Blog 5 from Africa

John and I have been in Makalali for over a week now.  It has been very hot and humid.  The animals are hard to find so it was a poor week for pictures.

 

The volunteer program supports research efforts here at the reserve.  We record all animal siting’s on fixed drive routes once a week including the GPS coordinates.  On every drive we record data on raptors, impalas, wildebeest, and warthogs. John and I are trying to capture elephant and lion pictures for animal ID kits.  But you have to see lions before you can capture their image.

The accommodations are very good here.  John and I have a room with a private bath and I have to say it is nice not to have to clean up other peoples messes.  Much better food selection at Makalali, it is nice to have chicken breast to eat instead of backs and wings. 

I got to sleep out with the animals this week.  We drove to an open grassland area, put down ground tarps, aligned nine sleeping bags and called it home for the night.  We were surrounded by zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, antelopes, and hyenas.  To keep the hyenas at bay we worked two hour watches to: keep a fire burning all night, use the spot light to check for predator eyes every thirty minutes, and chased hyenas when they got too close. Fortunately I had the 10 to midnight shift and slept until 4:45.  At that time two of my fellow campers where having a tough time convincing a hyena to leave the immediate area.  So I got up and threw a stick in the general direction of the hyena.  It either thought it was food or that I wanted to play fetch. After a little more convincing it left the area.

We also got the opportunity to go on a bush walk this week.  We tracked rhinos through the bush. We never caught up with the rhinos.  We did see zebras and a giraffe. Trying to dodge the plethora of spiders and not get stuck on one of the ten variety of thorn trees proved to be challenging at times.

The reserve is still recovery after having received a foot and a half of rain a few weeks ago.  The river crosses are rough.  We make it easily across the water but the sand that has been deposited on the banks is a problem. We were stuck at one location for about 30 minutes.  But after jacking up the truck four times and placing rocks under the tires we were able to move on.

Here are the pictures for this week, not up to the usual quality. Many of the animal pictures were taken at night using a flash.  Lots of bird pictures because the animals were hard to find.

This young bull false charged us a couple of time but only after he was sure were were driving away. He pushed a small tree over to let us know he was serious.

The most elephants I have seen in one place.

Good size comparison

One night we saw eleven cubs being baby sat by one female lion

Play time

Two headed giraffe

Hyena pups at their den

Come on get up I am hungry

Andrews our ranger trying to find the water buffalo.  Water buffalo are very aggressive therefore the rifle. They kill more people than any other animal in Africa.

Checking to make sure there is still a rock bed for us to drive on.

Woodland Kingfisher

Spotted Eagle Owl

Wahlberg Eagle

Hamerkop checking out his reflection

Black Stork

European Bee-eater

Lilacbreasted Roller

Tawny Eagle

Yellowbilled Hornbill

Redbilled Hornbill

Mike leading our bush walk

These water lilies were the prettiest thing we saw on our game walk.

 That's all for this week.  Hopefully there will be some lion and leopard pictures in next weeks blog.

Last Blog from Kariega

Hard to believe 4 weeks have already come and gone.  News highlights/low lights for this week are:

·        This week a mouse drown while swimming in the sink, I guess the life guard was on break.

·        Another mouse received flying lessons after being caught snooping in my closet at 1 in the morning.

·        There are a lot less Waddle trees in the reserve as volunteers: whacked and sawed medium size trees, girdled the big trees, and pulled small tress from the ground. My hand haven’t had calluses like this for years.

·        It has rained for the last three days and all of the roads are closed in the reserve so we haven’t been on any game drives or out of the house very much for the last three days.

·        John and I are fortunate enough to have the only dry room in the house. Most have ceiling leaks and a couple have water running in from outside doors.

·        Justine, the volunteer ranger, cooked Chicken Curry for us one night and pancakes one morning.

·        We got to eat in the Lodge restaurant on Thursday night.

·        We went on an early morning game drive and got great pictures of the lions and elephants.

Here are this week’s pictures.

The star picture I promised.  We only saw stars one night this week. I was experimenting with different exposures this evening trying to find the right combination. I thought I would get another chance to capture some quality pictures, no such luck.

Steppe Buzzard

The Royal Couple

An elephant giving himself a mud bath. The mud protects them from the sun, cools them, and keeps bugs off.

Two lion cubs resting in the shade.

