Hello brown widow spider - what are you doing in my shower?

The Spotted Eagle owl - Nash - we got a few weeks ago has recovered somewhat, but his wing is still damaged we tried to fly and release him, but it didn't work  - so we have now given him a permanent home here with us.


Here is a great video my roomie put together about his story.

As there is a music file in it not all of you (Germans!) will be able to view, so here are a couple of piccies...


Trying to release Nash...after a couple of painful flaps of his wings we had to put him back sadly.

But after a day or so he had a lovely new home...

He gives the best 'superior' looks!


"Accordingly, one race is neither superior nor inferior to another." - Walter Lang
[apart from an owl]

We were in the middle of one of Namibia's epic rain storms and had to called up to the lappa to ask someone to check Nash had found his way into his little wooden house  and was doing ok. 'If he hasn't just pick him up and pop him' in asks my roomie . Ten minutes later comes an announcement through our window that 'Just picking him up and popping him in' was not such an easy task, and having been attacked, rather than put Nash in the house, the house was put over Nash! One way to get an owl warm and dry.


"Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die." - Anthony Doerr

We picked up 3 baby cheetah the other week. We suspect someone had trapped them in order to train them for film work and when they realised they were a little too big to be tamed they called us. Obviously we were more than happy to take them, but its such a shame that we have to when they could have been left with their mother, part of the sad reality of conservation. 


"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." - Aldo Leopold

"Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men." - Gifford Pinchot


They are utterly adorable and we are really hopeful that if we don't interact with them too much we may be able to release them in the future.


"The Cheetah cubs are outrageously cute, a real treat to watch. And their physiology, a real sleek build." - Pepper Long

Fluff balls!

A volunteer lets them go in their new enclosure....

....a little reluctant to leave the comfort and safety of their capture cage after their ordeal....

....didn't take them too long though!


"A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like a cheetah" - Ronald Reagan
[Think I must work with a few hippies then!!]

We also got two wild cat kittens this week- who are like tough domestic cats. The plan for these is to keep them on the farm, collar them with teeny tiny tracking collars and release them here so we can track what they get up to via satellite downloads.

Had a great night up at the lodge for a certain little lady's 30th! lots of wine and Patrón. One of our friends came up from town with a couple of his friends and I seem to remember drunkenly agreeing to go to a shabeen where they serve home-brew and battery acid (for that extra kick- mmmm lekker!)

"I've been drinking tequila for a long time now, and it's never been about drinking to get drunk. I don't do that. I never drink tequila during the day, and I don't drive at night."   -Sammy Hagar

You certainly have to get used to bugs, critters and slithery things round here....

Here is a snake found electrocuted on the electric fence at the lion camp

I found one of these lovely ladies in my shower the other day...



....a brown widow (recluse) spider with an egg sack- she had already spun a massive web to house all the babies when they hatched. Its venom is more poisonous than a rattlesnake and I find myself wandering round the bush with this spider and its egg sack in a used yoghurt pot trying to find somewhere to release her. You can imagine my surprise when after thinking she was on the bushes outside I found her clinging to the yoghurt pot once I got back to the bathroom! Still here to write tell the tale though! - Luckier than this lady...


"I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. It got me as I was coming out of the shower. I'd never seen that kind of spider before, I'm from Canada and we don't get those types up there."  - Elisha Cuthbert


Saturday night was filled with a braai in the river bed around the fire and a few glasses of wine. Outdoors life certainly suits!


"But I love to be outdoors. I prefer being outdoors to, you know, being inside." - Keith Carradine


 

Here are a few pictures of the zebra babies - who are growing up fast, Benny is now nearly 4 months and Frankie is 3 weeks. I feel so privileged to have been able to look after them and bond with them so well, becoming part of a slightly dysfunctional herd- Benny thinks I am his  mum and Frankie thinks Benny is his mum, which leads to him looking for milk in some interesting places!


"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty."  - Jeff Foxworthy
[Although with zebras as 'children' I suspect we are the circus]


Time for a zebra montage!

Frankie has grown so much!

A sleeping Benny

Zebra cuddles- at least once a day!

Frankie's little face!

Sleepy little boy

Tired eyes.


"A zebra does not change his spots" -  Al Gore


“There's no limit to how much you'll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go.” - Dr. Suess

Congratulations to all of you who did the London Marathon last week- both runners and charity workers alike, its one hell of a day when London really comes alive and is great for hundreds of charities. 

"You are no longer a runner, YOU are a marathoner." -Seen at Mile 25 of the San Antonio marathon

Having worked on it for the last 6/7 years I expected to find it all very strange not being there, but it didn't worry me at all. I am definitely in the right place at the right time for me. Which on Sunday involved shopping, carbonara and cocktails and trying a springbokkie with horns (amarula, mint and straw rum - sjoe! - wow! as they say in Afrikaans). oh and cuddling baby zebras of course.

