week. I also got word that tomorrow; we are picking up not just TWO Americans, like I previously thought, but also FOUR! I’m super pumped. There is a married couple, who is going to bush camp, and then two girls coming to Twines. The two new girls for research camp at Twines are 20 and 21!! We will finally be the majority nationality here! :D Also, Claudia, who is a German woman that works as a free-lance ranger, is staying at Twines and bush camp for the week because Toko is on his two week leave starting tomorrow!  So last night at Mahlahlah, I was figuring that the Germans, Australians, and native SA’cans all have two, but if Claudia came here and the married couple were Italians (they have an Italian last name), then the Germans and Americans would be tied. Luckily, all the new people are American, so we will win for sure! : It will definitely be a fun week! We spent the afternoon doing our own thing, and then Wolfgang and I had dinner duty. We made cottage pie, which apparently is the appropriate name for what my family calls Shepherd’s pie, because Shepherd’s pie uses lamb, but beef. Never mind that, it was delicious. I made the mashed potatoes for the top, which, making them like my grandmother taught me, were absolutely DELICIOUS. Even without a mixer! :D It came out really well. We also started the fire for the night, which was an interesting time! Wolfgang is such a hoot! It was a big group around the fire, all 8 when Toko arrived back to camp. We kept being interrupted in our conversations by what we believe was the Tembe sisters making territorial location calls. So beautiful, and they kept moving closer to camp as the evening went on. I half expected them to walk out on us around the fire. We all decided to go to bed around 9, and I lollligagged to get my laptop from the data room so I could spend some time standing in the yard alone. Tonight, the moon was full and high, the last embers of the fire were dying in the firepit, and I stood, alone, gazing at the sky full of stars that have been my night scenery for the last two weeks. I listened, as a lone lion called out his beautiful song, very close to me, that crept lower and longer as it went on. I heard impala, sending out alarm calls to the southeast. And behind me, to the north, jackals howled together. I stood without moving for so long that a fruit bat flew round and round my shoulders, only inches from landing right on me. So much peace, so much beauty, and brimming with life, even when it seems so still and quiet. This is Africa, and I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love. 

cubs from the Makhutswi pride :)(day 13)

wittle zebra hoof! (day 13)

really cool processionary worms! (day 13)

moonrise. its been beautiful every night! (day 13)

boa constrictor!

squirrel monkey! :D

Day 13

 This morning, we had bush clearing. I was up at 630, to make sure I didn’t oversleep! We worked from 730 to 10, and boy it got hot! Good news, I am now professional in the use of a machete to chop down trees. Woohoo. We came back, and it was a bit early for lunch, but we had a quick snack. Then Wolfgang and I joined Lukas to go hunt for some lions. It wasn’t a scheduled drive, we just wanted to go. We ended up finding part of our Makhutswi pride in the bush around 11:30, and stayed with them on visual until 12:45. Absolutely amazing. There were 3 cubs who were a few months old, and two cubs who were a little over a year. They were feeding on a recent kill, but we couldn’t see what it was through the bushes. We definitely heard audio of the feeding though!! It was an amazing morning, watching them interact and move around in silence, just listening to them. Then, eventually, they all began to move into the block of bush, and Mama started calling to her babies. The chorus of “mao’s” was so lovely, as they all walked off. When we got back, I had a few minutes to enter my data from the week before vehicle clean up.

