A morning stroll in the veldt

The last month has been a hectic one, with big reports to write, journalists and agents to attend to, a house move a new intern and lots of other things!

"When you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it." - Theodore Roosevelt 

At the start of this month I moved to a new place, further out on the reserve in order to get more space and even out the work / life balance a little. The new place has great views over the veldt and in the first weekend alone I saw the ostrich, zebra, giraffe and eland all from my window or on my walk to work. Lovely.

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."   - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

It took just less than a week for my babies to find the new place and they appeared on Thursday morning at a water hole nearby. 

The new place is lovely and so relaxing to spend time in.

"Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaking off cold water. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still." - Barbara Kingsolver

I had a Canadian journalist to show around last week and we headed to see the San group on the new reserve, I was greeted like and old friend by Oma Lena with my bushman name !oéh !hou-!hou (zebra).  Such a  lovely lady! And amazing what you can say with no common language.

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." - William Arthur Ward 

This weekend is my weekend off, so for once I decided to be a volunteer and head out on a caracal walk with the beautiful Alex. We had a great walk and bumped into my two little munchkins and the horses. Donsie kept coming close to Alex and Alex kept chasing after her, which was quite funny - the donkey don't learn! Frankie's abscess seems to have opened up again a bit and with all his teenage testosterone he is a bit grumpy at the moment. I managed to get some great baby cuddles and time with Alex and we saw a few springboks on the way too.

Pebbles and Alex weigh each other up!

After that I headed back to the farm and helped feed the baby baboons and got some cuddle and grooming time in with my favourite - Sheela.

Then took a walk around the farm to see what I could see...

 

...lambs and goats...

...tispy springbok amongst the turkeys...

...baby ostriches....

Before some bonding time through the fence with this little cheeky monkey!

So far a lovely day!

Off for a walk home in the veldt, a movie, a walk back and a braai.

Have a great weekend!

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." - Henry David Thoreau 

The penguin, oops I mean Pangolin

Aside from the amazing girls road trip, here is what the last few months have contained...

Hansi the little baboon has improved and improved and is healthy enough to go in with the other babies in the new baboon enclosure in the day now. He has palled up with Mina and Kimi really well and his black gorilla hair has gone really light- little silverback :0)


"I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated." - Dian Fossey 

One night when I last took him Frankie and Donsie pitched up at the house, I had seen them in the bush the day before and told them they didn't visit enough and had to come to the house more often, next day they were there (I also had the feeling they knew I had been harboring a new baby and came to remind me where my priorities lay- with them of course!) 

"The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves." - William Penn 


Cheeky boy!

Found out a week or so ago he has that abscess back on his face again...

...a few of us have taken a look at the little munchkins face and it seems to have healed, we will keep our eyes open though as its the second time he has had the problem.

Frankie and Donsie are both growing up. Donsie loves her cuddles still, but Frankie is getting older and wilder. I think his hormones may be kicking in now as the last few times I have seen him he has kicked his heels up and received a smack on the bum for kicking out - yesterday he was not too happy with being told off, so flounced off into the bush and I had to reunite him and Donsie before I left. Maybe he is hitting the age where he wants to challenge me for dominance - could be fun!!?!!

"At a certain point, even if the one alpha male is dominant, at a certain point there's a younger lion that is stronger, and everyone knows it."- Josh Lucas 

A couple of months back we got a pangolin in, I have always wanted to see one after meeting a researcher in solitaire in January who was studying them. Sadly people believe in the healing properties of their scales or like to eat their meat and they are now really rare to find. Someone was travelling through Okahandja and was offered this one, so bought it to bring it to us. We released him a few days later - amazing creatures!

"This ant-and stone-swallowing uninjurable
artichoke which simpletons thought a living fable 
whom the stones had nourished, whereas ants had done
so."  - Marianne Moore

I spoke to mum one night on skype and was telling her about the pangolin- the conversation went something like this....

me: we got a pangolin in the other day
mum: ooooh, where is it staying?
me: in the round concrete enclosure, well it was, we just released it

mum: really?

mum: where did it come from?
me: a man bought it and brought it in
mum: really?
me: er yes
mum: where did you release it?
me: just into the bush
mum: REALLY?
me: errrrr yes
mum: you released a penguin into the bush???!?!!
me: a what?
mum: a penguin?!
me: no, a P A N G O L I N
mum: a what?
me: a pangolin (explains creature)
mum: oh, i thought you said you released a penguin back into the bush
me: where would we have got a penguin from?
mum: the coast, it could have gone off track
me: from where? Antarctica?!

