Back home
Well, duh.
By now, I am well back home. I used to have a couple of entries I wrote on my journey back, but they got lost somewhere along the way. I haven't given up the search for them yet. If university leaves me some free time, that is.
I am about to finish my report on my stay at the CCF, meaning I am eventually going to take care of uploading all those pictures I took over the course of the magnificent 6 weeks I had in Africa. Stay tuned for the links!
Day 34ff: Extreme Cub Pen Makeover!
I decided to cut down the entries a bit, I'm sorry. It's just a bit difficult for me to actually find the spare time I'd need to write a proper entry. Anyway, enough with the excuses!
It's not like there's nothing to do here, quite the contrary! Even without laptop, I am helping whenever I can - even if it means (duh.) 5 or 6 days of carrying stones in the scorching hot sun. I have to admit, we only used actual stones on the first two days before starting to use sand instead, but still - wheelburrows tend to feel heavier than usual when it's 40C outside.
So, why did I do this? For cubs! The little ones (being Phil, Mischief, Polly and Tony) got a little present for their 6th month half-birthday - a bigger pen. First, we had to even the original pen to force the rain into some kind of river. Second we had to help reinforce the fence and built a new segment. The best thing? We forgot to take before/after-pictures! Daaaargh!
Anyway, I got to do Meat Cutting again today, which also includes raking the 'new' pen. I got close to the cubs, by some 3 meters, without startling them! Wuh! And Feeding turned out to be an excellent source for great pictures, ever since I figured out the fine details of my rather new camera..but see for yourself!
Did I mention I am starting to socialise, too? The lack of laptop/internet forces me to spend some time with people (duh!). Rhianna, a girl from Oregon, turned out to be really nice. Nice enough actually to spend a night with Rammstein, cider and vodka. And LED-pois. I need pictures of that.
Food!
Day 33: Picking Up Old Habits
Ignore the missing 10 or so days, please. I am now struggling to type on an old computer using an American keyboard. It..takes getting used to, I guess.
So well, back to business. Today's been an easy day, we did a short cheetah run (first time the Hogwarts girls have been run instead of the boys), processed the few good photos and then went on to go Feeding. There's been a head day last week, so we've been collecting tasty, rotting skulls..crawling with maggots. Those little bastards would then stay in the back of the truck, making it a bit of an uncomfortable place to sit..well, we washed them out eventually.
Now I'll try and get back to writing here. Duh.
Comic Relief Cub to the Rescue!
Intermission
Ages without new posts..such a coincidence. No, I wasn't even particulary lazy. I even wrote some 5-6 new journal entries, each about a few hundred words long. "Now, where are those miraculous entries, I don't see them!" you might say, and I am going to give you a very short answer: Around. They're somewhere around here, they're on my laptop. This would be great news, but behold! My laptop has disappeared. Probably stolen. Someone decided to walk into the office in the early morning and steal that one piece of equipment that was both marked as CCF property and mine. Did I mention the CD tray didn't close anymore and the lid was broken, so you could barely close it without having the screen pop off? Ya, someone really picked the best computer in here to steal.
Anywho, my personal data is gone. I am currently using my USB stick and portable applications to stay in touch with the outside world, and to change every single one of my passwords. Was about time for a new system anyway.
Just sayin' I might not be able to update as (un-)frequently as I used to. If at all, that is.
Day 22: We at CCF wear many hats.
Dear, what a morning. Instead of summarising it using the original tasks ("Tracking"/"Project") I am going to use the tasks I actually did instead.
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8:05 - 9:10: Cheetah Tracking
A little round around the Big Field, together with John, Beatrix and a tracking device. After a rather interesting ride (our car's windscreen wipers went crazy at some point) we arrived at our first waypoint. John explained me how to use the receiver and how to track our cheetahs (and rhinos, as we found some rhino tracks at a waterhole), yet we haven't been lucky. In the end, after one hour of driving around and searching for high-up spots to get at least a faint signal of one of the radio collars, we ended up with nothing but a few interesting tracks. Snakes, porcupines and lots of hyena tracks, more precisely. But now I know how to track animals, at last!
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9:10 - 10:30: Tourists
As I was on my way the house's office (I have been asked to fix one of their computers that didn't start up) I stumbled across a group of tourists who seemed rather..lost. James, our tourist manager, just dropped him off at Chewie's pen and searched for a new guide, even though he had to take care of some tourists himself. Realising they were German I decided to give them a little tour around the clinic and the boy's pen. The four cheetahs were rather busy grooming each other in a giant pile of purrs, so I had little to do but wait for the tourists to ask questions..which they seldom asked.
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10:30 - 11:30: Computer Maintenance
You wish. I was told the computer would refuse to start up, which lead me to think it could be some kind of video card (or power supply, as Bruce suggested) related issue. That in mind, I started the computer just to check what kind of error message I would get, if any. I was surprised when it just showed me a BIOS reset notice and started as it was supposed to be. Magic hands, wuh!
It wouldn't be CCF if there was nothing else for me to do..I ended up picking burrs out of Finn's tailfur. Finn is one of our two dogs that stay at the house, and to make things worse he's a border collie. One of the enthusiastic, intelligent ones. 15 minutes later his tail was burr-free and I considered leaving for the office, to work on my project, when Bruce had another idea: He assumed the computer's reluctant attitude might be caused by dust blocking the fans. To keep things short and bring this story to a conclusion: I am now to clean all of the office's computer using an oversized hairdryer. That's something.
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11:30 - 12:30: Project
Ben's off tracking rhinos, so I took care of some of the computers (wrrrrry) and wrote this very entry. I hope there'll be internet in the afternoon, I am already 7 days behind in uploading content..and pictures.
Also related: Tiny Geckos
Day 21: Sunday
No schedule was posted on saturday, so I assumed I could sleep in. Rumours rose that some people would have to go on fence checking, but the rumours also stated that no-one who has done it before would have to go. I did it some weeks ago, so I considered myself off the hook. Yet, I didn't feel like slacking all of the day, so I got off a bit early - 10AM! - and helped preparing the breakfast. No schedule means nobody's on kitchen duty either, after all. A plate full of tasty bacon later I headed back to the office (where I am right now) and..well..chatted for a few hours. And writing journal entries, after all. But this whole university-stuff is pretty much over my head. Trying to manage everything from a few thousand miles away is not exactly a good idea.
Day 20: Donkey Meat!
Just a bit of feeding. Pictures, 1000 words..you know the gist.
(Dinner was donkey meat for us, too, thus the title)
Some prowl..
..others chase.
Day 19: What a Twist!
Another day down at Bellebeno, removing rotten posts..well, at least until Matt came by and took me to feeding. Not much else to say, to be honest.
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Remotely Related Ecology Fact:
We are using different kinds of fences here. Within the "Conservancy", small waist-high fences are the most popular ones. With those fences, wildlife such as Oryx, Elands, Heartebeest and even Warthogs and Jackals can roam freely. Cattle, goats and sheep however will stay within "their" farms. The other kind of fence is about 3m high and able to hinder all kinds of animals from passing. Additionally, we are using hot-wire versions of both fencetypes for special purposes, such as keeping the rhinos on our lands.
Watching Food
Day 18: Rushing
08:00 - 09:00: Scanning
The day started in one of the nicest ways possible, sitting in the office for an hour. It's much of an easy start, just enough time to check on a few eMails, listen to music and wake up.
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09:15 - 12:15: Acacia Regrowth Project
Something new, with someone new! Johann, a student that's working here, returned two days ago and is now taking care of the Acacia Regrowth Project as part of the Bushblok initiative. Bushblok means acacias are used to produce econommically sustainable combustibles, thus hindering bush encroachment. Acacias are becoming a huge issue here, as they invade larger parts of the local bushveld, forming an impenetrable barrier for most animals. The areas Johann is taking care of have already been harvested once, and now we are monitoring the regrowth. "Monitoring" is done in the most literal way: Measuring the size (height/lenght/width) of acacia trees and seedlings, aswell as noting the number of dead and living trees. What I learned from this? Well, apart from the handling of a GPS device I now know the scientific name of several acacias.
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14:00 - 17:50: Elandsvreugde Pen Maintenance
We have been the ones to start the Eland's pen a few days ago, now I hoped to be part of the group getting the job done. Even though the sun was burning hot, our task was rather easy as the vegetation was mostly sparse. Shoveling for almost four hours has a surprisingly rewarding feel to it, so I was somehow disappointed when we stopped working just 200m before we would've reached the gate.
One of Eland's girls, approaching us
Day 17: Bellebenno Pen Maintenance
Yes, it's an all-day activity. And it's pretty simple, actually: Removing old, rotten fenceposts using pliers. Yes, that's right, too: No wirecutters. Pliers. Well, technically they do have the ability to cut wires, but it's..limited. The most interesting thing's been the big break we had at a waterhole, eating tuna and watching Oryx. Apart from that there've been some rather cute locusts, which forced my to actually use the macro range of my macro lense for once. Wuhu!
At the Waterhole