The bush camp gang had left while we were lion chasing, so Lukas, Wolfgang and I swept out the car from TONS of leaves from the week. Then we hosed it down and scrubbed inside and out. Of course, this turned into a huge water fight as we washed the car. Wolfgang was only spared because he had a camera in his pocket! After we finished cleaning the truck, we cleaned ourselves up before the 330 drive with Andrew. We didn’t have any particular goals in mind, so we checked a few dams for the lions from earlier, and on the way, stopped to look at/discuss different trees, as well as birds. We also watched a group of dwarf mongooses, which are adorable!! We eventually went back to the scene of the kill, and Andrew walked into the area to see if he could find the remnants. He returned with a lower jaw and a leg of the kill – a young zebra. It was so awesome! The lions were long gone by then, but I was excited to see the kill after! We then went partial off-roading through the forest. I say this because the road USED to be a road, but I’m pretty sure no one has used it for years. It was overgrown with tree limbs, had an entire huge knobthorn fallen across the path, and include many large holes that the truck slid into. But we successfully made it through the block and out the other side! Wooot! Afterwards, we drove on a circuitous route back towards home, because we wanted to be home early so we could go out to dinner. On our way, we saw prints belonging either to a small female lion or a male leopard. We got pretty excited to follow them, but no leopard. A few roads later, we found one female lion walking straight towards us on the road. She was limping a bit, but was moving fairly quickly. She passed our truck with barely a second look, and continued on her way, so naturally, we trailed her. She was scent marking on trees, so she may have been doing a territorial stroll. She also appeared to be looking around and sniffing a lot, so she may have been beginning to hunt. We followed her for a good bit, until she disappeared into the block. As that time, we stopped to observe the most beautiful moonrise you could imagine. It was full moon tonight, and it rose in a gorgeous fiery orange tone. Then, we headed home to clean up for dinner. We went to Mahlahlah Lodge again, which was quite fun. There was a rugby game for Andrew, and then a soccer game for Wolfgang. Both of their teams won, so that’s great. I also learned a lot about various sports. Plus, I met two AMERICANS! Wooot! Two college students (one from Wisconsin and one from Arizona) and I met and got to talk about great American things, like REAL football and colleges. It was quite refreshing. And then, through some strange turn, apparently Lukas told one of his friends that Peter was my dad, just to mess with him. And then Wolfgang said he was my dad. So that became quickly awkward. Haha. I also met some cool kids from other countries who are working for another organization and chatted with them for a while. All in all, it was a fun night. The only downside is the 30 minute drive home in the freezing cold! We were all happy to pop into bed and warm ourselves up when we reached camp.

Day 12

May 24th.

Man, time goes fast here! We got to sleep in, cause we only left at 8 for road clearing. But my silly travel alarm clock isn’t working anymore! The time is correct, but the alarm won’t set. So, thinking it was on, I slept quite soundly, til Andrew banged at my door! Oops. I readied quickly, and off we went. We worked until 11, and boy did it get hot! We did a lot of really great work along a long stretch of road. I am now excellent at clipping branches and trees, and getting quite handy with a machete as well. I haven’t quite graduated to the panga yet though. We returned home and cleaned up thoroughly, after getting the talk about ticks. Apparently, there are ticks that look just like a freckle, no bigger then a grain of pepper, and they spread a lovely disease. Afterwards, I made myself a lovely cup of coffee and headed in to work on my data. I didn’t have any time yesterday to do so! The days are so packed that I am not sure where I am going o find time to get all my data sorted through! Sheesh! For lunch, we had macaroni with veggies, which was a short break, then back to my data. I worked until 315ish, then prepped for our night monitoring drive. The bush camp group joined us, and we went out and drove around, finding and counting the general game herds; we found impala, wildebeest, warthogs, and giraffe mostly tonight. We saw the same cluster of giraffe as yesterday, with that cute little baby! We also came across a whole group of dwarf mongoose, and they were so fun to watch! Then, Lukas took us all to the most breathtaking view of the reserve you could imagine. It was a ways up a mountain, and then a short hike up a rocky incline, and we were met with the most amazing overview! We could see trees below us, far to the horizon, and the Makhutswi River winding through to the north side. It was spectacular. We sat there in silence for probably 10 to 15 minutes and watched the sun set over the mountains – amazing. Then, we headed back out. We took a few little jaunts to some dams to look for hippo, but they all managed to evade us today. And as the darkness fell, we realized our spotlight had stopped working somehow. Driving at night without a spotlight to look for animals isn’t quite the same. We headed toward home, looking for anything we could see via the moon and the headlights. We came across some impala, wildebeest, and a hare, but we couldn’t look into thickets for predators. Since our drive was shortened, I had time to work on my mapping before dinner! Yay! We had originally planned to go on a sleep out tonight, since there was a full moon, but Gail and Peter decided they would rather not go on another one. That would only leave 4 of us to do the night watch shifts (staying up to look for wild animals coming toward our campsite), and that’s really difficult to do. Instead, we will do the sleep out next week. In lieu of that, we decided we would just have a relaxing movie night at camp, since I have been encouraging a movie night all week! I worked on my mapping until dinner was ready, around 730. Andrew had made a big traditional braii, which meant borewors and chicken cooked on open grill, and potatoes, onions, butternut squash, and pumpkin all cooked over the coals of the fire. It was absolutely delish. We ended up talking and sitting around the fire, and when we thought about a movie, it was 9 and we were already getting too tired. So we relaxed a bit more, then cleaned up and got ready for bed. 