Our weekend on system changed a few months ago and now instead of one weekend on one off its one on two off, which gives us more down time and is great. As such the team is now split three ways, which makes the weekend busy to cover everything, but also it means as we are covering more across the team we get a taste of other peoples roles, which I like. 

The last couple of weekends on have meant I have had to do more on the wildlife side as well as the office,i its great - popping out to feed our three cheetahs, patrolling the border fence (and seeing my babies) helping with the carnivore feed, organising an eco-challenge for the vols on a Saturday afternoon, dropping food down to the San community in the reserve village, monkey sitting all four baboons, a mongoose, a springbok and lali the dog - that got interesting as all the sheep and goats ran into the area with lala barking and Tipsy (springbok) running round and the baboons terrified - only so many arms to hold animals in!

My job has been quite busy over the last few weeks too, with big presentations for big corporates and foundations, people leaving, new staff about to arrive and always plenty to do.

"Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety." - Francis Bacon 

A month or so back our Director got called out of the Saturday evening braai due to poachers, I was hoping to get a lift home, but we didn't really have time so I ended up going out too. We drove fairly fast (white knuckle) to get there and he climbed through the fence and disappeared to find one of our colleagues on the other side of the fence, I sat on our farm and waited, hiding in the car. They were found and scared off - we didn't manage to apprehend them though. After all the drama, we realised my biggest use in the situation - I had brought the beer!

“But I found signs of their trespass: a burned patch planted with a fistful of grain, a tree felled or stripped of fruit, a deer strung up in a snare. I never saw a poacher. They were too cunning, and for cause: the foresters would take a man's hands and eyes and leave him to the mercy of the wolves for such an offense. It was bad enough to steal the king's game, but snares were an abomination  The gods abhor weapons that leave the hand, coward' weapons such as javelins, bows and arrows, slings. No man or beast should die by such means.” ― Sarah Micklem

The rains have started here, slowly, but they are here and things are coming to life - here are some critters I have found in my bath tub recently...

Scorpion

Nursery web spider (huge)

earwig, thought these were solifuges for the longest time.

I have also had some more pleasant visitors to the house recently...

As I tried to clean the kitten did this at EVERY step - ha not so easy, perhaps I should just give up cleaning?!

Meanwhile out on the lawn

What have they seen?

Other kitten came to join us

And the cows joined the horses on the lawn.

This weekends activity was a snake presentation, I went into town to pick up the handlers. They were terrified we would be caught with snakes going through the road block, but no need to worry - I was more terrified of the snakes getting out or rolling the car and ended up in a snake entanglement! Here are some cobras and puff adders and mambas for you...

puff adder

zebra snake (too venomous to get out of the box)

rock python - stunning

Shield nosed cobra- coiled to strike

"There's a snake lurking in the grass." - Virgil

Massive black mamba, so big the vols were told to move back - the way its curled is all through muscle, this is one dangerous snake!

And finally, some Sunday baboon fun....

lekker little baboon groom

One of the vols threw the bucket in with senior baboons whilst throwing over the corn-accidentally. I told her she had to go in and get it, once she went white I let her off the hook- as if we could just wander in and take the bucket back! ha!

Finally I had to steal this pic of Shauna from facebook - she looks so cool with her hat and shades :0)

Shauna says 'Stay cool and have a good week'

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it." - Sydney J. Harris 

Girls Road Trip - Part II - The Dunes, the Coast and the cheetah

6am up and out of the door, driving for the dunes before it got too hot. 

We were one of the first ones in the park 

and made our way to big daddy - either the tallest dune in the world or certainly in the top ten. Having climbed it back in January I left K to climb with the volunteers (a speedy bunch).

"It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe." - Robert W. Service 

[In this case I think its definitely the dune]

Instead I took some  pics around dead vlei, the famous salt pan of dead trees at the bottom of the dune. 

I also spotted a near perfect hyena print, which I was delighted with

and also got a driving lesson on how to drive in sand, and that was a great morning well spent for me!

After a buffet lunch for the dune climbers to refuel we headed back to the winery for a good dinner and a sleep before the epic drive over to Walvis Bay.

We hoped for a lie in, but once the maths had been done we needed to leave about 8am to have any hope of being on schedule. There were a couple of dodgy gravel roads and a nasty pass to traverse before we could get to the coast, so off we headed. This was by far the longest, hardest drive of the trip. The winding pass wound up and down and the road was on angles that in places would lead you to an abyss below. Slow and steady was the way forward...

