Day 6!

May 18^th. Today, we had bush clearing at 730. They are systematically clearing areas of small trees to open up the vegetation. Once you start clearing an area from the thick brush to a more open woodland, wildebeests will move in and clear out the shrubs, and predators will start using those areas to hunt the smaller animals because they can see more clearly. We worked until 10, and it actually didn’t get too hot because it was cloudy today. Toko had me assist him for most of the time, sawing large trees, clearing all the brush he was sawing, and clipping smaller branches so we could get to the trunks. At one point, he tied a rope around a big tree trunk, tied the other end to me, and told me to pull! He made me into a human oxen and stood over me with a twitch, and told Gail to take a picture. He said, “We should put this on the website to show how we treat the volunteers!” It was so funny! And later, I got some knobthorn stuck in my hair, and he was telling me he was going to shave my head like his so it wouldn’t happen again. He is really funny, and reminds me a lot of my grandfather. He served in the SA’can army for 13 years and has done everything imaginable. He has got to be in his 60s, and he runs ultra marathons and can wield a machete like you wouldn’t believe! Afterwards, we headed back to camp and had some downtime. I finally got to sit in the hammock for about ten minutes and read a book. Then I went to see about helping with lunch, which was French toast today! Yumm! Afterwards, I finally entered my predator data into the camp computer from the week. I also spent a few hours talking to Lukas, one of the rangers who had been on leave at Kruger for the past week, about research and conservation work. He wants to be a vet and has applied to a few vet schools in Germany and is waiting on a result (He is German, but is in South Africa to be trained as a ranger/guide). We also worked for a good while on IDing that young male lion I saw walking down the road on Wednesday. It’s very hard because the ID kits are VERY out of date. All the animals have changed sine they got older, some have died, and there are many new young one. Apparently they have been updated on the computer, but that was a few years ago as well. Also, the family lines are a little confusing and the prides keep mixing and re-sorting themselves, so the lions basically give us the run-around. I think I am going to spend a good bit of time re-creating the family trees, as well as establishing updated ID pages for all the adult lions in the prides. It is vastly needed, because a lot of the notes were taken in a confusing way. After that, it was time for out night drive. I was introduced to a lovely game called “Buck Sh** Spit”, which basically means, the crazy South Africans put a piece of kudu poo in their mouth and compete to see how far they can spit it! I did not participate! Haha. We spent some time tracking the leopard, which is so aggravating, because we know they are here, but we cannot find them. We found a set of fresh male tracks and a set of fresh female tracks in two different areas. We drove around for a bit, and discovered a lot of lovely areas to continue leopard hunting. Andrew and I are determined to get a visual soon! We also tried to find some collared hyenas with the radio telemetry system, but they were out of range. We saw We returned to camp to freshen up a bit before going out to Mahlahla Game Lodge, which is a hunting lodge nearby. We actually took the open safari vehicle there, in the cold open air, brrrr. It’s about a 25 minute drive over most bumpy roads! They have a nice restaurant there that they open to local rangers and volunteers when they don’t have a lot of guests in the slow part of the season. I got steak and chips, which was only R90, which is less than 10 dollars. Very yummy! And according to the Australians and South Africans, I had a fillet, pronounced FILL-it. We hung out there and chatted until about 10, then took the cold road home. On the way home, we saw a small cat like creature cross the road. We think it was either an African wildcat or a genet, some of the nocturnal mammals. After dropping my leftovers from dinner in the frig, I was crossing the yard to my room. Everyone else had already gone into their rooms, so I was alone in the garden. I stopped to take a moment to gaze up into the clear South African night sky and see hundreds of stars. And right then, a nearby chorus of lions started calling. It sounded like at least 3 adults, calling and calling, overlapping each other in the most beautiful chorus you could imagine. And I just thought, "Wow, our Creator made all the constellations I can see, as well as these magnificent animals I can hear, and I get to enjoy them all." So blessed!! Even in my bedroom as I type this, the lions have started up again, twice more. Their chorus continues for near to a minute each time, and they are CLOSE! It’s absolutely incredible. I opened my window so I can enjoy it as I get ready for bed! Tomorrow is our “day off,” which means no road clearing or scheduled drives. I’m assuming that I will spend the better part of the day just working on lion stuff. Not like its work to me anyway :)

A beautiful view the wild areas.

 How I have to plug in my hairdryer here! haha

Day 5!

