Up at 6.30am, breakfast at 7am and then ready by 8am to set out for the day: my routine for the next four weeks. Today the five of us who were new arrivals attended a general brief on the history of this area and the reserve plus of course the usual administrative detail we needed for our time here. Afterwards we climbed aboard the open safari vehicles and drove down to the gate that led into the reserve and our commute to work. It was a mostly overcast day but the blue sky on the horizon held the promise of a better day to come.
We bumped along dirt tracks for nearly two hours through landscape that was very much like the hills and shallow valleys of Dartmoor or the Yorkshire Dales. For a large part of that time however we were stopped as whenever we saw any animals of interest our driver pulled over to allow photographs. For the three of us in the vehicle that were new our cameras were out and clicking away for anything we came across but it was clear that the other six passengers in the two rows in front had already spent time here as they were taking it all in their stride. We passed zebra and various antelopes and a male lion sleeping just off the track. Stopping for those wasted half an hour of our commute. Then we passed a giraffe and more zebra and antelope until eventually after two hours we came to where we would be working for the morning.
Our task today was to help in the removal of some small pine trees in the area. These are not indigenous to South Africa and the reserve is removing these and other alien vegetation as part of its conservation approach. We cut the bark away around the base of some large trees and cut down others that were smaller and we only seemed to be working for an hour or two before we packed up and headed for lunch. Our lunch spot was a high vantage point overlooking the landscape and by now the sun had come out which made a great place even better.
The afternoon was to be spent 'animal monitoring'. In reality this meant we were driven around looking for animals and taking photographs. We saw more giraffe, baboons, rhinoceros, ostriches, more zebra and antelope, two female lionesses with their eight cubs and a herd of elephants. For the rhinoceros and elephant encounters we tried to identify the particular animals using a book that shows the various cuts and notches on the ears and other features that help identify them. Although we were often no more than 150 yards away this was still difficult even with binoculars. We were told that keeping track of these animals is key to helping protect against poachers but to me the monitoring part of the afternoon seemed incidental to the finding and watching of animals in general. I am not complaining.
We returned home for 5pm, with more stops for more animals, just in time for dinner after which it was a quiet time of administration and chilling for me prior to an early night, made easier by the 9.30pm power cut. I hope that isn’t a regular event.
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