M.A.C in Africa: November 2012

1st November 2012: Bumping elephants

So our afternoon "casual" drive yesterday ended up being far more exciting than we anticipated! We went out with the plan to track lion, but on departure the telemetry didn't produce any results, indicating that the lions were miles away, so we set off instead to try find "Rock Lodge" - an old abandoned lodge up by the big suspension bridge that we'd been wanting to go see for ages. We drove round in circles trying to find it, and had gave up in the end as the sun began to set. It was a good drive though none-the-less because we were in an area we had not been before, and it was cool to see that section of the reserve. We ended up having sundowners on the suspension bridge, and Marianne and I got roped into walking down into the river bed to take pics of all the boys on the bridge. We got a great view of the Baboons downstream, it was a fun evening.

Nice pic at the suspension bridge, which I drove over

In the Landrover ready to set off back home, St. John put on the telementary and to our surprise we had very strong reception for Lilly, Coco, Savannah and Sahara - some of the collared elephants on the reserve. The telementary said they were less than 100m from our position - it was absolutely incredible that none of us had seen or heard them! We drove a bit further down the road and followed the signal, inching closer and closer. We knew they were there, but despite 14 pairs of straining eyes, not one of us saw them. After our last encounter with the elephants charging, we were all a bit on edge knowing they were there and not being able to see them. Graham and Rhodes our instructors went on foot into the bush to try and get a visual but to no avail. I still think it is absolutely amazing how an animal so big can move so silently through the dense bush and be so camouflaged! After waiting some time, we called it quits and set off again. Rounding the next bend, eyes and hears still peeled, we suddenly bumped a huge female elephant, and all around us bushes were rustling and twigs were snapping - we were right in the middle of the 20+ breeding herd! Henry on tracker seat turned round with nothing but fear and panic in his eyes. The Elies spooked at the sight of us and went hurtling back into the bush and were gone within seconds. Another close call, thank goodness there were no charges this time though!

The suspension bridge. L to R: Guy, George, Henry, Richard, Kobus, Blade, Ed, Angs, Malema
then St. John, Granahm and Rhodes

2nd Nov: Mock practical assessments

Today we had our first practical assessment - a 45 minute intensive guided drive, during which time you have to give a full brief, identify and discuss atleast 5 trees, 5 mammals, 5 birds, and touch on geology, insects, reptiles, amphibians, anthropoids and all the while keep your guests interested and entertained! My drive went well, Rhodes said it flowed well and was entertaining, and what I did touch on I covered well. However 45 mins went a lot faster than I expected and having failed to time check myself, I ran out of time to discuss 2 whole subjects - rocks and anthropoids :( It wasn't a complete disaster though and luckily I did enough to impress because I got 84%, which was brilliant considering I missed some topics out. So very chuffed about that, and glad we got the opportunity to do a mock assessment, because for the real one (which is 3 hours long!) I know I must keep an eye on time and and a check list of topics!

Bird spotting

3rd Nov: Bird school

Day one of our week long birding course, and already and I'm frustrated with birds! They never stay still long enough to get an ID on them, and I find it so difficult being able to decipher the type of bird just by size and shape - they all look the same! The group has come up with a few funny sayings…"LBJ" - little brown jobby, and my favourite "AFB" = another f'ing bird (excuse the french!). We've got some 30 birds on our list just from today alone, and thats just one outing! Its going to be a long week….with any luck my birding abilities will significantly improve. I hope so anyway, we have an exam on them at the end!

4th Nov: Birds, birds, birds

Another day of birding, another day of frustration! Some people are picking these birds up super fast and others are struggling (cough, me). I can't even see the eagle flying 10,000 feet in the air, let alone identify it!! Ok, its not that bad, but this birding stuff is hard. It is rewarding when you see one or hear one that you can identify, but judging the family of bird just by shape let alone the actual species a struggle. We have a lecture everyday to mix up the outings, but still waiting for everything to click. Hmmmmm.

On a more exciting note, my group got to go wood collecting today! I volunteered as driver, and we drove through the bush picking up old or fallen wood. The boys had a great time pushing over an entire dead tree, until the thing cracked and nearly fell on top of all of them! I had a good laugh at them from the safety of the car. We collected stacks and it was a nice break from birding, though we all got very sunburnt!

I also had a run in with a massive Solifuge today - AKA SPIDER thing! I am writing now from my tent with shivers still running up my spine. I was walking to the loo's just before bed to brush my teeth, and along the path just in front of me, a massive spider appeared and froze in my torchlight, staring at me. You all know how much I hate spiders, so you can imagine my heart begin to race at the sight of this giant, hand size spider. I decided to creep around it, giving it a wide berth, and as I moved, it ran towards me! I absolutely panicked and bolted towards the bathroom, the horrible disgusting hairy spider literally chasing me down the path, and catching up too. I ran straight into JP and Margo, our trainers and hid behind JP, physically grabbing him and putting him between me and the spider. He was laughing his head off, and told me that it was not a spider but a "Solifuge" - a non venomous arachnid, also known as a giant spider with ADHD! He said the spider was chasing my light, not me, so I rapidly switched off and ran off again in the dark. Urghhhh I hate those things!!

5th Nov: New pet

Had a few minor victories with birding today, not only spotting but identifying a few all on my own! Still struggling particularly with the eagles, swifts vs swallows and the small brown jobbies, but feel like I am making progress at last. We've all got the bird calls on our phone, so when we're not out on activity we sit listening to them and play weakest link in a circle. Quite funny, but it is certainly helping.