Baby wildebeest!

 Baby giraffe!

 Can't beat this backdrop for family portraits!

 Absolutely stunning.

 So alive.

 Trying to capture the depth in this river valley.

Day 11

May 23.

This morning, we had a drive at 615am. I did NOT want to get out of bed. Finally, I got up and got ready quickly. The drive started out great, because our tire was flat, AGAIN, and the Nissan wouldn’t start! We jumped the truck with Andrew’s pickup, and then went over to the garage (pronounced GARE-edge), so Andrew could pump up both the tire that was on, and the spare in the trunk, which was also a bit low. After we finally got moving, we drove along some drainage lines, and found some female lion tracks. They went up and down the same road, into the bush and back out. After moving around the roads in that area, we decided to cross the river to see if they had crossed. On the way through the crossing, what do we see, but male leopard tracks! Fresh! The dang cat had been through here late last night! We explored for him a bit, but sure enough, vanished without a trace. Then, crossing the river, we ended up getting stuck in the soft sand on the bank. Our tires were digging themselves in, so Andrew had to dig them out. Day is NOT starting out well! Then we get across, and respond to a sighting of two female lions moving into the bush. When we got there, they were out of visual. We parked for a bit, cause Andrew thought they were likely hunting, and they would come back through this way. Sure enough, we see giraffe running away from where the lions had gone into the bush, and here they come back out! It was Nkosikasi and Nandi, the Tembe sisters, and Nandi looked pregnant! They were sniffing and hunting, so we followed them for a bit until they went deep into the bush again. We actually trailed them, but lost them through the thick underbrush. We moved completely through the block and met up with another Makalali truck to try to spot them, but to no avail. We circled around to the airstrip, where there was a large herd of wildebeests grazing. I was really hoping that the girls would come out of the bush straight toward them and make a kill, but no such luck. We waited a bit, but couldn’t relocate them. We decided to move down on a less used road to check it out. It was a beautiful road right past the Makhutswi, lined with jackelberry trees (perfect trees for leopard to sleep in). As we were driving down the road, we see a small cat-like animal cross it quickly. We get to that spot, and there is a small, but full-grown adult, CARACAL just sitting, looking at us! I grabbed my camera as quickly as I could, but just then, he popped up and scurried off. He threw us another quick glance over his shoulder, and then disappeared. Caracal are like large housecats with tufts on their ears like lynxes. They are very quiet and secretive, so it’s very rare to see one! That sighting was so unique, that it almost made the lack of the leopard sighting so far worthwhile. Then we traveled along that beautiful road some more, and finally got to the place where we learned why no one used the road! A really steep and rocky incline going down, and then back up! We got down okay, but on the back up, we had a little bit of trouble! We got halfway up, and then our tires kept loosing their grip on the sheer rocky surface. After a couple back and forth passes, Wolfgang and I got out and Andrew tried it by himself. He ended up going all the way down, and then just gunning it up the path. Quite a sight, and he made it! Then we continued on our merry way. We didn’t see any more predators or tracks, but we did pass a huuuuge nest belonging to a bird they call the hammercop. Apparently they make the biggest nest of any bird! Then we headed back to camp, because Lukas called to tell us there were elephant! When we got home, there were two herds of ellies in an open area in front of the camp. There were probably close to 15 ellies wandering around and grazing, even two little babies that were absolutely precious. We watched them from the observation deck, and it was so cute to see the babies trying to learn to use their trunks. Apparently they don’t master that until about 3 years old! One of the large bull elephants, who was is musth, decided to come check us out. He got within two meters of our deck, and he could have pushed it over with one nudge. It was definitely intimidating, because he began to smell us and walk right toward us. As soon as he determined that we weren’t a threat, he decided to munch a tree right next to us, then make his way down the road. Whew! The ellies stuck around for a bit, especially