Big male lion on the prowl

A large lion checking out those people with cameras clicking

A cub walking down the road with Mom following close behind

Mom looking for her other cubs

A Zebra colt

Zebra colt with mom

A series of six elephant baby pictures showing them having fun.

Another lion picture

Blesbok Antelopes practicing their dance routine.

Zebras

Water Buffalo who thought we were too close. Notice the rain in the picture.  This is one of the few photos I took in the last three days.

Two hippos checking us out

We are off to Makalali Game Reserve on Monday morning.  I am looking forward to seeing another part of South Africa and a lot less rain. John tells me there are a lot more animals in Makalali so there should be some great photo opportunities.

Volunteering in Africa – Blog 3

We spent today cleaning mud out of a watering hole and re-lining it with plastic. I hope the warthogs and wildebeest appreciate our hard work. It’s been many years since I was ankle deep in mud for a couple of hours.  Unfortunately four of the volunteers left this morning so there were only 6 of us slinging mud. Obviously none of us had clean enough hands to document the event with a picture.

There are a few bird pictures this week and a few animals that haven’t been in previous blogs.

Redbilled Woodhoopoe

Cattle Egrets resting on White Rhinos

African Spoonbill

We haven’t seen to many hippos.  This the best picture so far.

Springbok on the run

White Storks

Blue Wildebeest are strange looking animals. The calves are cute and remind me of bison.

This young Zebra is enjoying the attention from Mom.

When Giraffes fight they use the horns on the top of their head to attack the other Giraffes neck.

When have only seen the Water Buffalo once and when we tried to move closer they ran away.

This Waterbuck has an impressive set of horns.

Sometimes the lions get a little close to the vehicles. The male lion in the left is the father of the lion close to car. He roared and took a few steps forward but then sat down. No I wasn’t standing outside of a vehicle to capture this picture.

The dominate male lion rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Steppe Buzzard

When the baby elephants eat prickly pear fruit they roll it on the ground under their foot to get the thorns off. They don’t seem to mind all the dust they eat with the fruit.

A size comparison

Three baby ostriches with two adult females and one adult male

A close-up of the baby ostriches

The Malachite Kingfisher is only 5 inches tall

The famous wildlife photographer John Miller

The beach at Kenton on Sea and the Indian Ocean. The water is 60 degrees. Thank goodness it is summer.

Sunset at the game preserve

Lion pictures from a night game drive

Cape Eagle Owl

Vervet Monkey – These guys jump on our roof shortly after sunrise most mornings.  Then they run down to our ranger’s house and wake her up.

John woke me up at 3 am one morning this week so I could help him capture a mouse in our room. He herded him and I caught him in the waste basket. The mouse looked good as he flew out the window.

We went back to the Farmerville’s school this week to continue our teaching.  The ninth graders struggled with simple addiction and spelling. Only 6 of 19 had ever used a dictionary before. Only one of 19 has traveled the 20 kilometers to Kenton on Sea. Most of the local people don’t have cars or electricity. They walk everywhere unless they are lucky enough to have someone stop to pick them up. Jobs are hard to find and don’t pay very well.  The Kariega Reserve announced layoffs this week.  With the slow world economy their business has been down for several years.

John and I are having a friendly competition to see you can capture the best shot.  Check out his blog at jemillerimages.blogspot.com

Some of the things I have learned while in South Africa

·        Most native trees have modified leaves or branches. (Read small thorns or big thorns that will scratch you) Therefore anything without thorns must be invasive and must be hacked down by volunteers.

·        Rain water is ok to drink, at least compared to the other options.

·        You can buy the cheapest cuts of meat in the store and survive on them for three weeks. (Do they really sell bags of chicken wings and backs in the US?)

·        Butternut squash is much cheaper than any other vegetables; therefore you shall eat a lot of it.

·        On Sunday’s the volunteers are the ones stuck in the cage. I now know why those zoo animals walk the fence line.

·        The stars are wonderful. Look for pictures next week.

·        You really don’t need screens on your windows but bars are nice.

·        Some English ladies can snore louder than my father and that is quite an accomplishment.

·        If your name is John watch were you put your hands in the bushes because if there is a wasp he will sting you even if he must fly around other volunteers to do so.

·        Don’t stand in the cruiser unless you want to be lion food.

That is all for this week.