Puff adders and wine tastings

As I casually potter back to the house one weekend afternoon I am greeted by an unusual sight on the stoep. A very still, shiny, plasticesque yet very lifelike looking snake. 

"Is that one of the kids toys?" I wonder to myself.
But it was one I had never seen before. 

One of the kittens was ready to pounce and the snake looked ready to strike. But was it a real snake? Suddenly without moving any other part of itself he flashed his forked tongue. 
"yup, definitely a snake".

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

I grab kitten number one without being close enough to getting bitten and put her in my bedroom, then I grab kitten number 2 and the adult cat who are all getting closer adn closer to the snake and put them into my room. All the cats are now peering through the glass in my bedroom door desperate to get at the snake.

I call our resident snake expert - who of course is delighted! Then I retreat to a safe distance to keep my eye on where it goes. 

The snake was caught quite quickly and boxed up. Luckily for us we had Steve Irwins producers here on holiday, so it was great for them to see a stunning puff adder specimen. Also as we have just started a snake research project we were able to use this snake as our first specimen. The following day its scales were clipped (which does not harm the animal, it just makes it easy for us to identify it), and we micro - chipped him (yes you can tell gender from body shape).  He was released and now we will monitor to see if he comes back - then we have data as to whether or not they have a homing instinct.



I didn't have time to grab a camera during all this, but above is the type of snake he was.

My favourite moment during all this, was as I was monitoring the snake to ensure it didnt do a runner I was also due on skype with mum. I text her: "Give me ten, snake", she texts back "lol!x" by which we can assume she is now used to me living in Africa!

That week we got a visit in the office from the baby baboons, who are not so baby anymore. They are now around 2 years old and fairly big and strong, they stole the fruit and trashed the paperwork and did a massive poo in someones diary - which had poo stains through it for 2 weeks worth! There was no way we were putting up any resistance, we just sat and observed until someone more alpha chased them out.

"It means you're a baboon. And I'm not." - Rafiki, The Lion King

"What are you going to do for a face when that baboon asks for his butt back?!" - unknown

Working with on in the same place as animals is always hectic and unpredictable. One Friday night we headed down to the staff rooms to pick up some marshmallows to toast on the fire and noticed Mia the jackal had stolen some shoes and other odds and ends from someone's room. Not so unusual until we noticed the bag of arthritis dog pills she had chewed through. It looked like about a third of the packet had gone, so we had to jump to action. 

"Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night." - Dave Barry 

So whilst most of you were drinking a nice glass of chilled Chenin Blanc in a bar round the corner from work after a long week, we were calling the state vet - the only one we could get hold of at that time of night to get instructions on if our hand raised jackal would be ok, or what we needed to do. We were told she would be fine, but if we could feed her a solution to make her vomit all the better. Great. Never before have a seen a 6 month pregnant lady straddling a jackal to feed it a solution. It took four of us, but it all worked out and she is fine and we came away with no bites.

For those of you who have been here (or might want to come - hint hint to the people I am missing!), we have just opened a new volunteer area for eating and socialising. It has two massive fire pits, a braai pit and some gorgeous wooden tables and an upstairs deck. It also has a bar area for party nights.

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body." - Benjamin Franklin 

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

At the moment its like spring in the UK, with baaaas and bleats everywhere, every day new lambs and goats are being born and there is a pen full of them just by our office, they are adorable! For those of you that cant tell the difference between African goats and sheep remember this: tail up = goat, tail down= sheep.

“In the silence, I could hear the distinct sound of goats maa-ing in the barn. Lying there listening to them made me smile, too. I'd always loved goats - every one of them different from every other one, and all of them goofy and playful.” ― Steve Watkins, What Comes After

“But...that doesn't make any sense...!' 'It does if you're a goat.” -  ― Linda Medley, Castle Waiting, Vol. 2

As one of our Saturday afternoon activities we did a wine tasting.... you had to memorise 3 whites and 3 reds then taste them blind and say which ones they were. This was followed by making our own blend to match one that was given to us. After a few glasses (and an empty spitoon) we had done quite well and were exceedingly merry for the braai that evening. It was noted that I had quite a good knowledge and could taste out which wines were which quite easily...

