Diary Entry - Day 31

Sorry for the lack of posts- I've been busy this week preparing to look after the AfriCat office, as Chris left on Friday.

However, I've also managed to get out into the reserve a few times with Louis, and have had a go at refreshing my tracking skills. On Friday, I failed completely to pick up a signal from Dizzy, then we found her lying by the road a few minutes after I last tried. My excuse is that she was lying on her radio collar. I had more luck the next day, when I did manage to get a signal, and correctly discerned in which direction we would find her, but couldn't pinpoint her exactly. We found her running down the road towards the car, so my excuse that time was that she was moving too much...

Here are some pictures from the last week:

Big Stick Insect

Dizzy

My view yesterday afternoon

Dizzy Having a Drink

Penta

Drilling for Water

It has rained very little here this year, so the dams are very empty. This means that to keep all the game, and indeed people, watered until next summer (rainy season) they have had to drill to find water below ground. This is of course something I have never seen before, as especially this year England has had almost the opposite problem!

The drilling is done from a large truck with a tall frame, from which tubes are fed into the hole that is being drilled. This process is very noisy and dusty, and the workers have to be in the sun all day. If water is found, pipes are laid that allow it to be pumped to where it is needed.

These pictures show rock samples taken at every metre from the ground whilst drilling, showing how the type of rock changes. There are oer 180 samples here, i.e. they drilled for more than 180m. Unfortunately no water was found at this site.

Birds



(Sorry, I had a few technical problems getting this formatted- it was meant to be published on Friday)

These birds frequent the feeders where we put out seed every day outside the office.

Southern Masked Weaver (Male)

Southern Masked Weaver (Male)

Scalyfeathered Finches

Scalyfeathered Finches

A Weaver bird nest

The tree holding the Weaver bird colony

Diary Entry - Day 21

 

This is what the cats get to eat- these big peices are for the lions. Hungry anybody?

They are thrown over the fence to hopefully land on rubber mats, which prevent the meat from getting dirty (although a couple of the lions did not appreciate this and have moved their mats away). Unfortunately, I have not proven strong enough to get a four kilo piece of meat over a two (perhaps more) metre fence- mine bounced off near the top and fell back to the floor at my feet, spattering me with blood. However I need to develop this skill quickly, as once Chris goes on leave in a few days, I will have to help out more with the feed run.

Diary Entry - Day 20

I went riding again today- I think I still have a long way to go! I was following the middle Hanssen child, Jayd, who is eight, around during her jumping practise. I didn't jump, but walked, trotted and cantered around the outside and went over a few low poles. That is, when Marcus wanted to trot straight. I'll work on it.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours working on a bench outside the AfriCat office in the sun; Chris and Tristan, both the keyholders, were elsewhere, so I was locked out. However it was really quite pleasant.

Chris, my immediate boss, is going on leave on the 15th, after wich I will have to take care of most of AfriCat myself, so over the next few days I'm being trained up.

It's rained a few times here today- which means the roads, especially the small ones, are covered in frogs. Luckily I'm adjusting to the new quad, so avoiding them isn't too  much of a challenge, but it has meant that I've been spattered in a few puddles.

Diary Entry - Day 18

My quadbike:

I've switched quadbikes today, from a larger slower automatic one to this light, fast manual one. It's a little harder to drive and also a little more scary at first- but I'll get used to it!

Diary Entry - Day 17

Yesterday evening we had a braai (barbeque in English) in a dry riverbed. The children cooked boerewors (sausages in English) and bread over a charcoal fire as the sun went down, after which everybody sat and chatted and the children were given a lesson on navigating using the Southern cross .

It is actually quite funny looking at the night sky here- I know very little about constellations, but living in the Northern hemisphere I'm subconciously used to seeing the stars arranged in a certain way. When I look up at night here, it is a little disorientating.