May 17th.

We got to sleep in today, starting out at 730 instead of 6. I forgot to change my alarm, so I accidentally woke up at 530 still. So I grabbed my alarm to reset it for 630 and promptly fell asleep! Kira woke me at 7:40, when everyone was out ready to go, and I hadn’t arrived! I threw on some clothes and grabbed some food, and left for the morning’s adventure. Today, we did some road clearing. That just entails us clipping, chopping, and sawing trees/branches on the sides of the road that are beginning to grow into the roadway. We cut everything about 2 meters back from the road, so it would stay clear for a while. I learned that just about EVERYTHING in South Africa has thorns! Flaky bark acacia, sickle bush, and a bunch of others I don’t remember the names. They somehow all found my legs and arms as I worked. We were out working from about 8 to 1030, and it got very hot and sunny. We called it around 1030 and headed back to camp. I got to tidy up my room a bit, and take a nice luxurious shower! I felt like a real person again, letting my hair dry down and putting on shorts and flip-flops for the afternoon, instead of bush wear! So nice, for a change! Andrew and I were on food duty, so we made egg salad and chopped veggies for sandwiches for everyone. We ate around 12, and sat and chatted for a while. We had a Zulu lesson with Toko at 1:30. Zulu is one of the native black languages that is commonly spoken around here. Most of the animals are named with Zulu names, so its quite fun to learn! Now I can say to you, “Sawubona unjani,” when I meet you in town someday. Our lesson lasted until around 3, then we went out on our monitoring drive at 330. At first, we traveled around on some roads that I hadn’t been down before. It was a whole other side of the reserve tonight. We saw some kudu and impala, like usual, and I actually got a decent picture of a kudu, finally! We moved down to a different area, and we found a nest made by the buffalo weaver. Then we found a leopard tortoise shell. That made us go 3 of 5 for the “Small Five”, counting the ant lion holes everywhere (missing the elephant shrew and the rhino beetle). Apparently they also have a Secret 7 and an Ugly 5. Oh South Africans! Haha. Anyway, the shell was really cool, and I took it with me. I will get pics later, but it still had vertebrae attached, which was cool since I just studied turtle skeletal systems in my CVA class. After that, we moved to a nice clearing where we had followed cheetah tracks too. We sat in the clearing for a while, before finally spotting two cheetah laying down a ways off. We drove to them, and got within 10 meters. It was a mother and her 6 to 7 month old cub! So exciting to get my first cheetah sighting! Unfortunately, dusk was falling, and it was impossible to get a good picture! :( After watching them for a while, they ran off, so we moved on. We drove to a dam where Andrews had seen lion earlier that day. We saw a female drinking at the watering hole, so we off roaded down to her. We found 3 others, lying nearby. They had bloody mouths and full bellies, so we knew they had just eaten. Moving past them, we hit the gold mine! Five lions, on their kill! It was the whole Makhutswi pride, and they were devouring a zebra. One of the most amazing things I have seen, BUT THEN MY CAMERA DIED. I could’ve beaten myself. It wouldn’t have been nearly impossible to get good pictures anyway, but I would have liked to try. Still, it was amazing to watch the interactions. There were 3 cubs and 7 subadults/adults, which was absolutely insane! We watched them for a while, and worked on IDing them. The truck hadn’t been sounding good, and almost got stuck a few times on the way back to the road. Scariest moments of my life. Luckily, we made it, and were on our way. That would have been enough excitement, but then we saw a civet, which is a small nocturnal mammal that is part of the Secret 7! Pretty unusual to see. We also saw two hippo lumbering along, out of water! Talk about a full day! When we arrived home, Andrew had been bored waiting for us, so he already had dinner ready: macaroni bolognaise. Delish. We chowed down and relaxed, but with no fire, because it was a good deal less cold than it has been. I wonder how long that will last. All in all, a very successful day! 

Female kudu. They have huge ears!

Leopard tortoise. You can see where it gets its name!

Sparing you the details, this is the pride on its kill!

 View of camp from next to my door. Forgot to take pics of the camp earlier.

 The young cheetah, observing us.