"Practice makes perfect" - anon

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." - Vince Lombardi 

...this landed me with a spot on our team for a wine tasting in town against some of the countries top wine connoisseurs. These people were very serious with the wine bibles in one hand and car keys in the other - they had no intention to drink any of the wine, as one gent commented they were not there to drink, but to win. Despite the competition and even though we did not win, I think our team had the most fun and held our own against the other teams - again proving practice makes perfect! We had to taste and memorise 12 wines / fortified wines and match 8 of those back blind. Then we tasted 6 wines infused with various things - pencil shavings, burnt toast, honey, passion fruit, leather, cloves etc. Then match a blend again. Great fun. As the sober ones drove home, we pottered to our pre-booked rooms, handy the event was at our boutique hotel in town!

"Wine is bottled poetry." - Robert Louis Stevenson 

"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever." - Aristophanes 

 On top of the wine tastings the last few weeks we have seen the return of some old friends, which has meant a few parties and lots of catching up which has been great! Always nice to have familiar faces back where they belong! As an added bonus I seem to have rediscovered an ability to pay pool, which seems to have gotten buried under too many snakey-B's at uni.

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

"Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read." - Athenaeus 
 

"To reminisce with my old friends, a chance to share some memories, and play our songs again." - Ricky Nelson

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same." -Elbert Hubbard 

The warthog and the lions

Every day is totally different from the last here. One morning I was walking down from the house to see a warthog chasing one of our workers on his bike, the warthog spots me, does a u turn and then starts chasing me instead, ten minutes later I am sat trapped in one of my friends houses who also cannot get to work for fear of being attacked. 

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw 


We had to wait for someone to come and pick us up in the car! Flippin' warthogs, all the gumption of a donkey, but with tusks. Apparently all he wanted was some love, but due to his rambunctious nature this has ultimately resulted in his translocation to the other side of the new reserve.

These two (there are three in fact) will be the next ones to grow up and start their piggy cheek!

Later on we darted the lions in order to clean their camp, I have never been so close to the three of them, huge paws, huge faces, huge evrything ( but amusingly small balls on the lion as a certain someone pointed out and was obsessed with!)

 Well its not often you get the chance to be fair!

"Some people lose all respect for the lion unless he devours them instantly. There is no pleasing some people."- Will Cuppy

Some days are nice and relaxed and others hectic, one Saturday mid April everything was going well, we were nearing Earth Day, so all the volunteers had gone out to pick up trash across the farm and keep our environment clean. 

"If we're destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there's got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that." - Ellen DeGeneres 


Next thing we had to take emergency action as Kidogo the baby Steenbok, who was recuperating from a nasty run in with a car and  whose legs were still splinted and recovering, had a run in with a big baboon,  Apparently small antelope have a grass stomach and a milk stomach and baboons sometimes attack them to get to the milk. Action was fast as our Director sewed everything up, as the operation went on the two people who looked after her came in and that is when my heart broke, just seeing their faces, gutting. You form such a bond and take such responsibility for the animals here that when something like this happens it feels so devastating. We were all hopeful, but sadly we lost the little one over night.  So sad, especially as the tiny bokkie had so much fight in her.



"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival." - Winston Churchill


The stars must have had some strange alignment that day as during the operation we got two more calls, a man who had caught a leopard and news that one of our lions did not look well (turns out he was exhausted as both females were on heat!).  Its amazing how a day can go from so still to crazy in a few moments.

"The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed." - Eminem 



 We also got a tiny rock dassie (rock hyrax), who still has its umbilical chord. Sadly this little one was too small to make it, but was one of the cutest things I ever saw.

A rock hyrax is like a big rat / guinea pig, but weirdly its closest relative is the elephant - google it if you don't believe me! 