This exact weekend last year three things happened, not necessarily in order of importance... 

1. Kate and Wills got married, which was very weird to see how quaint the UK is portrayed from Southern Africa

 "The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world." - Benjamin Disraeli

 2. I left Namibia - heartbroken and homesick and desperate to stay!

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." - Maya Angelou

Luckily for me some part of me knew I was to return, the last words spoken to me on the farm were "don't cry, just to make a plan to get back" - something stuck with me there and here I am.

3. The worst 9 (ish months) of my life so far began. 

So much has happened since then and I have definitely come so far, but I think the next few months, as dates and anniversaries pass will be interesting, to remember where I have come from and bear in mind how far I have made it and how lucky I am to be right here, right now.


"I've been lucky. Opportunities don't often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them. "- Audrey Hepburn



"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye."  - Helen Keller 


"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."-  Mahatma Gandhi 


"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." - Thomas Paine 

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."-  Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Star gazing and Bushman stories...

On Thursday evening we took a hike through the veldt over to our traditional Bushman village that we have built solely for filming purposes.

Its was too dark to take pics of them, but the internet provides and these are similar. 

Of course our San Bushmen workers now live in proper little houses, this is just for filming.

We were told to keep our lights off and try to navigate by the stars. We were given a few pointers on directions and then split into groups to lead the navigation to the destination. My group ended up wandering round in circles in the bush and did far worse than the groups who came after us!! I suspect I am the only one there who has actually done any official navigation courses in particular with night nav experience - I was terrible!

"Navigation is easy. If it wasn't they wouldn't be able to teach it to Sailors" - James Lawrence

I dont think I would make a good sailor in that case!

Here are a couple of web stolen (as taking pics of the stArs is almost impossible) images of the stars we see here.

Southern cross - used for navigation

Milky way - we genuinely get skies like this most evenings

Once we got to the village we were met by one of our our guides who told showed us the constellations of the southern hemisphere and told us some of the bushman folk lore.

We were shown the hunter and scorpion constellations and the arrow that points north, along with betelgeuse which is apparently too big to fit inside our galaxy!

"Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star." - W. Clement Stone

The Bushman stories we heard included the story about how our solar system came into being....

Traditional Bushmen were hunter gatherers and when they killed they would take the village to the kill rather than the kill to the village. One day an eland (type of antelope) was killed and the village feasted. At the end one child came out of one of the huts and having not eaten he was left only the head. He threw this up to the sky three times and on the final time this eland head became the sun. Another child came out and on finding only the fire left he threw the coals up and they bacame the milky way and stars. The moon is in fact the body of the eland constantly trying to find the head, which in turn is trying to find the body and round and round the earth they go looking for one another.

"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." - Henry David Thoreau

The other story he told us was that in more traditional times when a lion would hunt the bushmen would watch. Once the kill was complete the lion would rest before eating his spoils. Once he started to eat he would take the head and the legs in his mouth and shake them, letting the bushmen know that he would leave this for them. In return if the bushmen hunted they would take the heart and the innards from the antelope and hang it on a nearby tree for the lion, this way the lion would be fed and not attack the bushmen. Sounds very Rudyard Kipling to me, but apparently its true...

“Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was: O my Best Beloved, when the tame animals were wild”  ― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

What is this," said the leopard,"that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?”  ― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

Not sure I would be so keen on sharing a meal with these guys comfortably! though I like the ethos of the story!

"If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine." - Diana Wynne Jones

I find these stories fascinating, I also find it so interesting to hear about the skills that our bushmen who still track have. They would be able to tell you two days ago which way the wind had been blowing, and look at spoor (footprints) and the ways grass had been moved and things disturbed and tell you what had happened between two animals. No matter how good our science gets and what we know on a research level this instinctive ability to be at one with nature is amazing and so far in every instance our bushman trackers are always right.

"I remember one winter, when I was about five or six, I spent three days with another boy, tracking a bobcat that had been sighted in another county fifty miles away, but which I was sure had come into our neighborhood." - Terry Brooks

We also tried some of the traditional bush food - two roots, one like a bulb and one that contains so much water its like watermelon.

We had a lovely braai and a few drinks and then some of the staff and volunteers stayed out under the stars, but sadly I had to head back as I didn't want to get cold in my back and risk slipping a disc again!

Really lovely night.

In other news this week, our lodge called down to say they had a puff adder in the office, one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa which had simply slithered in the door and there was some level of pandemonium ensuing to get rid of it. Our newest member of staff apparently picked it up by the tail and slung it into a bucket and is miraculously still here to tell the story!!

"Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."- W. C. Fields

Last night we went to one of the investor houses to look out over the pan at sunset and enjoy our sundowners - lekker!

"Every time you wake up and ask yourself, What good things am I going to do today?, remember that when the sun goes down at sunset, it will take a part of your life with it."      - Indian Proverb

 Views over the pan

Sitting on the stoop

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

The ever expanding arc!