the bull in musth. He moved quite close to the house, as we watched him a bit from the kitchen and garage, before he moved into the bush. What an exciting morning! That afternoon, Wolfgang and I were on food duty, and we made corn fritters for lunch. I expected to make fritters in little balls, like hushpuppies. But apparently, in South Africa, a corn fritter is basically a pancake made with corn, and you can put lettuce and tomatoes and spreads on it! So strange! While lunch was being prepared, Lukas and I got into a water fight, and Wolfgang did not aid me at all! Those Germans have a conspiracy! Finally, we called a ceasefire to eat! We had to leave right at 1, instead of at 330 like usual, so I went right away to prepare the homemade pizza dough for dinner that night. After I got it all prepared and in a warm place to rise, we left for Kristi’s Kamp. Of course, we had to stop and pump up the silly tire again, but it was holding its air for the most part! Then, we got stopped by that bull ellie in the road, so we had to go the long way around. We were heading to Kristi’s to help them move furniture, but by the time we got there, they had finished because the other people to help apparently came early! They gave us cold drinks (such a treat to get a frozen Sprite!) and let us look around a bit. Kristi’s Kamp is a private lodge on the reserve, and it is absolutely GORGEOUS! It’s right on a dam, so they get hippos often, and there is an infinity pool that flows off the deck. We relaxed there for a bit before leaving to go to the buffalo camp. I was sitting in front, so I got to control the radio telemetry system, which was actually pretty cool. I learned how to assemble it, and then I guided Lukas through the buffalo enclosure by listening to the beeps I received. We found the buffalo and sat with them for a while. It was not even 3:45, and we had already done our job for the afternoon! So we chilled and watched the buffalo interacting, which was actually quite interesting. Then we headed out to do a little monitoring before we headed back. We went to find hippos, but they had moved from the dam we last saw them in. As we drove around, we found a troop of Vervet monkeys and watched them jump around a bit. Right around then, our tire gave out! After all that off-roading this morning! Haha. So we hopped out and changed it in just a few minutes. Wolfgang and I put rocks around the tires and then collected firewood as Lukas put the spare on. We are getting to be pros at this now. After we got moving again, we stopped at a group of giraffes. There were two sub adults, two adults, and one little baby that was probably only 4 months old! It was SO cute.  We saw the sunset across Xinkankanka Clearing, which was breathtaking as usual! :) Then we headed out to Tomboti Dam, because Xinpoko and Masana were seen there a few hours ago. Usually, if lions are laying down somewhere, they are still going to be there in a few hours, especially during the heat of the day. The lazy cats! When we got there, night had fallen and we couldn’t spot the boys. They either had moved into a thicket of bushes, or had left to hunt or mark territory for the night. But just then, I heard a sickening “TSSSSS” noise! Our spare had sprung a leak! Luckily, we were close to camp, so we headed straight home, leaking air as we went. We managed to get home right as the tire was reaching that point where you can’t drive on it anymore! What a day! Two flats in one drive! The three of us headed to the kitchen to make dinner. Lukas and I make the dough while Wolfgang created homemade pizza sauce. Apparently, I am not skilled in the pizza crust making world. My crust looked like it went through a war, and I look over, and Lukas has a perfectly shaped crust. Sheesh. I admitted defeat and let him rescue mine! We had a quite yummy dinner, pizza with homemade crust and homemade sauce, with onions, peppers, chicken, mushrooms (not on mine), and cheese. Yum! We ate around the fire, and it was soon time for bed. As I went to clean my dishes, suddenly the water fight was on again in the kitchen. Flipping Andrew trapped me in the kitchen so Lukas could run to the back door and get in! Jerks! And then…Somehow…. SOMEONE broke the kitchen sink faucet (no names need to be repeated)…. We quickly repaired that as best we could, and went to bed before any more damage could be done!

Nkosikasi, one of the Tembe girls. 

 Beautiful day for some trees, eh?

 The ellies were right by our camps!

I'm so happy I captured them drinking in unison!

 Just being a buffalo

 Sunset on Xinkankanka Clearing.

Day 10

May 22.