If wikipedia says its true it much be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrax



[pic of full grown dassie]

"If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you're related to them. It doesn't mean that you're going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. I think it's fascinating."- Henry Louis Gates 


That week we received a very small, very cute new baby baboon, Cindy, who has subsequently gone to another sanctuary, the week or so she was here though she was adorable.



"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on." - Carl Sandburg 

An Easter trip to Swakop

Easter arrived and just like all the Namibians we headed to the coast...

"I typically enjoy a beautiful beach destination, as I find the water and sand to be the most replenishing." - Elizabeth Berkley 

"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh 

"To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me." - Isaac Newton

For every public holiday here everyone goes to the coast, to their holiday homes, guest houses, hotels and to see friends. In fact from mid December to early January Windhoek almost completely closes as everyone heads to Swakop or Walvis Bay. Easter weekend is no exception. Having been here a year and a bit it was time to embrace the Namibian tradition - we headed to the coast....

"Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not." - William James 

We headed into town on Friday evening to stay a a little guest house on a quiet street in the centre of town. After checking in at great effort for the lady on duty (we learned everything was preceded by 'eish', contained great effort and closed with a tut - customer service hey?!) we relaxed over a beer, got some recommendations for dinner etc and headed out. 

"Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies." - Erich Fromm 
[eish, tut]
We started with cocktails on the Hilton Roof Garden and I can't tell you how much I have missed proper margharitas - yum. Sadly it started to rain about 10 mins into our visit, so we toughed it out under the shaded section whilst everyone else ran for indoors - two northerners were not going to be put off roof top cocktails by a bit of rain.



"Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds." - Terry Prachett 




From the roof gardens we headed to the NICE restaurant, which is the training academy for young Namibian chefs. Very nice to be in a proper restaurant with white table cloths and all that jazz. The place was lovely and the service very good, sadly one of the meals contained off fish, which was beyond unpleasant, however a good replacement was served and the evening was saved. After a few Amarula's we finally stumbled to our town abode.

Having not been able to get on the same transfer out of town, I was heading out early afternoon. So spend the morning in the mall shopping and relaxing. About 2pm I got picked up and after a few more pick ups we headed out to the coast. It rained most of the way - even in the desert and it was weird to see puddles amongst the sand. Lionel Richie and the BeeGees accompanied the journey.

"Taking time to sit back and watch and think what you've seen is important. Travelling sis a great deal to me. I found that when I travel and just sit in the corner and watch, a million ideas come to me." - Lionel Richie

Having dropped a bewildered Swedish couple to a skanky taxi rank on the outskirts of the town and watching them get into a cab with the driver, some bird who had a pee by the side of the road in front of us all and their mate in the back, we said a little prayer for them and headed to various hotels before we were finally dropped to ours. 

Lovely little guest house, where the rooms looked very like one would do out a room in clapham / balham in an old build.  It was still raining heavily so we got wrapped up and headed to a restaurant in an old lighthouse building for a pizza and some vino. Swakop was dead by 11ish and we were the lazy in the restaurant and on the streets it seemed - on a Saturday evening too!

After a breakfast served on the patio we headed out to have a look round the shops, have a coffee in a  lovely garden cafe and buy a stone elephant that weighed a ton on the market. We wandered down the beach, even though the weather wasn't great and found somewhere that served ice cream. We saw a couple of dolphins swimming in the bay, which was a lovely surprise. Then had lunch in an old boat followed by a trip to the aquarium, where we got in for Namibian residents rates (all of a bank- breaking N$10 - 70p). After a slightly tipsy trip to see the fish and sting rays we found dinner in a lovely restaurant at the end of the jetty where the food was to die for - so good we ate there the day after for lunch after our massages. 

More like bognor than swakop with the rare coastal rainy weather 

Oldest building in Swakop

Jetty in the gloom

Looks much better once the sun picked up!