Day 4, Part 2

For lunch, we had egg salad sandwiches, which were actually quite lovely. It was only around 12 when we ate, so after helping to clean up, I spent some time working on IDing my lions. I went through all my pictures and my notes for a good long while. I wasn’t able to put my data in the camp computer, because the others were doing their data, but I did get a lot more familiar with the prides here, which is great. We left around 3 for our buffalo monitoring drive. That means, I am officially 4 of 5 for my BIG FIVE checklist (elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo) and just waiting on that blasted leopard! On the way to the buffalo, we crossed the Tembe female lions again. They were in the same spot we left them in 4 hours earlier! We spent a good long while watching them, as I was trying to get good pictures to update our ID kits for the lions. They were both sleeping on the ground, and then at one point, Nandi got up and moved toward Nkosikasi and laid down right next to her. The two lioness then began to lick each other and rub their heads and necks on each other in the sweetest show of affection. I died inside. Eventually, we had to move on. We got to the buffalo, which are kept in their own enclosed reserve, because the herd is not strong enough to be self-sustaining under the predation that would occur in the full reserve. Once the herd grows large/strong enough, they will be introduced back to the reserve. We found the heard, counted the ones we could see, and did some behavioral observations. On the way home, we collected firewood and then did some hyena hunting, but with no success. We also did some leopard hunting, but the silly things are like apparitions. We saw a really awesome chameleon in a bush, which I, of course, unofficially named Pascal. After returning home, We had a little time for data entry and whatnot before dinner, which was a delicious chicken potjie. Since the oven is still out, Andrew slow roasted it over the fire for us, and it was splendid. We sat around the fire for a bit, but I left to go clean up the kitchen and then head to bed. I’m super excited because we get to sleep in tomorrow! We have until 7:30 instead of 6! Wooohh!

 The Tembe females showing love

This was a yawn! They were soo relaxed and lazy, they both yawned probably 20 times.

 Self-portrait with sleeping lions? win!

 The gorgeous dusk over the Drakensburgs.

Day 4, part 1

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May 16th. 

Woke up at 530am and got ready for our 6:15 drive. We left around 630 and drove toward where we had heard lion calling this morning, around 5. On the way there, we received word of two male lion on Merula. We scurried down there and by 7am we were in the presence of two of the most beautiful males I have seen, Xinpoko and Masana. They seemed to be about 6 or 7 and had formed a coalition. Possibly brothers, though one looked a little older. They sniffed around and were very calm, but appeared to be waiting on their females to return. We saw female lion tracks leading off from the area, so we decided to wait around a bit. Within 10 minutes or so, we heard the kill. The females had been out hunting, and had been successful. Instantaneously, the males were up and moving. It was the most exhilarating thing, to be following two large fierce males on their way to breakfast! We tracked with them down the road a ways, til they moved into the bush. We continued down the road and were able to keep a visual as they ran through the bush. We cut through a side street, just in time to see them cross the side road and continue right to the Makhutswi River. There weren’t any roads that lead to where we needed to be, so we spent a while trying to pinpoint exactly where they had been, crossing the river a few times and doubling back. After about an hour, we seemed to have lost them. We waited a while, and heard location calls, which seemed to indicate either the males had not found the females, and thus, the kill, or it was another group trying to locate them. We traveled around the area for a while, listening to calls and looking for tracks, but were unable to get another visual. It would have been amazing to see the lions reach the kill, but already, that was more than I expected that morning! One time, crossing the river, we saw some cute Vervet monkeys high in the trees above. We covered all the roads in the region, seeing zebra, wildebeests, impala, and others. At one point, there were impala giving alarm calls in the middle of an area that cheetah frequent, so I was hoping to see some action there, but not today. We headed out to a hide over a watering hole, and on the way saw four elephants in a clearing. We spent some time observing them and IDing them with our ID data books. The hide was so cool! It gave a great lookout over Cheetah Clearing, as well as the watering hole. We spent some time there, then headed home. On the way, we passed two Tembe females, Nandi and Nkosikasi, who crossed the road and then laid down for a mid-morning nap in the grass. We suspect they were with the male who crossed the river last night that we couldn’t find. Since they were so close to camp, we think they were the ones we heard calling this morning. On our way in to camp, we saw a mother warthog and her baby, who were surprisingly cute! We got home a little past 11 and relaxed a bit before lunch.

One of the elephants we IDed, Sneaky.

 The older male, Xinpoko, giving us some love.

 The hide we stopped in

 I can't handle this picture!

Day 3!

