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October 2, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

Our final week in Africa was spent mostly in Cape Maclear at Lake Malawi where we relaxed, snorkelled with Cichlids (fish) and enjoyed eating out at the various bars and restaurants. It was a lovely place to go and reflect on what we had experienced on our travels. There were also lots of amazing craft stalls to browse, and lots of people pestering us to buy things which sometimes got to be a bit too intense.

The best way to get some peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle of the main beach was to rent a kayak and paddle across to Thumbi West Island, or take a short walk into Lake Malawi National Park and visit Otter Point. These were also the best places to swim with the Cichlids!

After our 5 days at Cape Maclear were over, we headed back into the capital city, Lilongwe. We made sure we stocked up on plenty of carvings for gifts once we got home, and then spent most of the last day trying to fit it all in our cases. The lodge in Lilongwe had no running water (not a big surprise) so we had to wash in the swimming pool.

By this point, it was hard to believe that within 48 hours we would be back in England. The feeling was a lot different from what I felt when we first flew out to Africa in February. When we left I was quite scared, I had no idea what to expect, I’d never even left Europe before and it sounded like life in Africa could be tough. But living in Africa wasn’t at all as scary as I’d imagined. It was diverse and colourful beyond my imagining, and despite the fact that many people live there without basic commodities which we take for granted in the UK, they are some of the happiest people I’ve ever met.

Flying back I was very restless and struggled to sleep. A great journey needs to have an end, and the perfect end for me was to touch down and see my family again. Our time spent in Africa was a wonderful experience beyond what I ever expected. We’ve met some incredible people and animals, and laid eyes on some awe-inspiring places. It has changed my perspectives in many ways and I am sure I will venture out again in the future, but for now I’m very happy to be back home and sharing stories with those closest to me.

Thank you to everyone who we met during our time in Africa, it is thanks to you all that we had the amazing experience that we did!

Malawi

Farewell to Kasungu

September 5, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

After 5 weeks we have completed our final volunteer project for the Kasungu Elephants Foundation and left Kasungu National Park. We are terribly sad to leave such a wonderful place and want to say a huge thank you to Remke for hosting us and hope the projects that she and Matt are working on will benefit the park long into the future.

Unfortunately, we have left on a sour note with Lifupa Lodge (the lodge in the National Park) due to the behaviour of their staff. In the last week we had the lodge manager try to demand $600 from us even though we hadn’t stayed in the lodge’s guest accommodation (it is clear that they are not making enough money due to the lack of guests). We also became aware that the lodge had been lying to guests, claiming that they “fund and run anti-poaching patrols”. Although the lodge is supposed to be a conservation effort and should be helping to fund Matt and Remke’s work, this is far from the truth, and currently it is doing more to try and take money from them. And finally, on our very last day, I had to witness a member of staff from the lodge, working on a pipe right outside our house, throw a heavy metal object at a passing elephant (Fupa, one of our favourites who often comes to the house to say hello to us) whilst laughing. To say we were furious and disgusted is an understatement. We responded by writing a strongly worded but professional email to the lodge manager raising all of these issues (and several more), also raising the issues with Act to Protect (the owners of the lodge concession) and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife manager from the park. We have been assured that all of the issues will be dealt with seriously by the DNPW, and received a rather rude response from the lodge manager himself telling me these things aren’t any of my business. We hope that things will change and improve there soon because the park needs a successful lodge to help fund the efforts to save the remaining wildlife in the park.

Aside from this, we have had a fantastic time and really enjoyed working on our projects with the Kasungu Elephants Foundation. Here is a roundup of our last days in the park!

The Beehive Fence Project

We had to work hard to get it done, but along with two promising funding proposals, we completed our 24 page report assessing the possibility of constructing a beehive fence on the border of Kasungu National Park. If the funding becomes available I am confident that the project could be a success and it will be interesting to see what happens over the coming months!

Elephants

We had been waiting a long time to see some particular elephants, and in the last few days two of them made an appearance for us. First we met Zere, a cheerful one-tusked male who bounded out of the trees by the dam one day and greeted his friends, before joining them for some play fighting in the water. On our last day a huge crowd of elephants gathered on the opposite bank of the dam after Fupa had fled from the hostile lodge staff at our house. Amongst the crowd was the PPA family and their 6 month old baby, Mzanga. Mzanga is tiny and absolutely adorable.

Anti-Poaching Drone

The Anti-Poaching Unit have had a drone donated to them, and it looks like it will become a really useful tool in the efforts to catch poachers. We spent a few days with Matt helping him get to grips with flying it, controlling the camera and tracking people running through the bush using the thermal camera. The drone can reach speeds of 90km/h and is generally just awesome. Controlled via an iPad and an incredibly complex looking control pad, live images are fed back to us as it flies. This makes looking for poachers in the bush much easier, and believe me, it is nearly impossible to hide from it.

Dam Walk

One morning we took a walk around the dam with one of the park scouts, seeing lots of birds, and the Hippos and Pukus up close.

Chess Set

Matt and Remke have teamed up with a craftsman in Lilongwe to make exclusive handmade “scouts vs poachers” chess sets. The board and pieces are absolutely beautiful and it is hoped that sales will help to raise more money for their work.