Stingrays 

On the jetty

I think we can safely say we have a lovely relaxing time. Just what was needed. Maybe next time we might sample some of the sand-boarding, surfing, quad biking, boat tripping, sky diving etc etc that's on offer?! Or just relax with massages, food and lots of fizzy wine again!

"Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." - Socrates 

From one desert to another - I land back in Namibia

Having had a fabulous February, seeing Antarctica, meeting new people and having had the excitement of fabulous travels, I headed back from a cold and snowy desert to a hot and sandy one.

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” ― Anaïs Nin

The start of March saw me land back in Namibia with a bump. 

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” ― Heraclitus

Aside from the horrific seasickness, having had the most awesome trip, coming back to 'normal' life was a little hard. With lots of new people (two in my department alone) and everyone having moved into new offices and new accommodation and life just carrying on here it was strange and unsettling to come back.

“I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.” - Seneca

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.  Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.”  ― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

That said having new people (and finally having a new Fundraising Manager after doing two roles for 6 months) finally means we will be able to achieve more, even if whilst I have been away we seem to have taken on a few new projects....

In the first few days back there were a couple of birthdays, so a few drinks were had for those. During one of these 'beers on the grass' sessions we got a call that a donkey was stuck in one of the pools at the houses, so we jumped in the bakkie and within ten minutes three of us had waded into the pool to help the poor little lady out - than goodness this was not Donsie!

"That which is called firmness in a king is called obstinacy in a donkey." - Lord Erskine

Luckily for the donkey, having our encouragement and a rope either supported her enough or scared her enough to get out of the pool within about five minutes (just at the point we were thinking it could take 5 hours). I had a blanket and some food to warm her, but she scooted off into the bush before I got chance - good luck Mrs donkey! 

The weekend was spent catching up with sleep and people, before heading into the next week of work. 

The next week begun with a  new arrival, one of our giraffe was spotted getting a little rotund last month and over the weekend gave birth to a female (we think).

"It's funny how after enough drinks a woman wearing high heels can turn into a baby giraffe that is learning how to walk" - anon

"NASA space scientists have been studying giraffe skin so they can apply what they learn from it to the construction of spacesuits." - Joanna Lumley 

Finally after 6 weeks I managed to catch up with my little ones. I was looking for them the week before I was away and since I returned. I saw Donsie on Saturday morning when I hear a rather rambunctious 'e-yore e-yore' from my bed, I ran to the window to see her on the edge of the garden announcing herself. By the time I had put something over my PJs and dived outside, she was gone. I looked all round the house and saw footprints everywhere, but neither of them. Almost as if to say either 'we have been here all morning where were you?', or perhaps 'welcome home' (probably the first one knowing that donkey). So, she vanished into thin air, not to be seen until later in the week. 

"Nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever approaching, forever vanishing; but in her vanishings there seems to be ever the waving of a hand, in all her partings a promise of meetings farther along the road."- Richard Le Gallienne 

I went for a walk after work to get some fresh air and see if I could see them and there they were in the middle of the pan with the donkey herd. As Frankie and Donise let me close the others didn't move too far away and I am sure I spotted Buddy in amongst the others. We had cuddles and the two of them tried to knock me off my feet forgetting I am not as strong as them. They nudged me to scratch their favourite spots (Donsie everywhere and Frankie his bum!) and I had to stop them scratching me back with their teeth as my skin cant take it! 

After a few minutes I spotted one of the zebra herd running towards us and they got closer and closer and closer, inching nearer to the donkeys who they know and Frankie, who should clearly be with them, and this other creature (me). Normally wild zebs would run a mile, but as I was stood in with my two they came close to investigate. By the end there were about 16 zebras from little to large stood within 5-10 meters of me, just as the sun was setting. So special. It felt like the meeting of two kinds, donkeys on one side, zebs on the other and my two and me (our own weird little zeb, donkey, human herd in the middle). And of course one of those moments where you forget your camera, but perhaps best enjoyed without.

