We have been living at Blue Hill for over a week now and it is a fantastic experience. The scenery is beautiful, the people who live here are amazing and we have a little critter who keeps us company whenever we have free time. The sky at night is absolutely breathtaking too, I have never seen the Milky Way appear so clearly across the sky.
Every other day we go out and help Alan and Krista with their research project into the behaviours of Cape Rockjumpers. We usually get up around 4am and leave at 5. The ride to each location is bumpy in the back of the 4×4, and then we have to trek up the rocky hills to our observation locations before sunrise. I still find it nearly impossible to find the birds, they are tiny and cover a large area with plenty of places to hide, and we have to watch from quite a distance. Once we have one in the telescope I’m not too bad at tracking them though.
Usually I am on data collecting duty, we have a small laptop with a built in solar panel which we record the weather, location and behaviour of the birds on every 5 minutes. I’m far better at that than finding the birds. But having the others there means I have seen a hell of a lot more of the birds than I ever would have done on my own. And it is fascinating to follow their behaviour.
It is hard working such long days but definitely worth it, we have seen so much wildlife that would be incredibly hard to find for a tourist visiting the area. I definitely feel like we are getting a richer experience because we are volunteering, we spend a lot of time in incredibly remote places on the reserve and always have Alan and Krista to ask questions if we see something we’re not sure of. I am yet to see anyone else out and about on our travels around the reserve, there are no sounds from cars or aircraft from anywhere nearby, it is really relaxing when we are out in the hills. The only thing we can hear is the rush of the wind and the calls of the animals.
We also see a lot of wildlife just around our cottage and the house without having to venture out further into the reserve. We have had baboons roll past, there are always birds hopping around the bushes outside our windows and there have also been some leopard tracks seen down the road today. The leopards are incredibly rare (and the remaining ones are the target of disgruntled farmers trying to protect their livestock so they do their best to avoid human contact) so it’s very unlikely that we’ll see one, but I’ve got my fingers crossed we will catch a glimpse.
I actually have access to my emails and facebook now and I’m checking them every day or two, so I am contactable. We still don’t have a phone though. I’ll be keeping an eye on the score on Sunday too. Come on you Spurs!
Lambey in Africa 