Black Rock

We spent our last evening up on Black Rock watching the sunset. It is a gorgeous place and I will really miss the views of the park from up there.

Other pictures

Here are some more pictures of things we have seen over the last couple of weeks 🙂

Next Steps

Our volunteer work is finally over, after some fascinating projects and some great experiences. We have decided to spend the last week of our stay in Africa at Lake Malawi, relaxing and reflecting on what we have seen and done. This place is unbelievably beautiful and besides the constant pestering from people trying to sell us things along the beach, we are going to have a wonderful rest before we head back to England. I am getting very excited to come back and see lots of familiar faces. See you soon!

Malawi

Kasungu National Park

August 23, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

For the last four weeks we have been living in Kasungu National Park in Malawi, doing volunteer work for the Kasungu elephants Foundation (www.kasunguelephants.org), run by Remke Lasance. We have been living in the Anti-poaching unit house next to the dam at Lifupa Lodge in the middle of the park, 56km from the town of Kasungu.

chopping wood for fire to make a hot shower

The location is gorgeous, and the lodge here has incredible potential but a remarkable lack of guests due to poor marketing and management. We have no fences around our house, we are literally living in the wild. We regularly have elephants on our doorstep, as well as occasionally hippos and leopards in our garden. So we have to be very careful outside, especially at night. The dam often attracts animals, the hippos are always somewhere by the water, elephants regularly come to drink and there are always fish eagles, kingfishers and yellow-billed kites hanging around. And we often have visits from Remke’s cat, Fulu, too.

Malawian Standard Dog. All dogs look like this here.

There is one big problem with this park – it has been savaged by poaching over the last few decades. As recently as 1992 there were over 800 elephants, and now there are only around 50 remaining. So few, in fact, that we already know most of them by name. And not just elephants are poached, buffalo and antelope are also poached for meat. It is incredibly hard to protect such a huge area of land with very limited resources, but that’s what Remke and Matt (from the APU) are aiming to do. The protection put in place by the park management itself is simply insufficient for what is required, much of the park border is unfenced and many of the staff are alcoholics, unmotivated and incapable of doing a good job of protecting the animals.

Matt generally takes on ex-military volunteers for the APU who help him with patrols of the park and arrest any poachers they find. They have already seen a decrease in the rate of animals bing poached as a result. Remke is focussed more on monitoring the elephants and their movements to be able to develop better ways of protecting them. Both of them have an incredible passion for what they’re doing here and have some really exciting projects coming up.

Generally, living in a remote area of Malawi is a very strange experience. It is a very poor country and there is a great deal of corruption and, as I’ve mentioned, alcoholism. It is very rare to see a person with white skin in these rural villages and we have even come across some children who had never seen a white person before. One actually cried when he saw us. But as a white person, I am seen as a symbol of money. People are very friendly, but often they are trying to befriend us before asking us for money or our possessions. When we drive through local villages we are usually met by children shouting “Mazungu!” (“White person!”) and waving happily, though some of them simply run towards the car and shout “Give money!!”. Maybe one time we will stop so I can tell them how much student debt I have (in local currency it’s tens of millions of Kwacha…). I am actually now getting used to attracting large crowds when we stop to buy vegetables and it’s not unusual to have people take pictures too.

Black Rock

One of the highlights of Kasungu National Park is black rock, a large climbable rock in the middle of the park which has incredible views which stretch as far as the border with Zambia. We watched the sunset there one night and then saw a leopard run across the road on our way home! 🙂

The Elephants

We have seen the remaining population of elephants a lot of times in the last four weeks. They love to come and drink at the dam and seem to feel safe around the lodge and our house. We are learning their names and their different attitudes – Panja is adorable, Fupa is usually very chilled and Lifuzu always seems very keen to come as close to the house as possible to say hello to us. We all have whistles to use when the elephants are nearby to let them know we are around. This way we can’t surprise them and they can decide whether they’re happy to stay around or leave.

One time we forgot to whistle near Fupa, he saw Remke making a sudden movement and gave a mock charge which was TERRIFYING. But he soon decided we weren’t worth the hassle and wandered off and ripped a couple of trees down to show off his strength. Generally the elephants have poor eyesight so you can get very close to them without them seeing you, but you have to be aware of the wind direction because obviously they can smell and hear you if they are downwind.

One morning the elephants came to visit us at Remke’s house and we saw a huge number of the males having their breakfast of leaves and oranges. Lifuzu came over to say hello and ended up literally at the doorstep. He could have easily touched me with his trunk. It was incredible to be so close to an elephant in the wild, and very nice that he didn’t try to threaten us in any way! 🙂

Here are a big bunch of our elephant pics 🙂 –

Me watching a group of bachelors in the water

Our Volunteer Projects

Beehive Fence Project

Our main long-term project whilst we have been here has been to investigate the possibility of constructing a beehive fence on the eastern border of the park by a small village called Mndaka. We have visited the proposed fence site, visited local beekeepers and held meeting with the Department for National Parks and Wildlife, COOPI and the local VNRC. We are writing a large report on whether we think the project should go ahead (so far the signs are very positive!) and we have also been working on proposals to get the project funded.