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin 

 ...and eventually we came out on a nice flat stretch of road that went on forever (a bit too long!).  As we pulled into Walvis Bay and hoped to see the flamingoes we were greeted by a sandstorm. Clearly someone had overheard me mock the insurance offer of sandstorm cover! We spoke to the lady at the tourist office who assured stationary or driven slowly the car would be fine. We grabbed lunch and abandoned the outdoors before limping our way a half hour up the road to Swakop and leaving the flamingoes for another day.

It doesn't look too bad here, but on the desert road in it was pretty scary.

We stayed in the lovely guesthouse I stayed in at Easter  for a couple of nights and almost repeated what I did last time. The weather was very windy and not great, so no toe dipping in the water. We had some lovely meals in the Tug, Jetty and 22degrees south and a massage from the great little massage place (the one I thought had stolen my watch last time, but hadnt and I found it in the turn up of my jeans when I got back to the farm and had to eat humble pie and send a big tip!). The next day we did get over to see the flamingoes and had a lovely long walk on the lagoon edge.

K at the lagoon at walvis bay

 Me in the Jetty - such a nice restaurant!

After a final bit of bartering on the market we started the drive back to the farm. I still had a couple of days off so we spent a few days relaxing and lounging by the pool at the lodge and eating scrummy lodge food!

"Being around people with whom you feel a connection, on many levels, not just a professional one, is very relaxing. Your ears are more open to someone who is not a cantankerous bastard."- Jacqueline Bisset 

On one of those last days we went out on a cheetah walk with a couple of other guests and enjoyed spending time watching her stretch her legs in the bush 

On the last night, as I live on a farm and never get the chance to dress up, we decided to put on our best outfits for dinner, unfortunately there was no one else around so we had to so a together selfie, so you can't really see the clothes, but for once I did look like a girl and it was fun!

The end came around all too soon and on 25th I dropped K at the airport and waved a teary goodbye!

"It's time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure."- Ernie Harwell 

 "You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again." - Tom Petty 

Girls Road Trip - Part 1 - arriving, relaxing and canoeing on the lake

"Old friends are best." - John Selden 

I head to the airport very excited, as I pull into the grounds I get waved over by a policeman, always makes you a bit nervous, he opens the door and explains he is late for meeting important guests for the UN, can I give him a lift?! Sure, so I drove this (slightly intoxicated) copper to the front doors of the airport and park the car, wonderfully strange start!

As I am waiting at the airport one of the taxi drivers tells me that due to the UN conference not everyone got on the Jo'berg flight out, perhaps if my friend was not going to be on the plane we could go on holiday together instead?! Sure, I am that fickle, happy to not wait for the flight she will come in, and go on holiday with a stranger instead :0) No need to answer that dilema though as K was through the gates in no time and off we set. 

Not that there was ever any doubt, but it quickly became obvious that in the past 19 months I have been away- plus a few throughout hellish 2011 that nothing had changed. We got straight into catching up

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."- Jim Morrison 

We got to the lodge...

...and I watched in amazement as a rather light suitcase of slightly disorganised items was unpacked - owing to a slight hangover. On the upside she did not forget a jar of peanut butter for me and a couple of other gifts :0) And we went shopping to pick up anything that had been forgotten in any case.

After a night to get her bearings, and a relaxing day and night to unwind, we set off into town to pick up the car and head off. 

Girls road trip- yay!

"We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along." - Morgan Matson

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkien

We did a bit of shopping and grabbed a sushi lunch

 (yay for holidays!) 

and arrived at Oanob Lake Resort mid afternoon. 

In the afternoon and in the morning before we left we went out for a canoe on the lake, I was in the back of the kayak and getting in and out involved sitting in a puddle :0( 

But it was so lovely to be out on a massive expanse of water and be the only ones there.Its not so often in Namibia you see so much water in one place and to be the only ones on the lake viewing the beautiful shoreline was great, really nice end to the day and start to the next one.

"The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world." - Georges Simenon 

That afternoon we also went for a walk into the reserve they have there. As there is no grass anywhere at the moment due to poor rains they are supplementing the feeding, so we got to see antelope (oryx, nyala, kudu, hartebeest and others I don't know), zebbies and giraffe all very close. 

spot the baby

We drove on.... 

...heading south towards the winery

where we lounged by the fountains and I even braved a little swim in the silty water - too 'squishy' under foot for K, even I tried not to touch the bottom! After my dip I lounged with my legs in the water and ended up with the silt settling on the (small, lady like) fine hairs on my feet - I looked like a flippin hobbit! Which was of great amusement to us both!

Quick shower and then dinner with a lovely bottle of vino before bed and a very early start!

For part II - the dunes, the coast and the cheetah!