My jumping bean pet, as displayed by Richard for me

Far more exciting than birds though is that I've adopted a new pet! It is a tiny little "jumping bean" - essentially, a moth laid its larvae into the Tamboti bean, which then morphs into a caterpillar inside it and eats the beat inside out. It jumps around inside the bean causing the whole bean to jump and click, it is very entertaining to watch. I've got my own one which I've colour coded with a drop of red nail varnish - its very energetic indeed and I'm very much looking forward to watching it "hatch". Later after eating a lot of leaves like a normal caterpillar, it will hopefully transform into a moth and so the process will start again. Interesting, huh! It is currently jumping around in my shirt pocket, makes me smile overtime!

8th Nov: Birding Exam

Today marks the end of the bird course and I've been glad to have been kept so busy. We had the morning off to study for our exam, then at midday sat a test in which we had to identify 50 bird calls, then 50 photographs of birds on a slideshow. If you'd asked me if I would be able to do that at the start of the week I would have said no ways, but alas the impossible was achieved and I got 97 out of 100. Officially a bird geek.

9th Nov: Karongwe

Weather as gloomy and me today, but we're heading to Karongwe in an hour or so, a new camp about an hours drive from Selati. Will be nice to explore a new area and spend time in a new camp. Don't think there is any signal there, so don't panic if I'm out of touch for 4 weeks. Wishing I wasn't so far from friends and family, missing everyone so much.

Its that time of year... soon the bush will be full of baby animals - here's our first!

Boys swimming in the Wier - after my eye infection, I was not to keen to catch anything else!

Awesome sighting of a giraffe drinking water

After crossing a sandy river crossing, we got to the other side and saw this sign...whoops.

We've seen so many bush babies in selati - they are adorable. We watched one jump over 2 meters across the road!

Hi everyone, hope you are all well. Thanks so much to those who have messaged me about my blog, I really appreciate your kind words and interest :)

Its been another busy few days in the bush! You'll be glad to know that my eye has dramatically improved, so feeling much happier about that. I went back to Tzaneen on Monday to have another appointment with the specialist who said it was improving, and today it has finally stopped hurting! I still have to continue with the huge pile of medication l'm on though for a couple more day (2 different drops 5x a day, one drops 4x a day, and 1 pill 5x a day) - its quite exhausting!

One of the highlights from the last few days was undoubtedly tracking and finding lion. There are a few lions in Selati that are collared, and we have a telemetry to help find them. Easier said than done I have to say in a 30,000 hectare reserve! However, we picked up signal not to far from camp, and set about tracking it down. There was much excitement on the vehicle as the beeps began to get louder and faster as we headed towards the Goland dam area. We had a hilarious run in on the way with Sabrina, an Italian lion researcher working for Leo, who was also on the hunt for the female lioness. Having had no contact with girls except us 5 on the course, the boys were all falling over themselves to talk her and look cool, and Kobus even asked her to come to camp for a drink! We girls thought the whole thing was hilarious, especially when a bit later on she called on the radio to report her position and the boys all started arguing about who was going to radio back - even funnier was the winner only got to say "copy that". Hahaha.

After all the noise, laughing and squabbling it was a surprise that we saw the lioness at all, but St. John spotted her lying down at the bottom of a big rock under some trees, about 50m into the bush from the road. It was brilliant being able to track her down and get an actual sighting (very rare I can assure you), and I even managed to see her with my gamy eye! Wahoo :)

Another great highlight was climbing the Kopie on the north side of the river yesterday afternoon. It wasn't a tough climb, but the view from the top was absolutely stunning, and you could see the whole reserve - it sounds silly but I felt like I was on top of the world! Its been a bit rainy and cloudy the last few days, but that day the sun was out and it was beautiful. I took a wonder to the other side of the Kopie and sat for a while on a rock taking it all in. While I was sitting there a huge eagle flew in front of me - zero out of ten for being able to name it, but a very cool experience! I wish we could have stayed up there to watch sunset - it is definitely my favourite place so far.

The walk down was less enjoyable however when I discovered that South Africa also has stinging nettles - but of course not wimpy ones like in England…try multiplying the stinging power by 100! Ouch! So I moaned all the way home about my stinging legs, even a Savanna Dry (cider) didn't take the edge off! Worse still I didn't see what the plant looked like, so I am none the wiser for next time.

It was a great day none-the-less, especially as it was the first drive in a while that my eye felt a bit better and I could see, so that was just lovely.

View from the top of the Kopie. L to R: St. John, Angus, Henry, George, Kobus.

After a mammal focus the last week or so, this morning we had another observation test. It was the same format as last time - 70 questions on all sorts of things, and despite feeling a little more knowledgable going into it, I still struggled! My trees and birds were much improved however (much to St. Johns relief after helping me the last few weeks) but it still highlighted lots of gaps. I jut about scrapped a pass, lots of work still to do thats for sure!

Later this afternoon we have "casual drive" planned, so that will be fun - I think we are going to try track some lion again. I managed to get in an hour of running this morning after the test which was much welcomed - after all the food we get, I am turning a little podgy! Tomorrow we have a mock guiding assessment - 45 mins of intensive guiding - so need to do some reading up and studying in preparation for that, then starting on the 3rd we have a birding course for a week before moving camps for the first time, to Karongwe!

So all happening here, will let you know if we find any lions later!

All my love xxxxxx