Ruby and Remke examining elephant crop raid damage

Walking the fence line towards the Lingadzi River

A local beekeeper’s traditional log hive

The visit to the local VNRC was a very interesting experience, around 70 local people were at the meeting to hear our proposal, and the big area chief even paid the meeting an unexpected visit, which was greeted by a lot of bowing and rhythmic clapping from the locals. He then asked us for diesel money. Cheeky. But another example of how most people just expect us to have money to give them.

Camera traps

Another little project we have worked on is setting up camera traps near our house to catch footage of which animals which are passing by, particularly at night when we are asleep! We have had some really interesting animals, including leopard, warthog, hyena, civet, genet, hippo, puku and elephant (of course).

One morning I went to check our camera trap and found it had been smashed, what could have done it?

There were lots of potential culprits, but luckily we had video evidence! We had videos of warthogs, a civet cat and a puku on the camera trap that night. But finally it all became clear when we found footage of a hyena chewing his way through the top of the camera for 15 minutes. Thanks hyena!

Dung Collecting

Remke is also involved in a study to take elephant DNA samples, this means collecting fresh dung! When she went away for a couple of days it was left to me and Ruby to try and collect some. First we saw a tuskless female which we named Kamanda pooing on the opposite bank, so we called for a scout to escort us to the scene of the crime and collected a sample. Just a few days later one of the males left some dung for us by the lake right near our house so we scooped that up too! It is important to learn about the genetic diversity of the remaining elephant population because otherwise it will be difficult to help this population to recover without inbreeding.

Walking to the poo site with Ruby and Vincent

ID Booklet

We also worked to complete another one of Remke’s projects, a Kasungu Elephants ID booklet. This helps her to identify elephants which are seen and follow the movements of individuals and families. We also made a Quick ID Booklet that we can carry around when we are on the lookout for elephants, which has proved to be very useful! We identify the elephants using unique features such as notches/holes in their ears and tusk characteristics, Fupa also has an obvious kink in his tail.

Lifuzu with distinctive notches and holes in his left ear

It won’t be long until our time in Kasungu National Park is over, from here we will be travelling to Lake Malawi to take a week long holiday before flying home. See you soon!

Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe

Desert and Delta Overland Tour

July 30, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

The two weeks on our overland tour have been an incredible adventure, and an absolute whirlwind of an experience. It’s been a busy fortnight so I’ll TRY to keep words to a minimum and share as many photos as our internet will allow. Here’s my 14 day tour diary:

Day 1 – Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe)

Today we met our tour companions who have come from across the world and visited the Victoria Falls National Park. The falls are 1.7km wide, over 100m high and are known to some people in Africa as “Mosi-oa-Tunya”, which means “The Smoke that Thunders”. It is a truly awe-inspiring place.

Day 2 – Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) to Kasane (Botswana)

We set off in our truck (called Mike) and crossed the border into Botswana. After stopping for supplies we set up our tents for the first time by the Chobe River, had lunch and relaxed by the pool. In the afternoon we went on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River and were treated to incredible sightings of animals (elephant, hippo, buffalo and many more) and the African sunset.

Day 3 – Kasane (Botswana) to Caprivi Strip (Namibia)

We started the day before sunrise and drove into the Chobe national park for a morning game drive. We saw lions from a long distance eating a buffalo, as well as baboons, vultures and more. The real highlight was an amazing sighting of a leopard and a cub as we were heading for the exit. Leopards had been avoiding us everywhere we had been in Africa so it was incredible to finally see one! After that we packed up and crossed into Namibia, took a long drive through the Caprivi Strip (saw a Wild Dog on the way!) and arrived at the Okavango River after dark.

Day 4 – Caprivi Strip (Namibia) to Okavango Delta (Botswana)

We woke up by the Okavango River and had breakfast whilst watching Hippos and Giant kingfishers. We then ventured into the Okavango Delta, a large area of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana which is seasonally flooded by the Okavango River, creating a gigantic swamp. We arrived at a camp with tents set up ready for us and took a sunset trip in mokoros (small wooden boats driven by a man with a pole) to see the delta and one of its many islands. On our way back we sat for a while to watch a group of 11 hippos and a very large crocodile just metres from our boats.

Truck stuck in the sand, we had to push it out!

Day 5 – Okavango Delta (Botswana)

A full day on the Delta! We explored an island and learnt to read signs of where animals have been from our guide, saw a rare bird called the Pel’s Fishing Owl, a nightjar, and lots of other little bits of wildlife. In the afternoon we had a series of little races on the mokoros which led to many of us getting wet! We later went out on a speedboat to see more of the Delta and saw an incredible amount of birds, and best of all, a group of elephants crossing the water very close to us. We watched the sun set over some hippos.

Day 6 – Okavango Delta (Botswana) to Maun (Botswana)

We started the day by taking a speedboat ride across the Delta panhandle to meet our truck again. We then drove for the rest of the day to reach Maun, where we stayed the night at a local campsite.