The winter is drawing in and its starting to get cold at nights...

...even Jaci feels it! 


One night I tucked her up in some towels and made her a little bed.


“So when you're cold, From the inside out, And don't know what to do, Remember love and friendship,  And warmth will come to you.”  ― Stephen Cosgrove

Weirdly we actually had a hail storm today! 
Yes here, in Africa!

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." - Andrew Wyeth

Lala has found a mouse living in the shelves in the office and spends a good portion of each day trying to whine the mouse out of hiding. Crashing about in the research folders and equipment!

"A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success." - Elbert Hubbard

[No luck so far though!]

Frankie is growing bigger and stronger and its great to see Benny with a playmate, it has calmed down his occasional aggressive behavior. 


“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” - Anais Nin


For the moment they will both still let me sit on the ground with them when they lay for a good tickle, we will see how long that remains a good idea for though!.....Today I was sat with Frankie on the ground giving him a good tickle and Benny's little jealous streak came out as he paced around us trying to knock me over...

 "Baby zebras! can't live with them, can't live without them" - Meercat roomies

Simply adorable.

In previous weeks we have played 'whats in the box?' today I have two boxes for you to guess from.....


So whats in the box in my room today?

Its an Eagle owl! Wow he is stunning!


"A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?" - Anon


He was found on the roadside and we think he was hit by a car. At first we thought he was dead and then realised as it was day time he may just be sleeping! He is definitely not 100% though and we think he could have a  bad concussion, so will keep him a few days and hopefully release him once he is a bit stronger. Today one of the workers caught him a mouse, which he has eaten, so things are on the up for him.

(I only managed one not so great snap as the camera flashed and I don't want to dazzle him twice!)

OK, so if you didn't get that one, what's in this box?

Its a baby tortoise also found on the roadside (same day, but not same time or roadside)

fits in the palm of my hand

Teeny, tiny and his shell is still soft, we have to put him in sunlight when we can to help harden it.

"We called him Tortoise because he taught us." - Lewis Carroll

"You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look." - Terry Pratchett

We have managed to get some great coverage from big magazines and websites  recently, including: Glamour magazine, National Geographic, BBC/ lonely Planet travel, and a few other local and international publications, which job wise from my perspective is excellent news!


"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Well that's the aim, I think I have a way to go before I catch this chap!]

In the last week or so we have come up with some great ideas and activities for the volunteers, the first was done mid week and was a security drill. We make sure we patrol, or sleep out on our reserve regularly and randomly to keep poachers at bay. Normally the volunteers or staff who sleep out are a little nervous and remain alert in order to ensure they see everything that is going on. On this particular evening we warned them that there would be activities taking place throughout the evening as a drill and at what times (so if anything real happened there could be no confusion). The two of them took to their stations, and promptly missed every single activity, sleeping through everything wonderfully, including gun fire! The only thing that stirred them was our Director going off script and climbing into their vantage point and physically waking them!

"Sleep is the best meditation." - Dalai Lama

"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?" 

- Ernest Hemingway

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell

Toady we looked into medical and survival scenarios such as what do do if you get lost in the veldt, snake bites, carnivore bites and car crashes in the middle of nowhere. Having previously done a first aid course this one was somewhat different as we discussed different types of snake venom and that you shouldn't pull away from a leopard if you have your hand in its mouth as you can cause more tissue damage, you should poke him with a stick to get him off! Very different stuff to triangular bandages and CPR, I don't think even April or Neville's Extra Strong Mints from Little Britain would cure a snake bite!


"Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise." - Robert Baden-Powell



The volunteers picked it up well and we had some great fun acting out and practicing the scenarios.

"Car crash in the middle of the veldt, what do you do and how do you find where you are and get to safety?"

"Car crash on the farm, resulting in a broken leg and how to splint it"

"Snake bite"

Featuring a frozen (slightly mouldy) Puff Adder and a frozen Boomslang from the freezer!

Bandaging the arm so the snake toxin can't spread

Our final excersise was 'getting bitten and pulled into a leopard camp', very unlikely unless you do something stupid - like reach in or get too close. 

"Care shouldn't start in the emergency room." - James Douglas
 

We simulated this by the cheetah camp, as a bemused Aiko looked over us purring in only the way a cheetah can - like a freaking lawnmower!

Apart from the fact that I marvel about how weird, lucky, interesting and random (to use an old Lancaster uni word)  my life is on a day to day basis it's also interesting to wonder where life will take me over the next few years, from my time here to my next venture - probably Oz and NZ to visiting friends in SE.Asia and S.America. 

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

The things I will see and do, who I will meet and how I will change. Sometimes you forget the world is your lobster and you don't always have to live the 9-5, life has other options and other plans for you sometimes.

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." -Will Smith 
[why not turn this on its head and enjoy it all?]

A final thought on Africa, how it is seen and how it is...

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson