|
|
| Thursday, 5-Jul-2007 08:49 |
Email | Share |  | Bookmark |
|
Sad news...
|
|
|
Well my camera continued to get sicker and sicker and was taking weirder and weirder photos and then it got stolen. So no photos from Mozambique! No funding at the moment to get a new camera so this page is going to be on a holiday for an indefinite period of time...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Friday, 27-Apr-2007 07:14 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Still alive!
|
|
Hello hello...
Yes... I'm still here and still alive! Got quite a lot of photos but no chance to put them up at the moment. I've been in Jo'burg for the last week running around doing the final bits of organising for my Mozambique trip. Off today and through to Moz on Sunday... 5 weeks fieldwork in the middle of the bush! Camping in the middle of nowhere and doing lots of walking. Should be an interesting time  Will take lots of photos and try get some up at the beginning of June when I re-enter the semi-real world!!
Have fun till then 
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wednesday, 28-Feb-2007 08:21 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
It's been a while...
|
 |
|
Leopard... a leaving Kruger treat!
|
|
 |
|
Hello!
|
|
 |
|
Funky snake who's name I've forgotten...
|
| | View all 6 photos... |
|
It's been a while... in fact such a long while that it's now the 1st of March... but I figured these photos and stories are from February so this can be a February update  (Except the photo of Francois - he worked with us in January).
So... February... A rather hectic month! I started in a private reserve, finishing off the private reserves' fieldwork which was a lovely feeling. I tried my hand at bartending for an evening which proved to be a very interesting experience! Joost (my field assistant) and I bumped into Rian (a friend of mine) and he was looking for bartenders for a wedding at the camp he manages... we said "yes why not" and served drinks for many hours and then joined in the dancing for many more! A thoroughly good fun evening.
So that was one of the highlights of February... one of the lowlights was a week where every morning I woke up thinking "it just has to get better today" and each day it got worse... Joost fell off a motorbike and split his chin down to the bone - a visit to hospital required for stitching... a black mamba fell nearly on my head... the waterpoint where I wanted to work wasn't in the right place... it rained and my tent got flooded... Robert (another field assistant) came to learn the method so he can work while Joost is on holiday and that day we got rained out... It was endless!
But in February I also saw several brand new animals that I'd never seen before... there was a night sighting of a nearly 3m python in a private reserve (oh wow oh wow oh wow!!!), we had thick-tailed bushbabies in our campsite in Kruger (very cool!!!), then there were several other new snakes and the first leopard I've seen in South Africa. And a very cool sighting of a civet during the day 
And now I'm in Jo'burg - came through for a workshop in Pretoria which was a massive learning experience... I was the only student in a room full of professors and very experience professionals discussing monitoring. A really cool opportunity. My trip got a bit extended thanks to a thorough stuff up of my registration at Wits (admin admin admin ) but hopefully that is now pretty much sorted!
I'm going to be disappearing again now for March and April - a long stint in Kruger with fieldwork and then a conference I'll try update at the end of April when I should be near an internet connection before I dash off for fieldwork in Mozambique... It's a crazy life
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Monday, 29-Jan-2007 13:42 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Still alive!
|
|
Hello!! I'm still alive and still taking photos... though less now as my camera is still not well  Had a very cool giraffe sighting the other day on the way home... here's one of the many I took!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Saturday, 13-Jan-2007 12:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
My work... My office
|
 |
|
Waterpoints...
|
|
 |
|
...and lots of plants!
|
|
|
Updated: 13th January 2007
Hello helloooo.... Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
I've been quiet for a while... my camera is still not functioning properly  so I'm not taking many photos, plus I'm doing fieldwork now (until June) so my internet access is approximately once every two weeks... Will hopefully manage to get photos from friends and my field assistant to do occasional updates but these two will perhaps give you an idea of what I'm up to at the moment!
Have fun... I'll hopefully be back intermittently and in the not too too distant future
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday, 10-Dec-2006 11:03 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
First week's fieldwork
|
 |
|
Rhino having a bath
|
|
 |
|
Kudu's from the deck of the house
|
|
 |
|
Funky beetle (on a Commiphora mollis leaf!)
|
| | View all 9 photos... |
|
I’m currently working on my PhD and December is the start of my field season. This means that I get to be well and truly out in the bush from now until the end of June  Sweat, blood, tears, thorns, heat, insects, spiders… the first week and I’ve already had a taste of each! My tan lines (e.g. sock marks ) are returning at high speed and my legs are already scratched to pieces. But it’s been fun!
Things started in a hectic weekend last weekend as I tried madly and in a great rush to get things finally finished and ready (like making my sampling sticks and printing data sheets!). On Sunday afternoon I drove through to Phalaborwa to pick up Innocentia – my first field assistant. Luckily we’re getting on together as we’d never met before! 
