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.

Day 33!

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June 14^th. This morning, I was so tired to get out of bed! I finally got up at like 6:10, and we had to leave at 6:30. I got ready really quickly and ran to make coffee before we had to leave. I had decided to go on the predator drive, because Lukas was going for cheetah. We left, and it was sooo coooold. We were all bundled in blankets, and I had my coffee to try to warm up from the inside. We drove out to Lufafa, seeing some general game along the way. Our first unique sighting was a family of black-backed jackals! We saw a male, female, and a baby run across the road, which was awesome! Then, we continued down to the fenceline to look for the cheetah boys. We found some older tracks, but we continued along to look for fresher ones. The man at the front gate at Makalali said that he hadn’t seen any cheetah around. But then, we turned a corner to a different road, and Jonathan spotted a cheetah down the road! We rushed down to it, and saw two cheetahs disappearing into the bush. We rounded the block and looked for them to come out on the fenceline again. Sure enough, both boys were sitting on the road near the fenceline. We got fairly close to them, and got to take some pictures for ID uses. Then, they began to move off into the bush. We followed along and watched them for a while, and then they moved deeper. We circled the block a few times, but we couldn’t find them again. We stopped for a while, and Lukas walked in to see if he could find them again, but no luck. We talked about cheetah for a while and learned about their behaviours and whatnot. Then, we set off towards home, taking the scenic route home. We saw a cute family of warthogs, with a few babies! Then, we went to Weaver’s Nest Dam. We had an awesome hippo sighting, with at least 10 hippos. There were even two cute babies! We watched them for about 30 minutes, and they all moved closer to us. The babies kept climbing up on the mom’s backs. It was so cute! Some of the hippos starting grunting and calling, which was pretty cool to hear. I also saw a tree with a lot of weaver’s nests, which was fitting because we were at Weaver’s Nest Dam. After spending some time with them, we left and went through a clearing called Xinkanka (Cheetah) Clearing. There were some impala around the clearing, as usual. But what was really cool was when we turned the corner to a clear area that was farther along the road. There were literally so many animals, it was unbelieveable. Large herds of zebra, wildebeest, impala, and a family of warthogs all together. There had to be at least 100 animals there all together. There was a nice fresh watering hole that is man-made and maintained, so all the animals like to come to graze and drink there. We stopped and watched them for a while, but it was so awesome! There was a little baby zebra that was only a few weeks old, and it was so cute and tender looking. We also got to watch impala racing across the plain, and kicking their heels/hind legs so far back that they completely stretched out! It was a really awesome sighting. Some of the wildebeest began to get a little frisky and run around and call at each other, in response to some of the zebra calling around as well. It was definitely a cool sighting. We were all having a great drive, and we were laughing and having so much fun. It had gotten so hot, and Lukas was driving home like a Ferrari safari again today. There are a lot of ditches and bumps, so we were flying over those and catching a lot of air! We pulled onto the airstrip, and Lukas stopped the truck and asked if Jene wanted to drive! So then, it turned into a manual safari jeep driving lesson. Everyone got a turn learning to drive except Judith and I, because we are going to be here next week, so we let everyone else go first. Good thing too, because during Amber’s turn, a bull elephant decided to cross the airstrip. Lukas jumped in the driver’s seat, and we followed the ellie off-road for about 15 minutes, through thorn trees. It was hilarious to see everyone hitting the deck of the truck. After we followed him for a while, we headed back home, Ferrari safari style. We saw some really fresh lion tracks at Concrete Crossing, the Makhutswi crossing right next to camp, but we didn’t see the lions. We are hoping to find them during our afternoon drive. We got home and relaxed for a bit while lunch got made. After eating, most of us helped to clean up and begin packing for the sleepout. We are leaving at 3ish to go on an afternoon drive, which will then turn straight into a sleepout. We are collecting lots of firewood, and cooking a chicken poitjie over the fire for dinner. It’s going to be so cold but SOOOO fun! I can’t wait! Hopefully everything will go okay with the night watches, so we don’t get attacked by hyenas! :D

Cheetah boys on the fenceline. :)

 It's Zazu!

 fresh baby zebra! Only a week or so old.