Day 7 – Maun (Botswana) to Ghanzi (Botswana)

We set off for Maun Airport and took a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta before leaving it behind. It was incredible to see the Delta from above, taking in the scale of the swamps and islands. We also saw a lot of animals! Elephants, springbok, giraffe, hippos and crocodiles just to name a few. Several people felt pretty unwell after flying in such a small plane (especially Ruby!). Afterwards we drove to Ghanzi, where we stayed at a bushman camp. The bushmen took us for a walk and told us how their ancestors used to live purely from the things which grow and live in the bush, such as plants and animals.

Day 8 – Ghanzi (Botswana) to Windhoek (Namibia)

Today we had a long drive, crossing the border into Namibia and staying the night in a hotel in their capital city of Windhoek. We also stopped for a look in their independence museum, and had dinner out a Joe’s Beer House.

Day 9 – Windhoek (Namibia) to Etosha (Namibia)

Another long drive which took us north to the Etosha National Park, one of the best places to see wild animals in Southern Africa. Upon arrival in the late afternoon we set up our tents and headed straight out to a nearby waterhole to see what was drinking. We were amazed to arrive and see Black Rhino there! We also visited the floodlit waterhole at our campsite where we could see animals drinking at night, most excitingly we saw an Aardvark, which are very rare to see because they only come out at night J

Day 10 – Etosha (Namibia)

A full day of driving around Etosha looking for animals! It was a long day but we saw a lot of beautiful animals and also the Etosha Pan, a large area that reaches as far as the eye can see in all directions which floods and dries out every year. We ended the evening by watching giraffe, elephants, jackals and black rhinos drinking at the waterhole.

Moon, Jupiter, Giraffe, Black rhino and Elephants

Day 11 – Etosha (Namibia) to Outjo (Namibia)

We got up early (4am) and went down to the waterhole for a bit, then went on a sunrise game drive. We were really lucky, and quickly came across a pair of lions! After our drive we visited the waterhole one last time to see huge numbers of antelope drinking together, an amazing sight. We then left Etosha, seeing one last large congregation of elephants and other animals as we left. We drove a short way to Outjo, where we set up camp, then spent the afternoon relaxing and playing football with a resident dog.

Day 12 – Outjo (Namibia) to Khorixas (Namibia)

We stopped off near Outjo in the morning to visit a local Himba tribe. It was very interesting to see how they still live with their traditional techniques and beliefs. We stopped in the afternoon at a petrified forest. Wood becomes petrified when it is buried deep underground, absorbs minerals and is exposed to high pressures, turning the wood to stone! It was cool to see the rocks which still look exactly like tree trunks with year lines and bark.

Day 13 – Khorixas (Namibia) to Swakopmund (Namibia)

Today we made one unplanned stop to help an Italian couple who had crashed and turned their car upside down. Afterwards we drove on to Spitzkoppe, a beautiful area of mountains, some of which you can walk up for amazing views. There were also lots of dassies and I even caught a glimpse of a wild monitor lizard! We had dinner out with the rest of our tour group, who we have to say goodbye to tomorrow as they will be continuing on to Cape Town.

Day 14 – Swakopmund (Namibia)

Our final day of tour was in Swakopmund, we moved hotels in the morning, then wandered through town and checked out the beach. At 2pm we were picked up and taken to do our sky dives! It’s hard to describe, but it felt brilliant to do it and the scenery was sensational. After I landed, Ruby had a slight crash landing and had to be taken to hospital for some x-rays on her back, fortunately there was no lasting damage, but she is going to have a lot of pain over the next week or so. After some mad rushing about at the hospital and back at the skydive club, we finally made it back into town and found our other tour members had left a message to meet them where they had gone for dinner. This gave us a chance to say bye to them all and wish them well for the rest of the trip! We slept well and got up early the next morning to make our way towards Malawi for the next stage of our adventure!

I did my sky dive to raise money for the Kasungu elephant foundation, and any donations are still greatly appreciated! Knowing we were doing it for a good cause eased my fear at the time and will soothe Ruby’s pain now too! We have now arrived in Kasungu and can already see the damage that can be caused to wildlife by poaching, and the animals here are still at great risk. Without the work of the foundation and the anti-poaching unit the elephants in this park could be wiped out in just 2 to 3 years (numbers have already dropped from 2,500 elephants to less than 50 in the last forty years), so it’s great to see the amount of hard work they do and the dedication they have towards protecting the wildlife here. I will be sure to follow up with more information in the next few weeks.

Donations: http://www.youcaring.com/kasungu-elephants-foundation-384822

More info: http://www.kasunguelephants.org/en

Thank you!

A huge thanks to everyone on our tour, our guides Amen and Lazarus, our cook Banabas and everyone else we met along the way for making the tour such a great experience. If anyone is interested, our tour was through Nomad Adventure Tours (“Desert and Delta” tour) – http://nomadtours.co.za/

Zimbabwe

Our Overland Tour Begins

July 11, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

We have now begun the next stage of our journey – an overland camping tour from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Swakopmund in Namibia, stopping at various places along the way such as Chobe, the Okavango Delta and Etosha.

We flew into Victoria Falls on Friday 10^th July and settled into a hotel where we’re staying for the first two nights of the tour, and got a glimpse of the spray from the falls form the hotel roof. Today (Saturday) we met our tour guides and the other 16 people that are on our tour, and went to the Victoria Falls national park to see the falls themselves. It really is incredible. I honestly didn’t expect to be so impressed by it, but it is an awesome spectacle. I also got very wet, the falls kick up an unbelievable amount of spray so it is practically constantly raining. It also creates some spectacular rainbows when the sun is in the right position in the sky.

Tomorrow we travel to Kasane in Botswana and get our first look at Chobe National Park, and we will be camping for the next two weeks until we reach Swakopmund. I’ll post an update on the tour the next time we manage to find internet!

Botswana

Farewell to Mokolodi

July 11, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

So we have had to say good bye to Mokolodi and the many friends we made there. I found it particularly hard to say bye to Blue (the vervet monkey), Black (the baboon), Kgosi (the African rock python) and, of course, Louie (our adopted Meyer’s parrot). But they’re being left in good hands. Georg has already taken over the duty of looking after Louie and I’ll be checking in regularly to find out how she’s doing!

Our last week

Our last week of Mokolodi was mostly spent doing fire breaks. The basic idea is to burn dry grassy areas of bush on the edges of the reserve so that any bushfires which come from outside the reserve won’t be able to spread into the Mokolodi reserve because all the flammable materials will already be burnt up. The main issue with fire breaks is keeping the fires that we start under control so that we don’t burn down the reserve ourselves. We found out just how hard it can be to keep the fire under control on our first day when a sudden gust of wind sent the fire racing through the bush. Luckily we have a tank of water and hosepipe, and around 12 people with fire beaters to put it out. It was still pretty scary for a minute or two!

On our last two days we relaxed a lot more, went camping with Sean, Scott and Georg, packed our bags, had a few drinks to celebrate my birthday and said bye to everyone here. We also gave some bananas to the monkeys in the sanctuary and a flat old football to Black the baboon which he loved! It’s been a great experience and we got very close to some amazing animals, both in the sanctuary and out in the bush. All the best to everyone at Mokolodi for the future and thanks for a great 8 weeks!

Botswana

Mokolodi update

July 2, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

Our time at Mokolodi is drawing to a close! Only just over a week now until we head further north and take a camping tour through Botswana and Namibia. Here’s what’s been happening!

Georg

We now have a new volunteer with us! Georg is from Germany and has been travelling around the world for the last year. He has already been pretty lucky, in his first few drives in the reserve with us he has seen most of the different large species, and we have even seen some new ones we hadn’t seen before, including the impressive Eland!

Reptile Park

We have made a few more upgrades to the reptile park, including some wild bird feeders and baths to make the place look a bit nicer! We have also finished designing our enclosure signs for the animals in the park but we are still waiting for them all to be printed and laminated due to some printer issues.

We also saw and caught a wild Spotted bush snake in the park! They look similar to a Boomslang (which are highly venomous), but luckily the bush snake is harmless.

We have been helping care for an ill Rock Monitor the last two weeks too, he is unable to move his back legs or his tail (which is lucky for us because their tails can do some damage). We have even taken him into town for an x-ray and he has been on some different medications, as well as us giving him physio on his affected joints. No improvements yet but we have our fingers crossed.

Waiting for the monitor’s x-ray at the vet’s

Hyena feeding

Last week we were both taken to feed the Spotted hyena which is in a huge enclosure on the reserve. She takes the meat from your hand really gently and trots away with it, it was awesome to get so close to her. Hyenas get a bad image in the Lion King but they really are gorgeous animals!

Louie

We have carried on working with Louie, our Meyer’s parrot. She is still pretty timid around people (and particularly their hands) but we are constantly improving. In the last couple of weeks she has even begun to stand on a stick that we are holding, and she has tried really hard to say “Louie” back to us! We have also tried to make her less scared of hands by putting our hands close to her so she can see that nothing bad happens. She is learning, but she still doesn’t like hands too much at the moment and can do some real damage with her beak!

Cycling

We took two of the rentable bikes out one Sunday too and followed the cycle route. It was much further than we expected (around 20km) and hard work on the rough terrain, but we got some amazing views along the way.

Animals!

We’ve seen the rhinos a couple more times, and it still amazes me every time we see them. They’re such incredible animals. Here are a few pics of our latest trip, where we spent three hours tracking a pair of rhinos which we never managed to catch up with, only to stumble across another group drinking on the drive home.

And here are some pics of the other various animals we have seen hanging around 🙂

Impala, warthog and baboons at a dry waterhole

Botswana

Monkeying Around

June 14, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

For the last two weeks our main job has been to improve the monkey enclosures in the sanctuary. There were some remnants of old toys in a couple of enclosures but generally there was nothing for the monkeys to do except sit on the floor and climb the fence, and monkeys are very intelligent animals so they really needed something to stop them from being bored.

Altogether there are four monkeys in four enclosures, three Vervet monkeys which we call Blue, Riri and Wise, and a Baboon called Black. Riri and Wise share their two enclosures and have an open door between them. We scavenged what we could from the scrap heap and put together some things for them to play with.