Monday morning bright and early we were on the way to the first reserve. We found out where we were staying when we got here… the researchers cottage is being rebuilt so they had organised alternative accommodation for us. This is a private reserve with very rich people… They had organised for us to stay in one of the landowners’ houses… When we arrived at the camp we got an enormous shock… a huge very fancy house (see the other update)! 
We dumped stuff and headed out to start fieldwork, no time for resting now! We headed to the waterpoint feeling a little nervous as we’d seen lions less than 1km away when we drove in! The reserve manager told us it would be fine… luckily he was right Unfortunately the sampling was not so fine – we couldn’t complete the first set and I ended up in tears in the second I have to ID a LOT a LOT a LOT of plants and I simply didn’t know enough names.
We changed plans and decided to spend the week collecting and identifying specimens in order that I could learn them. Ed (one of my supervisors) arrived on Monday afternoon and we had a crisis meeting and figured out that things could still work with just a few minor changes to the method and a few major changes to my brain. Five days later… I know a lot more plants! We’ve covered 101 woody plant specimens and 53 grass specimens
We collected specimens by walking around but in approximately 10 hours of walking we didn’t even see a squirrel! Twice we were close to lions… once we found out afterwards and the other we went with the knowledge that the lions and we were headed to the same dam but in the end nothing happened We did have two armed guards!!!
Friday and Saturday were spent inside, attempting to stay cool with the least amount of sweating, doing brain exercises with field guides. I have to admit that I didn’t realise quite how many different kinds of trees there were in the savanna ! My potential species list for trees and shrubs is now at 127… that’s 127 different plants that I need to learn Good luck to me!
I’m writing this on Saturday evening, my last evening in this fancy place, in the hope that I’ll find a decent enough internet connection to post it tomorrow. My dirty dishes are in the sink – they’ll be washed in the morning, my washed and ironed clothes are in my room – all I have to do is repack them. There’s definitely a good side to living in luxury whilst trying to do field work!!!! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tuesday, 5-Dec-2006 12:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Fieldwork accommodation?!
|
|
Hmmm… I have to admit, I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this for research accommodation. This house is worth multi millions… Six en-suite bedrooms, five of them with outside showers (a brand new experience for me! ) and a massive living area and gorgeous kitchen. Add in that it’s right on the banks of the Olifants river and you can just sit on the deck and watch the animals waltzing by then it’s really out of this world. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place like this even on holiday!
The pictures give a bit of an idea of what it looks like… It can be taken as given that for the rest of my 7 months of fieldwork I’ll be living in much less luxurious surroundings
We worked hard but we also got to watch animals from the deck (nyala, bushbuck, baboons, monkeys (they came up to bang on the windows of the house…), kudu and all sorts!). There were also a pair of resident owls which Ed tried to photograph but kept missing!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Friday, 1-Dec-2006 12:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Telly's leaving braai
|
|
|
Telly has left… Things just aren’t the same without her… but we had a big party to say goodbye! Telly was one of the first people I met when I moved here and now she’s headed off to start her MSc and move to the big city with Amahle (her baby). The party was the usual braai with lots of food Eddie excelled with the cooking, Vusi provided the venue and everyone smiled for the camera. As usual there were five people left at the end… Vusi, Don, Telly, Eddie and me… this time we managed to get a photo
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Monday, 27-Nov-2006 07:59 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
The last of Jo'burg
|
 |
|
Big fat cat
|
|
 |
|
Not so big not so fat cat
|
|
 |
|
Storms on the escarpment
|
|
|
An attempt to upload by email as the website doesn't want to work at
this internet cafe... Hope it works!
These are the last of the photos from my Jo'burg trip... the two cats
I was looking after for the last week (big fat cat and not so big not
so fat cat).
I drove back on Saturday through some amazing storms. I came down the
escarpment looking out over the lowveld and the sky was just black
with clouds. When I looked back towards the escarpment there were some
holes of sunshine coming through. Needless to say the sunset (in my
mirrors!) was amazing
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday, 19-Nov-2006 15:50 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Two different worlds
|
|
|
From Kruger to Jo'burg in far too short a time. Three weeks ago was the SAEON GSN workshop in Skukuza. A really interesting week with a few chances for photos. Then I had a couple of days at home and then drove through to Jo'burg. I've done 2 weeks, got 1 week left. Last weekend Emily & Niketa drove through for a city weekend. Friday night was catching up on gossip, Saturday was breakfast out, lunch at Emily's gran's, shopping, movies, rugby... then the whole point of the trip... a big night out dancing in Jo'burg. We danced and danced and danced... lots of fun
|
|
|
|