 Beautiful fresh lion tracks in the sand by the Makhutswi.

 I love the male nyala's face!

 Another beautiful sunset in South Africa. :)

Day 32

June 13^th. The time is passing FAR too quickly. Today, we had road clearing with Jamie at 7:30. It was sooo cold, I’m pretty sure my fingers could not use any tools yet! We moved out to the area where we have been working, but we have been clearing it from both sides, so we finished it off quickly, and had to move the truck. We moved through a lot of the road, clearing it quickly with so many people! It warmed up finally, and my panga-swinging arm got a great workout. We starting hearing a helicopter, and on the radio, they were talking about darting an elephant. So Jamie started to pay attention to the radio to see what was going on. She figured out that they were going to be darting one of the females who has a collar to fix the collar position. We wanted to go watch, cause that would be the coolest thing ever! We couldn’t get a hold of Lukas on the phone or radio, so we quickly drove home to ask around 10. He asked the head researcher, but she said we weren’t allowed to observe the darting because it was funded by a private group and they wanted it to be a closed situation. There were already four vehicles, with the vet, the reserve managers, the man and family that funded the collars, and the research team. There was already too much stress on the elephant herd as it was, because they hate helicopters. The ellies know that helicopters mean shots or darting because that is how we do the contraception injections. But, since we weren’t allowed to go observe, we headed back to the road clearing.  We were supposed to work from 7:30 to 10:30, so we headed back out for another half hour. By then, after the excitement of the possible darting, everyone had kinda lost our steam, so we were glad when time was up. When we returned home, we were supposed to do maintenance. For the past few weeks, that has meant digging out the volleyball court, or bringing loads of sand from the river to cover the court. But Toko had taken the Nissan, so we got to dig out the swimming pool instead. The ground is so hard-packed, that it was like digging concrete. We took shifts, using the pick to loosen the rock-hard ground, then shoveling it out with the spades. We worked on that from around 11 to 12:45. A few of the girls went to go get lunch ready, so we figured we would work til 12:15 and then eat. But apparently, the lunch took longer than expected to prepare, because they didn’t call us for lunch. Eventually, Justine, Judith, and I were the only ones left shoveling, and we decided that our work there was done! I went to take a shower, because lunch wasn’t ready yet. When I got done cleaning up, fresh French toast and bacon were just hitting the table. Hit the spot, after all that hard work. We all ate and relaxed on the picnic table. I helped the girls and Lukas clean up the kitchen, then showed some of the girls how to do their data entry on the data computers. The drive was set to leave at 2:30, but everyone was thinking it left at 3, so it was a bit late. I stayed home to work on my research in the nice quiet camp, because tonight was a buffalo monitoring drive, and I have been on a few of those. I gave Lukas and Jamie specific instructions NOT to find a leopard without me. I sat on the porch for a while and enjoyed the birds and nyala with my computer and my coffee. :) I got to work on my project all afternoon, which was great. I got a lot of work done with mapping, and had a nice relaxing quiet evening. The gang got home around 7, and, lucky for me, they didn’t see a leopard! :) They did see a hyena, which is super cool! And apparently, they couldn’t find the silly buffalo, which stinks. The buffalo camp is really big, so its hard to find them sometimes. But they did see baby porcupines as well! I worked in the lounge until the girls called us for dinner, which was macaroni bolognaise. It was really good, and they did something different with the spices and veggies, which was great! :D We all sat around the fire for a while and talked, and people slowly moved off to go to bed. We have two drives tomorrow at 6:30, because we have two trucks. One is going for a rhino walk, and one is going for predators. Technically, my group is going for rhino, but because of my project, I can opt to hop on the predator car instead. I am not sure which I will go on yet, so we will see what happens in the morning. I stayed up far too late hanging out and talking, so tomorrow will be an early morning!

 Pretty little cape glossy starling in the yard!

Bearded woodpecker in our tree.

Male nyala getting a snack in the yard. :)

Day 31.

June 12^th. It was SOOO hard to wake up this morning. I was pooped. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 5:45 and got ready. We left at 6:30 on two cars. Team 1 was with Lukas again. It was sooo cooold. I literally had two long sleeve shirts, a zip-up hoodie, and a thick jumper on, plus I wrapped my lower half in a thick blanket. The sun was starting to come up, but there was no warmth to be found! We drove all the way up to Pidwa North, and starting look for lion tracks. By 9 or so, we had only had two general sightings; I think it was a giraffe and waterbuck. We went to a really pretty dam to have a look, but still nothing. We had found lots of hyena tracks, some fresh rhino tracks, and some old lion tracks, but nothing super good. We did some more tracking lessons, as well as some tree ID as we went. Then, Lukas picked us a piece of a plant they call the magic guary. It is rumored to bring the Big 5 to you. Sure enough, not 5 minutes after we picked it, we turned the corner, and there was a heard of elephants! We spent about 15 minutes with them, until they moved into the block. We continued on a way, and finally found some fresh lion tracks! It was one male lion, and it looked like they were from a few hours earlier. We began to follow the tracks, and luckily for us, he stayed on the road. We followed his trail, sometimes losing it for a while, and then picking it up again, for an hour and a half! Around 11:30, we lost it at intersection of 3 roads. By this time, we were all getting hungry, and the plan was to meet up with the other truck, driven by Toko, and Andrew would bring us lunch. So we tried to contact them, and they had us drive all the way back from whence we came to meet. When we got there, they had changed their minds, and we drove all the way back where we had tracked the lion almost. Finally, we settled in a spot around 12:30. We all made sandwiches and had fruit, relaxing by the Selati River. Most of the girls ended up taking off their shoes and socks and wading in the river. We all took pictures and relaxed in the sun, which had finally heated up the area. We stayed there until about 2:30, just resting, hanging out, and stretching a bit. When we left, we found lion tracks right near the river, so we followed those for a bit. The tracks were pretty sparse, because the area was rocky. We reached a dam, and suddenly, the lion disappeared! Literally, we looked on all three roads of the T-junction, and around the dam, and he was gone! But we did find another set of lion tracks, coming from the opposite direction! I’m pretty sure he was walking backwards just to trick us! We circled around the block to see if we could pick him up again, but nothing. We passed a sable breeding camp that was enclosed, and got some close views at some beautiful sable antelope. There was even a baby! :D Then we returned back to the intersection we had lost the original tracks at before lunch. We weren’t able to pick them up again, so we headed across the river. The Askari group told us they had two females along the fence line two days ago, so we headed there. We found tracks of two females traveling up on some roads there, but nothing fresh. We did explore most of the north side of the river, which is something I have wanted to do all month, so that was cool. Lukas took us to a nice open area of plains, which is like what you see in the movies. Open grassland stretching out everywhere! We enjoyed the view there and took some pictures of birds and some wildebeests grazing with the mountains as backdrop. Lukas said to me, “Now imagine one of the Big 5 moving into the clearing.” To which I said, “That would be awesome. But I would take anything moving through. Actually, it would be really awesome to see giraffe running across the open plains.” Just then, I looked up to two giraffe, and sure enough, they were RUNNING across the plain! I got so excited! I jumped up on the door of the car to video. My grandmother had told me that giraffe running on a plain is the most graceful thing, even though you wouldn’t expect it. And they were indeed graceful and beautiful! I was so excited to see that! It was starting to cool down, and we had to think about heading back soon. We all decided that the magic guary had used its special powers to bring us the ellies, so we asked Lukas to pick us a new piece for the lions! He did, and we set off to see if we would have any luck. We stopped at a really pretty area right on the river for a nice view. We got some nice pictures of the sun getting lower and reflecting off the water, but it was a little too early to wait for the sun to set. Along the road on the way, we saw a giraffe in the trees and stopped, on Bushbuck Road. Then, two bushbuck walked right out of the bush onto the road. We saw some bushbuck…. on Bushbuck. What are the odds?? Then, we headed back along the river, looking for any predators we could find. We passed a lot of perfect habitat for leopard and cheetah, but nothing! Once it got dark, it got cold really fast, so we set off on a straight course home. It still took almost an hour to get back to camp, because we were so far north. We saw something in the road that we thought might have been a civet, but Phil got some awesome pictures. It was a small hyena! Really cool to see, since we haven’t located any dens. The rest of the drive home was pretty uneventful, just very cold again. We got home around 6:30, which gave us a 12 hour day! I went straight to the kitchen to help Courtney and Kayla with dinner, which was roasted chicken and butternut squash, with mashed potatoes and peas and carrots.  Yummy yumm. Then we all cleaned up the kitchen together. Now we are watching the Lion King. So typical :) Also, Zazu is a Red-billed Hornbill. Which we see all the time here. Sooooo coool! Tomorrow we have bush clearing, so we get to sleep in a bit. Yay! :D

Morning meeting with the ellies.

 The crossing at the Selati.

 Handsome sable buck.

 Hello old boy.

 The beautiful open plains.

 Lilac-breasted roller. sooo pretty!

 Sun going down on the Selati!

Day 30.

June 11^th. This morning was a Set Route drive. Since the Nissan wasn’t working, and the Cruiser hadn’t been picked up from the shop, Anne and I stayed behind from the drive, and they took one vehicle. I slept in til around 8, which was absolutely glorious. I made my way to the data room and worked on my research til everyone got home around 11. I finished going through all my lion prides again, and taking out the data points from the prides that were just male sightings, as I have moved those all to separate files for males only. I had a little pow-wow with Judith, Justine, and Andrew, talking about our research projects. Then, we all ate lunch. The French girls made damper, which was really yummy fresh bread rolls, and a yummy salad. Some of us pulled our chairs into the sun to eat, because it was still so cold out. They told me it was about 10 degrees Celsius this morning, which feels like 0 degrees when you are driving. Brrr. Andrew said it was the coldest day they have had this year! After lunch, I worked on my project, as well as answering emails and dealing with some things from the real world back in the US,  ew. Hahah. We left for drive at 3. Since there are so many of us this week, we are split into Team 1 and Team 2, and we take two vehicles out for the drives. Lukas took my group out on the newly returned Cruiser. We headed out to find some rhino, and stopped for general game along the way. We stopped and identified a lot of tracks, which was cool, because I learned about some that I haven’t seen much of in the past month I have been here. I was with Courtney, Kayla, Justine, and Phil. The American girls were surprisingly good at identifying tracks. Lukas told me not to answer his questions to give the new volunteers a chance to guess, but they were spot-on with every question! They correctly ID-ed hippo, hyena, and baboon tracks, where I’m pretty sure I would have been wrong on my first day. The only one they couldn’t get at first was zebra. I am hoping they had some prior training, or maybe Toko did tracks with them this morning. If not, they are sure showing everyone else up. Even Lukas was impressed. We eventually caught up with the rhino. It was Balega, Ganda Ganda, Robin, and Bagheeri again, and we stayed with them for quite a while. When we left, the sun was setting and it began to get COLLLDDD. We drove around for a while, looking for nocturnals, and moving through an area where we sometimes see cheetah and hyena, but we basically only found impala and zebra. We did see a troop of baboons though, running down the road ahead of us. We had brought lap blankets, so we all sat snuggled up with each other, with the ice-cold wind freezing our lips and noses. We arrived home a bit before 7. I got to work some before dinner, which was chicken stir-fry. We didn’t eat until about 830, and people turned in quickly after eating. By 930, everyone was heading off, and I helped clean up before hitting the sack as well. Tomorrow, we are spending most of the day up in Pidwa North, which will be fun! We are taking lunch and staying up there for hours since it is so far away. Hopefully, I wil get some good lion sightings of the pride we haven’t seen lately!

Good afternoon, little girl :)

 In love with this shot. The sun was perfect!

Day 29.

June 10^th. Today was a very interesting day, to say the least. I woke up before 7, for some strange reason. My body just decided that it was used to waking up early, apparently! And today marked the end of my fourth week here! Four weeks! That’s a freaking month! I can’t believe I have been here for a month already. In some ways, it feels so natural to be here, like I have been here for years. I suppose that’s because so many volunteers have cycled in and out lately, and I have remained constant. I see them come and go, and I help the new ones figure out how this place operates. So, in a way, I feel like I am one of the rangers. Of course, that would be a ranger who has absolutely no formal training and VERY limited knowledge. But still, in a way, it feels like home. And on the other hand, it feels as though I have just arrived. It feels like maybe I have been here for a week, and I have so many weeks ahead of me. But sadly, I only have two weeks left! That’s insane. I am not looking forward to going back to the real world! When sleep was no longer an option, I laid in bed til around 730 and then decided to take a (cold) shower. Toko had arrived back this morning, which was awesome because he is fun to have around. I got ready leisurely and had breakfast, and we left for town at 9:30. We got in and Lukas dropped Stewart, Tom, Kelsie and I off at the Kamelego Tourist Center, which is about a 15 minute walk from the main area. I needed to exchange some Rand and do some shopping. It had gotten really cold from the wind last night, and I was very happy I had worn jeans, even on the 15 minute walk! We had to meet at lunch at Sleeper’s at 11:15/11:30ish. When we got there, Lukas arrived, after dropping Emily and Molly off at the airport, with Jonathan, who is a young American guy that spent a week and a half at Siyafunda last year. I got an ostrich burger for lunch, which was strange, but really good! After lunch, Lukas took Stewart, Tom, and Kelsie to the airport to leave, and Jonathan and I walked around town to do errands. We ended up walking all the way back to the tourist center to do more shopping, and I spend far too many Rand on the amazing things they have there. It was pretty fun though. Lukas was picking up the new French vet students, Justine and Judith, and letting them do their errands. He picked us up a little after 3:30 at Kamelego. Then we headed back to camp, after stopping to get fresh fruit. When we got in, it was almost 5, and after helping to unload, I enjoyed a nice sundown on the observation deck surrounded by God’s creation. I am trying to absorb every minute I can of this beautiful place. I want to remember everything, the way the insects chirp, the movements of the local warthog in the bushes beside the observation deck, the smell of the cool breeze as night falls. I am hoping to enjoy as many sunsets on the deck as I can before I leave. Then, Jonathan and I made dinner, bacon carbonera and leftover salad from last night. Lukas was in the kitchen hanging out with us for a while, and then Justine and Judith joined in as well. We all just kinda talked and we got to know each other a bit more. We cooked slowly and just hung out there, because we were waiting for everyone to get in. All the sudden, Toko arrived with the 5 new Americans. Whooo, doggy. All girls, all in vet tech school, and they rolled in like a tornado. They hung out in the kitchen with us for a while, and then Andrew arrived with the last of the gang: Anne-Laure, the intern, and Phil, the photographer. There are 14 of us this week, and it was already crazy tonight! The five Americans have been at a different Enkosini project working with Vervet monkeys for the past few weeks and will be spending one week here. Jonathan, Judith, and Justine will be here for 6 weeks, and Anne-Laure and Phil have 3 weeks here, I think. But this week is definitely going to be interesting. Dinner was ready and everyone was here a little after 8, so we all huddled around the table to eat. It was cooolllld. Everyone was pretty tired from the travel day, so they all turned in early, which was fine by me. I have a feeling I am going to really miss the quiet weeks! I worked on some data for a while, and then turned in as well. I am not going on the set route drive tomorrow morning, because we only have one truck that is working at the moment. We are too many people this week to only take one truck. That’s fine by me, because I will get to work on my research in the nice quiet of camp! :D I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy the quiet time I get to steal away, and for me to say that? That really means something!

Saying goodbye to my newfound friends: the amazing Americans and the spectacular Scot!

 Sleeper's, where we eat lunch every Monday. Delish!

Day 28!

June 9^th. Ah, sleeping in! I woke up at around 830, which was awesome. I went to make really yummy scrambled eggs with peppers and onions, but I decided to crack the eggs right into the pan after sautéing the pepper and onion. The first one was perfect, but the second one had gone bad! They don’t refrigerate eggs here, so it’s a little bit concerning. So gross! I dumped the whole thing, but I didn’t have time to make a new one. Lukas had just come into the kitchen to tell us we could go see lions if we wanted to. Um, duh! So no breakfast, just coffee to go, and jump in the Landie! We left a little before 10. When we got there, we had to off-road into the block to find them. Amos was there, a guide from Makalali, with his two clients, and he guided us in. It was Xinpoko and Lady Balfour, one of the females of the Makhutswi pride. They were, uhh, getting it on, shall we say. We watched them for almost an hour, and they mated 4 times and moved around to different shady spots. It was definitely interesting to watch! It takes about 30 seconds, and then they just lay there for another 15-20 minutes. They were pretty calm, unless we pulled the car a little too close to them. Then, they were a little aggressive and growled at us. We left around 11, and it had gotten hot! We got home, and everyone fixed their own lunch/brunch. I cracked my eggs into a BOWL first, and made round two of my scrambled eggs! After we all ate and chilled, we just spent the afternoon talking and hanging out around the table. It was really cool to talk to everyone and hear different stories and different viewpoints on life. I worked on my data, as well as working on some ID of predators and data review from the month. Lukas ended up throwing me into a sprinkler during a battle in our ongoing water war, but it was so hot, that it felt great! Rosette came over and brought her puppy, which is a year old chocolate lab and bloodhound mix, named Loki, so we all played with her as we relaxed. Emily, Molly, and I made chocolate cupcakes, which smelled soooo good! I had bought them in town on Monday for our movie night that never actually happened. So I decided to make them today. I put them on the counter to cool when they were done and covered them with foil. Unfortunately, while I went to go work on my research, ants got into them! Like, all over, and they were unsalvageable! It was so depressing! :( We still had the icing from the boxed kit, and we really wanted dessert, so we whipped up some peanut butter cookies and iced those instead! Sooo yummy. Like homemade Reese’s cups. We also made a big fresh salad with all sorts of veggies, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and Kelsie made sugared, toasted almonds to put on top, in preparation for dinner tonight! Yum! I finished up all my male lion movement work in the evening. Andrew put on a braii, which was chicken and borewors, with roasted miele (aka corn on the cob). It was absolutely scrumptious! :) It had gotten really windy as I worked in the data room, so when I came out for dinner, I almost blew away! It wasn’t exceptionally cold, but since it was so windy, it felt freezing. All the girls sat around the fire, bundled in blankets, as we sat and ate. We all hung out there for a while, but since it was so windy and kinda unpleasant to sit there, we all turned in around 9. We are going to town tomorrow, and all the Americans, plus Stewart, are leaving. So sad! It was really fun to have people around that understood me! haha. But, we are getting a whole shipment of new people, so it will be interesting to see what the next week brings! 

Handsome Xinpoko. :)

 Pretty girl, Lady Balfour.

 Cutest pose I captured!