For the Vervets, in each enclosure we put up some straight poles of wood for jumping and climbing on, some rope ladders which we made from twine and scrap wood, some swinging tyres and some little wooden shelters for them to find shade under (or for shelter from the rain in the summer). Riri and Wise also got some straight wooden ladders because Blue already had more poles to perch on. Black I renowned for destroying anything that is put in his enclosure so we only gave him robust things – a wooden ladder, a swinging tyre and a swinging pole.

The biggest challenge of all was getting into the enclosures to install our toys. Riri and Wise were simple, we tempted them into one of their two enclosures with food and shut the dividing door so we could go into the other one.

Black had a similar divide in his enclosure but there was just a hole rather than a door, he is also a lot bigger and stronger than the vervets so could do us more harm. We had to tempt him to one side and run in with metal poles to block the hole and work in one side of the enclosure whilst he tried to break through our barricade.

We left Blue until last, I already had a huge soft spot for Blue because he always runs over to greet me and likes to hug my arm through the fence. He has been in the sanctuary since he was an orphaned baby so he is very used to humans and won’t even run away if his enclosure door is left open. He does, however, have a reputation for biting people. Only three people here are confident about going into the enclosure with him, and all of them have been bitten in the past. The conservation workers were adamant we couldn’t go in with him, so we needed to get him out somehow.

We tried catching him in cages, first a small one but he was too quick and could reach into the back and take a banana out without going far enough in to be trapped. We got a bigger one, put an apple right at the back under a pressure plate which should close the door behind him once he stood on it. He climbed in, walked over the pressure plate and took the apple and walked out with it without setting of the trap. He was just far too clever.

Our final plan was to just open the enclosure door, lure him outside with a banana run in with the toys and shut him outside whilst we worked in there. But again he knew what we were up to and refused to come out of the enclosure, even for the banana. At this point, with most other people now distracted by a group of wild baboons loitering nearby, or off fetching more fruit for Blue, I took the chance to walk into his enclosure slowly and see how he reacted to me. I also gave him half a banana as an offering of peace. He took it kindly and sat nearby watching me curiously as I started stringing up the rope ladder.

Things got more challenging as I tried to bring more stuff in, he started climbing up my arm, onto my shoulder and head, and would block the doorway and grunt at me when I tried to go outside the enclosure. He also ran outside at one stage and jumped onto Ruby’s head as she was preparing the tyre, though his eyes were set firmly on the other half of a banana that she had next to her and he soon grabbed it and wolfed it down.

Eventually, I got all the new equipment up and managed to sneak out whilst he played with his new tyre. I felt really privileged that he let me into the enclosure without attacking me. The thing with the monkeys is that there is something so incredibly intelligent and humanlike about them, it almost feels as if we are now friends. I’m going to keep going to check up on him and talk to him as often as I can.

Other Highlights from the last fortnight –

Cleaning the croc pond

Last week we also had a rather messy job to do – cleaning out the Nile crocodile’s pond. It had apparently been two years since it was last done and it was now really overgrown and filthy. It took a full day to remove all the water with a pump, wait for the croc to climb out of the basin and out of our way, then remove a large amount of the mud and reeds before refilling the water. Luckily for us the croc wasn’t feeling particularly hungry and was pretty relaxed when he finally dragged himself up and out of the way. We all got pretty muddy though.

Seeing Rhinos

We have been on another day of rhino tracking this week with the conservation team. Although, this time it was Ruby who found the rhinos rather than the professional trackers, and we got to see all six in one day! Ruby saw the first group of four rhinos from the car as we were still driving around looking for tracks, we got out and walked to a small nearby clearing and they let us get incredibly close (probably because we had been working with Lucerne grass in the morning, which is delicious smelling food for the rhinos). The last two we had to work a bit harder for, and David and Charles made us lead the way and follow the tracks ourselves for the last bit of the way, and again Ruby was the one to spot them through the bushes.

Sunsets, steaks, and animals

Our spare time is mainly being spent wandering around and watching the amazing wildlife that lives on the reserve, but one is continuing to elude us – the leopard. This week a group of American students came to visit for one day and got to see one drinking down by one of the lakes. We spent a bit of time with that group that day too! So we’re feeling pretty unlucky at the moment and like the leopards of Southern Africa are conspiring to avoid us and frustrate us. We are also working closely with our parrot, Louie, who is making steady progress in being more relaxed with human company. This weekend she even took a piece of sweetcorn from my hand (before realising what she’d done and freaking out for ten minutes!).

When we’re not looking for animals, we’ve started a Sunday tradition of cooking steaks on the braai (the steaks are delicious and come smothered in sauce for P20 each, which is around £1.30). I guess it’s our African version of a Sunday roast. We also get treated to a beautiful African sunset every evening which is always a range of wonderful colours. So even with the leopards playing hide and seek with us, we’re feeling very lucky in life!

Botswana

Living in Botswana

May 30, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

Here is what we’ve been up to this week!

Weekend Walk in Mokolodi

Our first weekend at Mokolodi was very relaxing, we got our internet set up and Skyped home, and spent some time exploring the reserve. On Sunday morning we took a walk from our accommodation up to Lake Gwithian at the North end of the reserve. On the way we spotted some Impala and Kudu, which are becoming incredibly familiar animals which we see almost every day, but the most exciting creatures were waiting at the lake.