This morning, we had a rhino walk scheduled. We were meeting up with Toko and the three that went to bush camp. I opted to sleep in a bit, and then work on my mapping work instead of looking for rhino. I was going to get up around 730, but accidentally woke at 830. Oops. I made myself some breakfast and coffee, and headed into the data room to begin wading through the plethora of sightings I have to organize. I spent the morning working on trees and properly organizing the prides and the lions in each since 2009. The crew got back around 11, and we had some leftovers for lunch a little bit later. Four nyala hung out in the garden all afternoon. There was the cutest young male with them and he was hopping all around the yard! Then I worked on my lion trees until we did some maintenance outside on the volleyball court. We are expanding it, which consisted of cutting down and digging out trees to widen the cleared area for sand. That became me using a pick-axe to loosen the ground around my stumps to dig them up. Never knew I could do that! Then, Andrew taught me to change a tire, because the rhino walk gang got a flat that morning. Woohoo, becoming accomplished here! Then, after the work, I got all cleaned up and ready for the afternoon drive. Lukas led it. We visited a few dams in the southwest region of the reserve, looking for ingala tracks, of course :) It’s always lion time for me! We joined a Makalali truck at Simbane Dam with two mufuzis and one madoda ingala (two females and a male) and tried to ID them for a bit. Lukas and I were in discussion about who the subadult male was, when the Makalali ranger told us we had a flat! The tire we had patched and put on that afternoon! Sheeesh! Like, pancake flat. And there were three lions on the other side of some trees! We drove a short distance, out of visual of lions, and the boys put the spare BACK on, for the second time that day! It also looked a little low, so we didn’t want to be out too long. We went to a nearby pan, and were greeted by two adult female white rhino and a baby! So great to see them, cause there are so few left because of poaching! We watched them for a while and talked about differences between white and black rhinos, amongst other animal facts. Then we decided to head home, because we didn’t trust the tire. We saw very little general game today, only one group of impala after dark. Lukas had to take the bush camp group back over there, so Wolfgang and I hopped out at home. I worked on my trees for a while before dinner. The set meal on the schedule for tonight was macaroni cheese (not macaroni AND cheese, mind you), but I am pretty pasta-ed out by now. Lots of spaghetti/macaroni, rice, and potatoes. So I asked if it was okay to make an omelette with some yellow pepper and onion. Quite yummy. We sat around the fire until a little after 9, then cleaned up the kitchen and off to bed. Unluckily, the frying pan I used for my omelette wasn’t Teflon. I left it soaking in the sink. That’s going to be fun tomorrow :(

Subadult male at the dam tonight. His face is muddy from drinking.

 Second flat of the day. Perfect!

Day 9 :D

May 21st.

