Another busy week gone, and this next post will probably be just as long as any other!

Victoria Falls from the Bridge

Started off my week with a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon on the Victoria Falls Bridge. The Bridge is officially No-Man's-Land which means that there are no visa costs, so I met up with the Zambian researcher there. We spent almost 4 hours there just chatting and catching up - a really nice afternoon. 

Back to work on Monday morning, and we started out with Bird Survey as usual. We counted 18 species, and had particularly good fun this week - for whatever reason we were in rather odd moods and we just laughed most of the way around! The quelea were incredible that morning - literally thousands of tiny birds flocking together, their wings flashing in the sunlight. After we were done with birds, we did our usual couple of hours of Elephant and Giraffe Research on which, as usual, we saw no elephants within the park, but then found 6 on the road by Big Tree. In the afternoon we had game count and it was an awesome one! It took us a long time to find anything, and we were wondering where all the impala and warthogs were... That was answered when we found lions! There were 2 - an adult female and a sub-adult male. The total Game Count came up with waterbucks, wildebeest, impala, and giraffes, but surprisingly, no warthogs!

Lioness in the Park

Sunrise over the Falls Spray

Tuesday started off with Elephant and Giraffe Research, on which we saw a few elephants though again they were around the Big Tree. I spent the afternoon doing Elephant IDs, which went well but the sighting I started with on Monday was the same one that I'll be continuing (and probably not finishing!) tomorrow! I spent most of Wednesday doing that same sighting too. By Wednesday afternoon I couldn't bear the thought of continuing the terrible sighting, and spent that starting the next one, but I'll have to go back to the previous one tomorrow...! As well as the IDs, I also did a sunrise photography shoot and the evening night drive. Sunrise shoot was fun, but unfortunately due to some of the volunteers going on the lion project at 7:15, we actually had to leave early and we missed the sun appearing over the horizon! Can't complain though - the time before sunrise can often be better than the sunrise itself! The night drive was as eventful as the last 3 weeks in terms of seeing hyena... Not one! We did however see a buffalo which was cool, and even better, an eland! I've only ever seen them in the distance, so although it was very dark and still difficult to see, it was awesome to see one closer up.

The Zambezi Gorge

Hyenas in the Vlei

Thursday started out with our second Game Count of the week, after the ranger that we booked for hyena tracking had to back out. It was almost as exciting as the last one! We went through Chamabondo Vlei this time, where we didn't see a huge number of animals, but when we did see them they were awesome! Elephants, zebras, warthogs, impalas, and giraffes are quite common sightings, but a steenbok and 3 spotted hyenas?! Not something you see often! The hyenas included 2 juveniles which were adorable - how can they be classed as a part of the ugly 5?! I have the same opinion for the warthogs, baboons and wildebeest, though I'll admit that the marabou storks are thoroughly deserving of their "Ugly 5" status...! Getting home from Game Count, I finally got what I've been asking for since August... I've jumped out of the car (about 4 feet) several times a day for the past 9 months, and have always managed to remain upright, but this time I landed awkwardly and ended up rather hard on my hands and knees! All anyone could comment on though, was the fact that my camera seemed to be more important than my face - automatically grabbed the camera and pulled it out of harms way, rather than catching myself! The afternoon was back to Elephants and Giraffe Research and we made our way back to Chamabondo, hoping to get another glimpse of the hyenas, but no luck. We found 2 groups of giraffes, and 3 groups of elephants right at the end, but they were in particularly awkward mood today - as soon as they heard us coming they were running off into the bushes, and all I ever saw was glimpses of backsides disappearing into the brush. We did get a great view of a Black-backed Jackal however. The sunset was fantastic, and the full moon even better!