May 15^th. Got up at 5:30, and had some coffee and cereal with cold milk J Then I got ready for our Rhino walk, which started a little after 6:30am. I was the navigator today, which means I used the maps to help guide us through all the twisting roads of the reserve. I was to keep track of our GPS coordinates and give them to each person as they record their data whenever we make animal sightings. We drove out to Pidwa North, a property at the very north edge of the reserve. There we followed some rhino tracks til we located where they entered the bush. We set off on foot around 7:45 and walked through the bush with Andrews, armed with a rifle. We tracked the rhinos for a long while, but eventually got off on a bull elephant trail that kept crossing his path. After wandering through the dense undergrowth for over an hour, we finally broke out onto the road, with no rhino to speak of. We had seen some zebra a ways off, but that was it. We trekked back to the truck and arrived around 9:15, a little tired, but no worse for the wear. We drove around a bit more, and came upon some beautiful lion on the road. One male with one female. They walked around our truck and sniffed around us, then strolled off into the bush, completely casually. So amazing to see them so close! We drive around a bit more to track the rhino, but didn’t get any more positive leads, so we headed back home. We got home around 12, ready for lunch. Toko (Andrews) and I were on cooking duty today. The set menus had us baking potatoes and preparing fillings for everyone to make their own, but apparently the oven went out last week. On the way home from the drive, we decided we would improvise with omelettes, but Andrew had already put the potatoes on the fire to bake for us! We heated beans, corn, and braii relish, which is some type of SA’can mixture of tomatoes and onion. We grated some cheese and called it lunch. Funny how you can make anything into a meal when you have to improvise. It actually turned out quite well. After lunch, it was time for some maintenance work. We worked on improving the volleyball court, by removing brush near by and widening the sand court. I cut small trees down and removed branches with pokey thorns that like to pop balls. After that, Andrew and I sat down to finally have our “Welcome to Siyafunda” talk that usually occurs with all the new people on Tuesday, but since I was the only new one, and we were busy, we moved it around. We talked a lot about my research, which was awesome! Our afternoon drive started at 3:30 and we were on the hunt for predators. We followed some female leopard tracks near the river, but couldn’t find her. We also hunted for some lion, after hearing the impala give their alarm call nearby and seeing fresh male lion tracks in the region, but to no avail. We cruised around to some different areas, and did a little exploring. We found a really cool clearing with a tree that had to be hundreds of years old. On the way back from that, we found a male rhino, just chilling on the side of the road. He had to have been there when we passed not 20 minutes before, but must have been out of visual. We spent some time observing him as the sun went down. We cruised around, still determined to find some predators at night, when they were hunting. Besides some kudu, bushbuck, and impala, we weren’t finding anything of note. Then, we ran across a porcupine, which was really cool! A few minutes later, we crossed paths with two more! It was cool to see the little nocturnal mammals scurrying about with such long quills! We were on a little run-around for a male lion that was seen crossing the Makhutswi River, but couldn’t find him emerging. We headed home, noticing that we weren’t as freezing as last night. For dinner, we were supposed to oven bake a chicken, with no oven. Andrew popped it over some coals in the fire pit, as Gail and I worked on veggies. With no oven, we improvised some potatoes and butternut squash, boiling them to soften, then sautéing them in some oil and spices. We also made some fresh carrots with peas. I was a little concerned, but everything ended up tasting great. I’m officially obsessed with butternut squash, and will be making it again like that! We ate around the fire pit, as usual, and talked and enjoyed ourselves. I brought out the banana bread that my grandmother had sent me, and we all enjoyed that as a sweet treat to end the day. Of course, we stayed up too late talking again around the fire, almost 10pm, so 530am will come much too earlier! 

Trekking back to the car, on the road.

Handsome male watching us!

Awesome old tree we found!

The elusive rhino. Of course, we can't find him on foot about 1.5 hours, but he wanders out nearby when we aren't looking for him!