Today, we had another set route drive. I was navigator, and since its only Wolfgang and I here this week, I had to cover general game, predators, and birds/raptors. All the jobs get splits between just the two of us now, so I also had to check the car before we left for the drive. We left at 6, and it was collldd again, after a few warmer days. But the Nissan (which they pronounce NISS-an instead of NEEE-sawn) wouldn’t start! We woke up Andrew, and Wolfgang, Lukas, and I had to push it like 500 feet while Andrew started it! We decided we wouldn’t stop the car at any sightings today! Lol. Imagine not being able to start the vehicle at a lion sighting! But it was actually a really nice drive, great weather, and I was really enjoying it. The route sent us up to Garonga, which I haven’t seen much of yet. Since it was a set drive, I was telling Lukas where to go on the map by using a listed route and following along with the map and GPS, so I got to learn fun Xan’gan names (which is one of the native languages). Lukas also taught us a lot of plants and birds and how to ID them as we were driving along. We were driving northeast for the most part at the beginning, so we had a beautiful view of the sunrise! Right near the beginning of the drive, we saw three hyena running down the road, which was my first hyena sighting! We quickly lost them in the bushes, but that was great because we haven’t seen any hyena in a few weeks. They move their dens very often, so we aren’t sure where the clans have been moving lately. After that, we didn’t see anything super spectacular on the drive. Some general game (antelope species, giraffe, and zebra – LOTS of zebra) but no other predators. We did go to a really beautiful platform over a dam in Garonga to take a look, but its owned by the Garonga camp. The route took us until about 10, and then we returned home. Wolfgang and I were on cooking duty. We made a “fry up” as they call it, which is basically sautéing mushrooms, peppers, onions, scrambling eggs, and cooking bacon and letting everyone assemble what they want. I chopped up my leftover fillet from Mahlahla for myself cause I don’t like bacon, and it was yummmyyy. After cleaning up, I headed into the data room and worked on getting all the historical data from 2005 till now and started playing around with it to look for lion movements over the years. We went on a general monitoring drive at 3:30, in which we attempted to follow some ingala and ingwe tracks (lion and leopard in Xan’gan) in a couple different places. The rangers, the Makalali people, and anyone else driving around the reserve use Xan’gan names for everything, so I am starting to learn them. This was to no avail. We headed up to Garonga and looked for tracks from those hyena this morning, but we couldn’t find any evidence. It was a really quiet drive, not many sightings, but it was still nice.  We watched the sunset from a higher point on the reserve, and it was beautiful! I was on spotlight after dark, and at one point I saw the reflection of eyes on a side road. We raced down there, thinking it was the perfect size for cubs from a leopard or lion. It ended up being a black-backed jackal, but man, that woke everyone up! Haha. We found a lot of densely overgrown roads that aren’t used as often, and explored a bit, but then we headed back home. Wolfgang and I made potato and chicken curry for dinner. That’s funny, because I have never made curry. I probably actually have never eaten curry! Apparently we did it correctly, cause it was delicious and everyone liked it. We enjoyed our dinner around the fire and talked for a bit. After killing the fire, we all cleaned the kitchen, and then Andrew and Wolfgang went to bed. Lukas and I were engrossed in conversation about approaching lions on foot, and what happens when they visit you on a sleep out! We started hearing noises on something large walking in the garden, and when we went to investigate, there was a large giraffe making his way away from us, into the bush! I love that giraffe can just wander into camp! A few minutes later, we had both gone to our rooms, but I heard some other weird noises. I ran outside with my torch, and saw a small nocturnal cat-sized mammal lumbering around. I went to ask Lukas what it was. He said it was a civet, and we followed it around the yard for a bit. They have long, large faces, but otherwise the body shape of a fat, bushy cat. So cool! Then I headed to bed, to get some much needed sleep!

Most amazing sunrise!

 Hey, there good sir!

 Bull wildebeest. Looks a little unhappy! haha

African sunset <3

Day 8!

Lovely day in town today. We left around 830 AM and got to Hoedspruit by 930. It’s quite safe and there are policemen/guards that are patrolling all the public areas, so I wandered around for a few hours and looked in some stores. Everyone kinda did their own thing, so it was nice to explore. I spent the majority of my time in stores looking through guides to African mammals and books on identifying scat and spore of African mammals. I also went to the Pick N Pay and gathered up some fruit, juice, instant coffee, etc, for my next week here. Later, I went to a cafe and had lunch and read my book (Screwtape Letters currently); it was glorious. We picked up a new volunteer, named Wolfgang, when his plane came in. He’s about 50s as well. On our way home, we stopped at a little plaza that had lots of souvenir-type shops. Paintings, carvings, and other such things. I was almost tempted to buy myself a huge oil on canvas painting of a lion on the savannah; it was only 1020 rand! :D  I am hoping to find myself a really nice carved lion head in the next few to bring home for my future “Africa room” in my house :) When we got home, Gail, Peter, and Kira packed up their stuff, and left with Toko for bush camp.  The three of them will spent the nights at the bush camp, learning survivalist skills, as well as tracking skills. Gail and Peter will return the following week to Twines (the research base). So now it’s just me, Andrew, Lukas, and Wolfgang here for the week. Not only am I the only American, and the youngest, but also NOW, I am the only girl. This week will be interesting. Hmmmm. Hopefully, it will be a little less hectic, as I am more into the routine of things, so I can really focus on my mapping. I have a lot of work cut out for myself now, here. So we will see how it all goes. I spent the evening reading a bit more, then working on some mapping and Skyping :) We had dinner around 7, spaghetti bolognaise. We all helped to clean up, and it went really fast. By 8, Wolfgang headed off to bed. I was still wide awake, so I went to go work on my mapping a bit, getting the data from the past years off the camp research computer so I can analyze it. Lukas came in to ask me a question, and we ended up talking for nearly two hours about research, school, careers, and Africa. We both are obsessed with lions, and we talked about how we fell in love with Africa and its wildlife at a young age: once you fall in love with the bush, you can’t shake that love. There’s just something about this place. Tomorrow morning, we do another set route drive, which is code for “a very long drive where we can’t alter our course to follow animal tracks or respond to any animal sightings from the radio.” Which, last Tuesday morning, turned out to be a great drive. It may also, as Lukas alluded to, be a drive where we continuously get stuck in drainage lines. Hmmm. We will see. That’s one thing about this place, I’m never bored. :D

Day 7

May 19th.

