Guess what?! Another good week - imagine you’ll get bored of reading this soon! Unfortunately, thanks to my stomach and head deciding they hadn’t played up in a while, the second half of the week was less good… Thursday I just slept, and Friday afternoon I didn’t manage to go out on the truck either.

Reflections at Dry Manzi

Again I’ve mainly been on elephant research this week, though unlike last week, unfortunately no herds of 70+ elephants at a time…! Still no Dabs to help me with identification of elephant photos, so I’ve spent a lot of time staring at a computer screen by myself again, trying to decide if this ear matches that ear, and if this elephant is male or female, adult or pubescent and so on. I’ll have my helper back soon… or rather the head researcher will be back and I’ll be back to being the helper soon! Got a new helper too arrived today, so there’ll be an extra pair of eyes on the look out for elephants, buffalo and bushbuck when we’re out in the park. Monday we had a herd of 15 big males who walked halfway through the park, past several perfectly drinking spots, before reaching the one that they wanted. Part of that group was M1 (the very first elephant that ALERT identified) also known as Piet. Not especially exciting as he’s seen fairly frequently, but in the previous 5 weeks of being here, I’d heard “That’s Piet… Oh no that’s not Piet.” so many times that it was quite fun to be told that it finally was Piet I was looking at! Saturday was when we saw our biggest herd of 24 individuals. However, they’d decided to be exceptionally awkward with us this time! Of all the days to hang out in the sewage ponds, where the road is super bumpy to get to them, and lets just say the air is not exactly a fresh pleasant scent, it had to be when I just recovering from a stomach bug didn’t it?! Thanks elephants! Having said that, it’s fully understandable - a large containing all the water and vegetation that they need, that’s also nice and cool… delightful really! The funniest experience this week had to come from a vervet monkey… and I’m beyond gutted I didn’t get a photo! In case you don’t know, vervet monkeys, for whatever strange evolutionary reason, have really bright blue testicles, and there was a volunteer on the drive with us who said she really wanted to see this… and just as she said it, this male vervet goes shooting up a tree to a fork right at eye height, and straddles himself between the branches, full flasher style! It was just the funniest moment any of us had had that day, and we were all nearly wetting ourselves at the volunteer’s face - a look of pure shock, mixed with trying and failing not to burst out laughing! So funny…

Taking a dip in the sewers!

Elephants on parade

Conservation Education was slightly disappointing this week. We followed the lesson plan as it was laid out, and we thought it sounded like a good plan, but they just didn’t seem interested… I don’t know if it was how we presented it, or if it was just the topic itself (poaching), but they just seemed bored… Having said that, they all seemed to come away understanding the major points etc. at the end, so fingers crossed they at least learned something from it, even if they didn’t seem especially enthralled!

White fronted bee eater

Monitor lizard

We spent Friday morning doing a snare sweep in the park that was very satisfying. We found 13 snares between us, 2 of which I spotted which is definitely a good feeling! And even better, there were no elephants or buffalo to have to move away from this week!

 Sunset at Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls with some new amazing friends <3

Last thing to talk about is what I did on Sunday after writing last week’s post. First, I was asked to write a research proposal for a new part of the elephant study… asked on Saturday to be done by Monday… when I’ve never even read a research proposal before, and only half understand the study that I’m meant to be proposing… Talk about throwing me in the deep end! On the other hand, all about learning, and clearly shows that they’ve liked the work I’ve done so far if they’re asking me to take on new stuff like that! After that, I FINALLY made it to Victoria Falls! I went with 2 American girls who are here as lion volunteers, and it was really great fun. We had a great time, explored all the different walks on the Zambian side of the gorge, including walking right down to the boiling pot - a knackering climb back up when you’ve done no real exercise for 5 weeks! Was proud of how easily I managed it at the time, then realised the next day I should be less proud when my calves were aching with every step! Had a really lovely afternoon there, and then finished off with the sunset over the falls. Fantastic!