Day 2

May 14 ^th- Got up at 5am to begin getting ready. After I had dressed and packed my bags, I went to the kitchen and had breakfast. I had cereal with WARM milk because it had apparently just gotten put in the refrigerator. It was…. Different. We left on out drive a little late, led by our guide Andrews. It was FREEZING. I was layered in clothes and still cold wit the wind whipping past. We drove on Set Route 3, which took us until 12 noon! I was in charge of collecting pachyderm data (rhino, elephant, buffalo, hippo).  Throughout the drive, we saw impala, kudu, zebra, giraffe, elephant, hippos, wildebeasts, baboons, and crocodiles. It didn’t warm up until around 830 or 9, so we were glad for that time! I got really tired on the way home and kept nodding off for the last 1.5 hours. It is pretty scary to wake up when you hit a bump and you and falling toward the metal bar in front of you! We got to hear lions twice, but didn’t see any. We also got some tracking education, including how to tell what animals moved through and when by the poo left behind. When we returned to camp, we had some downtime before lunch was served. The oven is out, so the meat couldn’t be baked, or whatever was supposed to be prepared. So the table was set with bread, mayo, butter, maramite, peanut butter, lettuce, onions, red pepper, tomatoes, cheese, a small bowl of tuna, and crackers. I had a PB&J and some fresh veggies made into a makeshift salad, as all the Australians and South Africans made strange sandwiches with maramite and veggies! I tried a bite of maramite and cheese on white bread, and it left much to be desired. VERY salty and not much else to taste. After lunch, I took advantage of the break to lay down. My alarm apparently didn’t get set properly, so although I was supposed to wake up at 2:45, Kira knocked on my door at 3:30 to leave for the afternoon drive!  I popped up and grabbed my bag and extra clothes. We left out on a hunt for lion and cheetah! We had driven for a few hours and seen nothing more than some zebra, some impala, and some kudu, when we heard on the radio that lion had been spotted. It took us a while to get there, and we stopped to watch the sun set and gather firewood, as well as look at some other animals on the way. The sun was down by 5:30 and it was getting cold again. We finally got to the place where the lion had been spotted. The two other vehicles were leaving, so we got a private audience with a handsome male and two female lions. One of the lionesses gave a beautiful call as soon as we arrived. We watched them for a while, within 7 meters, as they lounged lazily in the grass, completely unconcerned by the trucks presence. We moved the truck around for a different view at them, and the male got spooked by a moth or something in the headlights, so he got up and moved around a bit. We got to see his full size as he walked, and then lay down again. We kept the lights off to avoid irritating the lions, which was absolutely incredible and frightening, to be so close to such powerful animals, in the dark! The lions were not getting ready to move, in any way, so after sitting with them for probably 30 minutes, we decided to head home. It was absolutely an amazing cap to the day! When we returned to camp, there was a huge bull elephant in musth in our camp! That is when elephants are in heat, so to speak, and are scent marking everything, and also unusually aggressive. He was standing near out kitchen, scratching himself on a tree. Andrews shooed him out of camp so he didn’t damage anything, but he returned before dinner for a bit. I had a cup of coffee, which was much needed, and learned about data entry and collection from Andrew. Dinner was a delicious stirfry of chicken, zucchini, onions, green and red peppers, mushrooms, and rice. Then we sat by the fire for a bit, and talked. Andrew also found female leopard tracks right through the fire pit! We didn’t see them last night, so we think she must have moved through camp last night as we slept. Gail, Peter, and Kira had been looking for leopard all week, and there she just snuck through without us even knowing! Hopefully we will find her in the next few days. I headed to my room about half-past 9. We get to sleep in a bit tomorrow! We leave at 6:15 for our rhino walk, instead of 6 for a drive!

A few assorted highlight photos from the drives today. To see more, go to my album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151370259357161.1073741827.511962160&type=3

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Travel Days, Part 2

May 13^th – Got to JSB at 8am local (2am FL), Met Sam. Went through custom check together and got our bags. Met up with the Marshalls. Exchanged currency and Skyped mom and dad. I caught my connection to HSD at 1015 and arrived around  11am. Met by Dean and Cy. We got my luggage and went to the grocery store (Pick N Pay) and met up with the others. Went to Sleepers for lunch and had Cajun chicken and feta burger. Delish! Made a few stops in town, and headed back to camp. Looong drive with beautiful mountains. I kept falling asleep multiple times as we drove home. Arrived at camp around 3pm. I was shown my room and got a quick tour, but then called mom on skype around 4 because Dad was harassing Mike to find me. :P Afterwards, unpacked and settled into my nice single room. Met with Kira on the observation platform and watched some kudu and antelope get spooked by some unknown predator. Took a lovely shower, then met up with the group by the fire around 7. Had chicken alfredo around the fire and sat around talking until 9. Went to bed to get lots of rest for my first drive tomorrow! :D

First views of the beauty that is South Africa!

My room to myself, at least for now! I love the fabric wall hanging!