Our first special sighting was of an African Fish Eagle soaring over the lake hunting for its Sunday lunch, and we also saw a pied kingfisher hovering over the water and diving in to catch something. Further along we sat to have a snack ourselves, watching the zebra drinking on the other side of the dam when there was a sudden commotion in the reeds next to us, we soon realised that it had been a crocodile erupting from the water to catch a poor bird that had been perched on the reeds. We walked round to another side and that’s where we found what we came to see. Two hippopotamuses! We stayed as long as we dared to get some pictures, but hippos are known to be incredibly dangerous so as they swam closer, we left.

Living in Hartebeest chalet

This week we moved out of our volunteer accommodation because a group of teachers wanted to stay there whilst their students were staying in the education centre. Luckily for us, this meant we got to stay in the guest accommodation, one of the little thatched chalets by a dam where lots of wild animals come to drink. We were even given the keys to the closest chalet to the dam, so that we had a perfect view of any animals coming to drink. We have seen zebras, warthogs, giraffe, baboons, vervet monkeys, hartebeest, ostrich, impala, mountain reedbuck and kudu, as well as lots of birds. Oh, and the sunsets were incredible every evening.

We have also seen plenty of the baboons this week, raiding the restaurant kitchen and playing around the old swimming pool.

Working at Mokolodi

The work is staying pretty varied and every day features new jobs. We have spent a day digging to build water defence to prevent roads being damaged in the wet season, we have cleaned out a dirty old pond in the vulture enclosure, built an owl box for Pearl, wrote a Facebook story for the Mokolodi Facebook page, and have started designing enclosure signs for all of the animals in the reptile park and sanctuary. Ruby has also spent a lot of time with Pearl trying to get her more relaxed with human interaction which has been very successful, on Friday we were even able to touch her without her flying away!

SSSSSSSnakes!

There are several snakes in the reptile park with varying levels of friendliness and dangerousness. The friendliest snake is Kgosi (Setswana for “chief”), the African Rock Python. Although he has lots of teeth and his bite would hurt, he is not venomous, so there is no danger in holding him. He often enjoys being held too, because snakes are cold blooded they need to get warmth from the sunlight or from cuddling up to us. I have spent a lot of time cuddling Kgosi.

The second snake we have is a Spitting cobra, we don’t get too close to him and he usually stays in his enclosure because Spitting cobras can spit venom into your eyes from several metres away. We also have a Snouted Cobra which carries a powerful venom which could kill you, but we can get into his enclosure to clean it out without too much worry as long as we don’t get too close. The same goes for the three puff adders we currently have, they are responsible for the most snake bites in Africa because they are so common and so well camouflaged in the wild, people often don’t see them and step on them. What it is important to remember is that snakes will only strike at you if they feel threatened, so as long as we don’t get too close to them then we have nothing to worry about.

Next week

Yesterday we moved back into the volunteer house and picked up a new roommate on the way – a Meyer’s parrot! The parrot was a former pet that has been in the sanctuary for several months and is still very timid around people. We have moved it in with us so that we can try and calm it down and get it used to being around humans again. We don’t know if it’s male or female so we need to choose a name that’s suitable for either, any ideas for a good name then let us know!

We also need some help designing some toys for the vervet monkeys and the baboon which live in the sanctuary. Monkeys are very intelligent and active animals and we need things to keep them mentally and physically stimulated whilst they’re in the sanctuary enclosures. Typical things would be hanging tyres or rope ladders (yesterday I saw a wild baboon on the swing in the children’s play area) but again, if anyone has any good ideas then let us know and we’ll see if we can make it for them!

Botswana

Hello from Botswana!

May 24, 2015 danlambey Leave a comment

Last Sunday afternoon (17^th May) we landed into Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. After sorting our entry forms, getting our passports stamped and collecting our bags, we were met by a cheerful fellow named Dennis and given a welcome pack, including a cap and some maps. Dennis works at Mokolodi Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Gaborone, which will be our home for the next 8 weeks!

Dennis took us for a quick tour and showed us to our accommodation. We then got a lift into town with a mechanic called MP to get some pizza. We were also given an early introduction to the load shedding which occurs here. In South Africa we became accustomed to load shedding – every couple of days the electricity for the whole area will be switched off for around two hours because there just isn’t enough electricity to keep the whole country running all day. Here it isn’t quite as regular, but it goes off for a lot longer. On the afternoon that we arrived the electricity had already been off since 1pm, and it didn’t come back on until 8:30pm.

Mokolodi is very different from everywhere else we have stayed so far. There are a lot of people here working on a lot of different things. There are chalets, a campsite, a restaurant, a coffee shop, they do game drives, there are lots of vehicles to maintain, a reptile park, an animal sanctuary, an education centre with dorms etc. So it’s pretty busy, and we are living in a lovely volunteer house right in the middle of it all, between the workshop, offices and education centre.