This of course meant I hung around in the veldt for far too long and pottered back in the dark through the bush in flip-flops without a torch worrying about snakes all the way back!

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

I have also just discovered that whilst I was away the small lump on Frankie's face swelled into a massive abscess  I thought it was some sort of infection in glands in his face, but our director suspects it could have been a snake bite. Luckily he is fine now, but here is what he looked like when I was away, poor wee man!

The week continued with the sad news that the friend who had come out to join me for a few months was leaving, really quite sad as since he arrived I have hardly been here or have been hectically busy preparing for being away. We caught up the other night properly for the first time since he arrived over a few glasses of paint stripper -  ahem I mean wine- and put the world to rights. Muy nice.

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day."- Dalai Lama 


The last week or so has seen more than its fair share of bedroom wildlife - from the mosquitos that are eating me slowly piece by piece to the bird that I saw fly through the house as I was on the toilet and who crashed into the window the other day and landed in my boot. I was expecting him to die into my boot and took him and the boot out to recover, slowly he gained his strength, steadied himself and flew off.

"It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes." - Anne Baxter 


The next surprise in store for me was coming home to an empty house, relaxing with the long french doors open to the stoop and veldt beyond and suddenly being swooped on by a bat, in my own bedroom. In he flew round and round and landed on my pillow, up for another swoop and onto the other pillow. Not so much you can do in this situation but take the bedding outside and wait for the bat to find a new home.

"I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat but that's OK - the bat had to get Ozzy shots." - Ozzy Osbourne 

I thought perhaps a bird and a bat in my room would be enough for one week, but alas two days after the bat I was greeted with a scorpion in the bath.

"There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and oi the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it." - Chanakya

Next there appears a cat in the roof

right up on top of the wall- see her?

"meow meow''

first time she did this i was scared she wouldn't be able to get down, but I have seen it a few times now, funny never the less as she gains access to the whole house!

About an hour after the cat, I felt a wet nose on my toes and Mia (the now very grown up baby jackal) had come for a visit, after a bit of a stroke she chased her tail then lay on the grass enjoying the rain, before camping out in my room.

Quite a menagerie of visitors!

"Life is a zoo in a jungle." - Peter De Vries 


One night a few of us headed to the lodge for an "award winning" dinner - the menu had actually won an award the week before and we got to try hartebeest (one of Namibia's nicest meats) for the first time - baie lekker.  On the way home we checked on the volunteers in the watch tower, who mistook us for poachers and thought their number was up. I'm not convinced about how  unnerved they claimed to be when they said "we even turned the movie off" - must have been terrified!

In 2011 Namibia saw the rainiest rainy season in 100 years, last year it seemed moderate, this year we have had barely anything and I missed most of it as I was away. Sat at the end of March and watching the end of the season rain all around, none actually on the farm - just the surrounding ones and what a fire from the lightening on the other side of these hills. Always feels strange being from up north in the UK and wanting rain, but rain here is different, it comes in droves, you see if coming, it freshens everything and then its gone and a few days later everything is far greener.

oooooh I lie, it's just started rain!!!! 

[wahooo, does rain dance]

And the day after we got hail- errrrm no such thing as global warming, ahem!

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." - Ashley Smith 

We recently noticed Lala getting sorer and stiffer and  older. Over the last couple of weeks she was really stiff and wimpering a little at something on her neck, struggling to get up in the morning and sore at night, so I took her to the vet. We discovered three things:
1. a stripey legged tick which was causing the soreness on her neck and shoulders
2. She has Arthritis which we had suspected for a while (old age hey?!)
3. She gets about as motion sick as I do on a boat (dog vom all over the minibus both there and back - great!). 

(Pic courtesy of Jack)

"It was dog food. Beef livers with onions in a can. You open it up and it looks like vomit" - Tom Sizemore

She also peed on the vets floor (and looked at me with big soppy Lali eyes knowing she had done wrong, but not able to help herself - bless, all you can do is give her cuddles).

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself" - Josh Billings

At least it was nothing serious!