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| Saturday, 18-Nov-2006 12:00 |
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Photochallenge 132: Sharing
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Sharing
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Sometimes it is important to share even the smallest of treats.
(Photo from Loiyangalani village, eastern shore of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya)
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| Tuesday, 31-Oct-2006 12:00 |
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October
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Clouds (from August)
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A bug that turned into a dinner (from September)
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A skink and a massive bug (05/10)
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Usually I write these updates in the evenings… There haven’t been any in October because I’ve been doing other things in the evenings. So here’s a big update for October… what’s been going on alongside a huge amount of work and organising for my project:
1st: Happy Birthday to Gemma! The spider incident… Need I say more? See the “Vusi Is My Hero” entry. The spider has since been named “Oswald the Octoped”.
2nd: A trip to Hoedspruit for shopping and lots of work… A brilliant thunderstorm in the evening 
3rd: The first time for soccer… it’s become a regular thing now.
4th: Laundry (when you don’t have a washing machine it’s a big event!) and lots of work… This was before the socialising really started!
5th: Work… volleyball… and a trip to Ben’s house to borrow his spade.
6th: A crazy day… a trip to Hoedspruit, lots of cooking and digging of a braai pit. In the evening, a braai at my house… people from here, “the 9 Americans” (who were definitely NOT from here) and a couple of friends from one of the private reserves.
7th: Eddie got back so we went for sundowners… a nice chilled evening! A beautiful sunset followed by the full moon rising...
8th: A visit to Telly’s to meet Amahle in the afternoon. In the evening, the first Grey’s Anatomy session – the first four episode’s and a potluck dinner at Niketa’s
9th: A visit from Abbey and Niketa and a tart delivery from Benjamin… yummy!!!
10th: Soccer… and 12 people turned up!!! We actually played a game and it was brilliant fun. Then Abbey and Niketa came for dinner.
11th: Happy Birthday to Liz! Georgette organised a dinner at Bushman’s Camp. I ate proper sausage… impala intestine stuffed with minced buffalo kidneys and livers. It was actually yummy!
12th: Volleyball was cancelled because everyone was at Tara’s moving party. Another braai!
13th: The start of the Halloween celebrations… Niketa organised a movie night. We set up the kitchen like a movie theatre and popped popcorn for two and half hours! It was good fun.
14th: Happy Birthday to Andre! Another party… Anna’s birthday party at bushcamp. A braai and salsa dancing… fun!!
15th: Grey’s Anatomy turned into a weekly thing… this time it was at my house.
16th: Happy Birthday to Anna! Abbey decided it was her turn to cook so she made dinner for Niketa, Amanda and I. Couscous and veggies and yummy food. Really appreciated because this was the day I woke up really sick.
17th: A blocked nose, a sore throat, a cough, a high temperature… and a trip to Skukuza (2 hours drive). But I did finally get all the data I needed from Kruger!
18th: I actually spent the day in bed, and felt a lot better for it! I also used nearly an entire box of tissues on clearing out my nose.
19th: Volleyball… with a secret added twist 
20th: Navashni was up and people wanted to socialise so there was a braai at Eddie’s. Lots of people came and Emily had her first braai lesson.
21st: I was feeling better so Niketa, Emily and I went off for a day out. First to Sabie to visit “the” second hand bookshop… amazing! Then to Nelspruit for movies and shopping.
22nd: Grey’s Anatomy continues… this time at Jeffrey & Julia’s. Wow wow wow food!
23rd: A serious working day – I presented my project to people from the private reserves. But then met up with Rian and Melodie for sundowners at Jos Mac’s.
24th: A Tuesday so soccer again. This time followed by dinner at bushcamp… and then stargazing from the airstrip… and I ended up sleeping that side… because I drank too much wine?!
25th: Lunchtime… holiday time. Off with Emily to visit Mario & Meagan then Marius’ braai in the evening with a whole bunch of friends. We got lucky… a game drive in the afternoon when we arrived where we saw loads: giraffe, elephant, wildebeest, zebra, warthog, rhino and lots more!
26th: Happy Birthday to Susie! We stayed over with Mario & Meagan and Mario took us out in the morning… lion And I started GPSing his roads!
27th: Another big social event… Niketa’s Halloween party. Costumes required… lots of photos taken so this will actually make a separate entry!
28th: Laundry… dishes… organising… sorting photos… writing this update!
29th: Plans for Grey’s Anatomy… and lots of work to do as well!
30th: I’m off to Skukuza for a workshop and I get to see Di – a friend from Cape Town who I haven’t seen since January!
31st: The workshop starts and October ends…
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| Saturday, 28-Oct-2006 12:00 |
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Torchlight Portraits
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I really really really liked the portrait shots I took at the Halloween party using a torch instead of a flash so here are some more...
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| Friday, 27-Oct-2006 12:00 |
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The Halloween Party
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Niketa (bumble bee), me (black cat), and Emily (mopane worm)
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Donald, me and Jeffrey
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Niketa, Jeffrey, Julia and Emily
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One of the biggest social events of the month (see update “October”) was Niketa’s Halloween party. Costumes were required and people used their imagination… we don’t live in an area where you can hire a costume, or even get the necessary ingredients for making a costume. A large amount of people turned up and it was a really fun evening. Lots and lots of dancing!
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| Sunday, 15-Oct-2006 14:46 |
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Vusi Is My Hero
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A few Sundays ago I was sleeping late, nice and chilled and relaxed in my bed. I’d been out the night before… a little too much to drink and a little too late to bed so I wasn’t doing anything fast. But my eyes were open.
And I was looking at the random collection of things on the shelves in my bedroom. And something wasn’t right. There was a brown splodge on a plain green bag. It was a large splodge, so large that it took me a few seconds to realise that it was a spider. The biggest spider I have ever seen in my life.
I’m arachnophobic.
I’ve learnt to handle spiders when they’re small, I can catch them in jars and take them outside. But I would have needed my biggest saucepan to catch this spider, and then it probably would have been too fast.
The mood changed instantly from relaxed and slow to paranoid and fast. I was out of bed and dressed in no time and wondering who I could disturb because that spider had to get out of my house and there was no way I was going near it.
Enter Vusi… Vusi used to live next door but now he’s move a few houses down into a bigger house. So I wandered down… his door was open… a good sign. So I knock “hello”… no answer. Hmmm… I try again… no answer. The assumption is that he’s napping. So I turn to leave and think who else I can ask. Niketa doesn’t like spiders, I don’t know Sekumsi, no-one else is around because it’s the weekend… So I turn round, bang loudly and shout for Vusi! And I woke him up!
But I told him I had a big problem and he said he’d sort it out. The first capture attempt was unsuccessful and the spider went running so I exited the house and walked up and down outside (shaking crazily and in tears I have to admit… it was all a bit too much!). With bug spray and a broom Vusi then proceeded to stun and catch the monster.
He put it in the jar I use to catch little spiders, and even all curled up it was bigger than any little spider I’ve caught. And here’s where the next problem came… I’m completely freaked by a spider that size but I’m also fascinated. It’s stunned says Vusi… so I decide to pick up the jar and have a closer look.
Big mistake!!! As the jar nears chest height… the spider unfolds (I get the heebie-jeebies just remembering it). It’s their movement that makes me really not like spiders – the running and the unfolding. This thing was in a clear jar in my hand, and it was the same size as my hand. It didn’t fit in the jar unfolded.
As it unfolded I started screaming. One of those screams that you have absolutely no control over. Vusi has apparently never heard someone scream like that! He took the jar out of sight, calmed me down, took some photos of the spider, and then went and released it far far far away.
So Vusi is now my hero and I bought him a bottle of wine. Thank you Vusi!!!!!!
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| Sunday, 24-Sep-2006 12:00 |
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Dancing in the sky
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| Quote: | “When an eagle takes off, it does not climb into the air with feathery claws. There is far too much pride woven into the threads of its existence. When an eagle takes off, it pushes the whole world down with its wings, and spins it around beneath its feet.”
- H. van den Berg ‘Art of Nature’ |
I soared with the bateleurs, I swooped with the eagles, I flew in a whirly bird. And while I write this, I’m still up there, far away in the blue, sweeping and dipping and turning. It was a brilliant day.
What started as a mundane trip, turned into an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. Mike, one of my supervisors, is doing game counts in the private reserves at the moment. This week he was counting on two of the properties I’m working on. One of them is right next door to where I live so Thursday evening I went through to meet with him and talk about my project. Friday morning I woke up to go home. I eventually got home after dark on Friday evening. I spent the day on the reserve, I went up in a helicopter for the first time in my life.
And what word describes it? Wow? Amazing? Brilliant? Fantastic? Incredible? None of them seem to capture it properly. When I fly my kite I delight in the swoops, in the speed, in the freedom. Now I’ve found that in a helicopter you can do the same.
Dancing in the sky.
I was apprehensive at first. My stomach doesn’t deal too well with small planes so at the start I was waiting to be sick. But amazement and wonder took over and there was no room for apprehension. It was a working flight, a lot is just straight lines backwards and forwards. But often there are circles and turns to check a count or to get closer to get a proper count. The aim is a total count for the reserve.
Warthog, waterbuck, giraffe, zebra, nyala, kudu, bushbuck, hippo, impala, wildebeest, buffalo, white rhino, black rhino, civet, hyaena, lion. Some look around, some look up. Some stand still, others run. Some are curious, some are indifferent, others flee something they don’t understand.
We counted for five hours in total, three sessions. One of my favourite parts of the day came near the end of the fourth hour. We came across the big buffalo herd, nearly 150 buffalo. How to count? Split and count… small portions of the herd are split off and counted in sections. But this means keeping the split parts and the main herd separate. And at the same time the herd is running when the helicopter comes near. Not something I would contemplate trying to do. But as something to experience as an observer… amazing. Absolutely utterly totally incredibly amazing.
Dancing in the sky. Turning to cut the herd, slowing to count, speeding to catch up with the remainder, sweeping to position and turning to cut again. It has a rhythm, it has a beat, it has a grace, it has a beauty. It is something I will never forget.
They counted and I watched. They counted and I listened. They counted and I felt. The movement of animals, the thump of the blades, the dip and turn and sweep of the whirly bird. Often I counted in my head, occasionally I called out a sighting or a count. I spotted the second hyaena, points for me!
I saw squirrels and mongooses and guinea fowl and hornbills from a completely new angle. I saw the world in a new way.
An experience like nothing I have done before.
Disclaimer: written with a creative urge and not re-edited afterwards
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| Saturday, 16-Sep-2006 12:00 |
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Quarter of a century
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Happy 25th Birthday to me 
(photo from Kenya trip last year... courtesy of Teke)
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| Saturday, 9-Sep-2006 12:00 |
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Cape Vidal: Index
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3rd September to 10th September 2006
2nd/3rd year field trip to Cape Vidal
Field work: not posted yet
Reptiles & Amphibians
Birds, bugs and mammals
Plants & Fungi
Views
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| Thursday, 7-Sep-2006 12:00 |
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Cape Vidal: Reptiles & Amphibians
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| Wednesday, 6-Sep-2006 12:00 |
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Cape Vidal: Birds, bugs and mammals
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Hey Helen, great photos - I hope you got my card. I have some time off soon so i will email you to catch up! Sounds like an amazing flight! 