Once settled in we started our work with the conservation team, though a lot of our time has been spent helping with the reptile park which is still in its early stages. Here are our highlights of our first week here –

Game Drives

On our first day we were given a game drive so that we could see the nature reserve and some of its animals. It really is a gorgeous place, a very large area of typical African bush. We have now taken a few trips into the bush and seen many animals, including my first ever wild giraffe!

We also see a lot wildlife hanging around by our house, just this morning we were awoken by the sound of a leopard nearby! But usually we are visited by the impala and many different types of bird.

Reptile Park and Sanctuary

We have spent a lot of our time assisting Scott with the sanctuary and reptile park. We have spent time cleaning enclosures, doing some landscaping to make them look nicer, and building new shelters for the tortoises and vultures. We have also moved some rock monitor lizards into a bigger enclosure which was really fun, they are a bit of a handful.

Leopard Tortoise Enclosure after some improvements

Mrs Jones the White-backed Vulture defending her nest

Leopard tortoise demolishing our improvements

Rhino Tracking

On Wednesday we had an incredible experience, going out with the conservation team to track Southern White Rhinoceroses. There are 6 rhinos living at Mokolodi and they live way out in the far reaches of the reserve. In many parts of Southern Africa rhinos are illegally hunted and killed for their horns which can be sold for ridiculous amounts of money in some parts of the world, where the horn is believed to have strong medicinal properties. In fact, rhino horn is made of the same stuff as our own human fingernails, there really is nothing special about it. Unfortunately, some people still believe it can cure illnesses, and some people want to buy it just because it is rare and the rhino is an endangered animal. As such, it is important for Mokolodi to keep an eye on their rhinos and regularly make sure they are all safe and well.

Each week a team of trackers goes out into the bush to find the rhinos and makes sure they’re okay. It may sound like an easy job, they can be over 4 metres long and weigh over 2 tons (2,000 kilograms), but let me assure you it is not. The African bush can be very dense, making it very easy for even these gigantic animals to hide.

We went out with two trackers called Janet and Charles, and we set out on the roads to find some fresh rhino footprints. They are surprisingly hard to spot, even on a nice sandy patch of road, but after an hour and a half of looking we found some.

We started following the direction the footprints pointed, everything still seeming fairly simple. Then the prints seemed to just disappear. Amongst the bushes and grass, suddenly there were just no tracks. But still Janet and Charles pressed on as if the path was drawn out in front of them. They pointed out a few signs of where the rhinos had been – trampled grass, a pile of dung, a dead tick on an old tree stump which had been rubbed onto it by the rhino as it was going by, and we started to realise that following footprints was only a tiny amount of what was needed to track these animals.

We had to keep walking for over two hours, most of the time I had no idea what Janet and Charles were seeing to tell them which way the rhinos had gone, and it is incredible that they managed to walk that long without making a wrong turn and losing the tracks. But finally at midday we saw movement in the bushes. And as we peered around some trees we saw them running away from us. They were running away from us! These huge animals which could crush us without breaking a sweat tried to hide from us. So we manoeuvred round until we got them in clear sight, and then they relaxed. We stood and stared at these majestic old animals for over 15 minutes, completely spellbound by them. I couldn’t believe I was standing in front of this historically endangered species (in the early 20^th century there were less than 50 of them left), nor could I believe how big they really are.

It’s unbelievable that so many of these animals are hunted in the wild for senseless reasons every year. It is a harsh reminder of how cruel the human race can be at times, and the damage we can cause as a species when people don’t think about the consequences of our actions. The Southern White Rhino population is currently looking in much better shape, but there is now only one male Northern White Rhino left in existence, and only around 5,000 Black Rhinos. In fact, just this week a Black Rhino was shot dead in Namibia after an American hunter paid $350,000 for permission to hunt it down and kill it. Why anyone is so desperate to kill another animal is completely beyond me, and it is disappointing to see that some conservation teams will give up an animal’s life just to raise some money.

And it isn’t just the rhino, there are many animals which have already been wiped out by human actions in the past (for example, the dodo) and there are an obscene amount of animals which are dwindling in numbers as a result of current human behaviour (see the vulture research mentioned below). Let’s hope that the work of conservation teams will prevent too many of these species from being wiped out in the future.

Vulture Catching

On Friday we were joined by a vet called Mark, and James from Raptors Botswana, who also happens to be a University of Sheffield graduate. Raptors Botswana are doing research into high levels of lead in vultures’ blood, a possible side effect of them scavenging their food from dead animals which have been shot with lead ammunition. They wanted to take blood samples from the vultures in the sanctuary for their research.

Catching vultures can be a bit of a challenge, and Ruby has already felt the force of the White-backed Vulture’s beak when it bit her on Thursday. The basic plan is to throw a towel over their heads and hold them by their neck and feet so they can’t scratch or bite you. The towel also calms them down and helps to keep them under control. Once caught, the vet takes a small sample of their blood from under a wing.

The vultures in the sanctuary are all injured, most have broken wings, so they couldn’t fly too far and it wasn’t too difficult to catch them (except the Cape Vulture which gave me the slip twice). Hopefully the research will raise some awareness on the effects of lead ammunition on these birds. The Lappet-faced Vultures (of which we have three here) are more endangered than white rhinos, so preserving their well-being is very important.