Today was our day off! So glorious! I slept til 830, after waking up around 7 and thinking, nope, not today! Haha. After I woke, I spent til 10 on my computer, catching up on school emails and whatnot. Then I moved to the outdoor eating area with a cup of coffee and Pride and Prejudice :) Kira helped me figure out how to put in my “washing” as they call it, so I did a load of laundry while I could. I spent some time talking to Toko about running. He is insane; he’s like 55 years old and runs ultra marathons! Then, I talked with Lukas and Kira before lunch. We had pancakes for lunch, which were quite thin and light, like crepes. Most of them put normal things on their pancakes, like peanut butter, syrup or jam. Except Kira, who put avocado and Marmite. And they think I’m the strange one. I did learn, though, that a pullover fleece is called a jumper. Here I thought a jumper was a sleeveless uniform dress that you wear over another shirt. Then Lukas, Kira, and I sat around and talked for a good while after the others wandered off. After that, I spent some time working on my data and pounding out some plans for my research with Andrew and Lukas. A great opportunity for “Tease the American” came up when I asked what A0 and A2 meant. Apparently the paper sizes are measured strangely here. Like, printer paper is A2. How should I know? Sheesh! Around 3:45, I moved up to the observation deck. I had a lovely time there, over 2.5 hours, just journaling and listening to the bush and some music as I watched the sun set. It was absolutely breathtaking. When the stars came out, they too were marvelous. I didn’t want to come down, but I was getting a bit cold. I may sleep out there tonight because its so lovely! We had Boerewors for dinner, which is essentially a long spiral sausage. Very South African. We also had mashed potatoes and gravy, peas and carrots, and sautéed veggies (peppers, onions, zucchini, mushrooms). SOO GOOD. Gail and Peter outdid themselves tonight :) I took over cleaning up the kitchen, which ended up being very difficult and full of scrubbing with all the pans. Luckily, Lukas stood there to dry everything and proceeded to tease/annoy me the whole time. It’s been “Pick on the silly American” for two days now! Usually, they just tell me they are going to feed me as a sacrifice to animals we come across on drives, because apparently lions especially love “the young tender ones.” It’s usually “Pick on the young American girl” when we are all together, which is probably because I’m the new girl this week, and also the youngest here. But they are so funny, I have to laugh. It really started when I didn’t know that there were such things as electric kettles! They boil their water in this little plastic jug that looks like a Brita filter. It plugs into the wall and they call it a kettle. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I though a kettle was that pot you put on the stovetop and heat water in, and it whistles at you when the water is boiling? Since when can you plug in a kettle?? Our electric kettle was apparently broken since I got here, but it got fixed a few days ago. Now, I had been drinking tea and coffee all week, but only after Gail or Peter heated the water and got theirs first, then I just used the remainder for mine.  But Saturday, I decided to heat a fresh pot of water so we could all have coffee/tea with our French toast lunch, and I had to ask how to use the electric kettle.  That started a hilarious conversation about kettles and tea and how no Americans I know have an electric kettle, but apparently that’s all Australians and South Africans use! Now, I will never live that down! But really, I really love the people here. The guides are great, and the other volunteers are so interesting to learn from and hang out with. I love that it’s not super busy right now, because we are more like a family :) No fire tonight, so we all turned in early to read and relax before bed. Right as I got into my room, I hear this crazy cacophony that sounds like black-backed jackals howling, or a pack of hyena maybe. There were also some low noises like moos that could have been zebra. I’m not sure what went down, but I could have just heard some successful hunting party and some animals death. I will have to ask the rangers tomorrow. Also, tomorrow we go to town, and it marks one week of my being here! Man, time flies!!

The view from the observation platform when I got there, around 4pm.

Sunset a couple hours later, about 545pm.

I was trying to get a good shot inside the tortoise shell I found. I will try tomorrow in the sunlight to illuminate the vertebra inside. You can just make out part of the bones in this shot.