Black-Backed Jackal

Watching the Hyenas in the grass

Friday was a day that we'd been looking forward to a lot but was slightly unfortunate... We had planned a full day game drive through the park, exploring some of the loops off of Zambezi Drive that we haven't been able to explore on shorter drives. However, even when on the normal sections of the road we barely saw anything, and on the loops themselves we saw even less. We had lunch by the river where we saw a hippo, and that day produced more kudu than I've ever seen in a day, but other than that there was a waterbuck, some giraffes, impala, warthogs, and nothing else. We ended up getting back much sooner than expected because we hadn't spent any time in one place to watch anything! We got back and I spent the afternoon moving into my new room - the new photography manager is arriving today and she's taking my old room, so at last after nearly 10 months, I'm finally going to have to move into a room that will require sharing! I've had a good run... The evening was also disappointing - we had planned to go to the Falls in the evening to see the full moon, which causes a lunar rainbow in the spray. Unfortunately, we were given the wrong information, and we arrived too late. We're going to try again tonight, but it's supposed to be cloudy... Never mind - maybe next month! 

Giraffe on our Game Drive

Our lunchtime view

The Full Moon over Chamabondo

And now finally for Saturday. We spent the morning first watering the seedlings that we planted back in late February when I first arrived in Zimbabwe. They don't seem to be doing brilliantly - they are so small still that people don't realise what they are, and they just get trampled as people walk along the side of the road. They are however still alive, and hopefully they will grow. We finished quickly, and from there we went along to the Rose of Charity Orphanage for the next couple of hours. We played with the kids for ages, and I've finally been able to play some volleyball again! The children were so cute, and loved playing with the volleyballs and as always, my camera! I have many photos of random objects now...!

How can another week have gone already?! I swear time is starting to speed up... 

Victoria Falls from above

Started off with the greatest (very early!) 21st Birthday Present ever! Sunday dawned grey, cloudy and dull for the first time in weeks which scared me for a while, but the weather improved around mid day. I spent that morning writing my university report, then life definitely improved in the afternoon when a car came to pick me up, and took me towards Masuwe, to the helipad. The helicopter flight was incredible. I was in the front next to the pilot, giving me a fantastic view all around and even between my feet! We flew around the falls a couple of times in each direction, giving a wonderful view of the spray flying up from the waterfall and the rainbows through it. The river is so beautiful from above, and the sun was now out and sparkling on the water. The river is dropping so the islands are beginning to show making it even more beautiful. I'm glad I waited for the dry season to return instead of doing the flight in the wet season - the spray was beautiful, and the waterfalls are still large enough to be stunningly impressive, but the spray is now small enough that you can actually see the falls! After our 4 laps of the falls, we flew a short way upriver until we were over the largest island opposite Livingstone, then back down and along some of the lower gorge. We did one last lap of the falls each way, then flew back towards the helipad. Taking a 5-minute detour, we saw a small herd of giraffes, hanging out with some zebras and baboons, before the helicopter eventually landed back where we started. It was a full half hour flight, but it felt like 5 minutes! One of the most beautiful views I've ever seen, and I repeat what I've said before - of all the things that I'll miss about being here, I think the river may actually be top of the list... Apart from the elephants of course! The Zambezi is just so beautiful and there is just nothing like it at home. 

The Smoke That Thunders

Anyway - back to work on Monday! We started out with Occupancy Survey in Chamabondo Vlei, where we found tracks for hyenas, civet cats, and most excitingly, painted dogs. I've still never seen a painted dog, and I'm getting slightly desperate! I really want to see one, and so many of the volunteers have seen them now when they go to Chobe. Not that long ago some of them saw a pack fighting a group of hyenas! Anyway, occupancy survey was fun, and as we leave at 6:30am, it's never too warm for walking along the roads. The afternoon I was supposed to be going out on game count, but with so many IDs to get through I stayed behind and started on the last sighting from 14th April. The photos are terrible - it was almost dark when I took them and they're all movement-blurred and grainy... It's going to take a long time...

Zebra that we saw during Elephant and Giraffe Research

Tuesday started off with another session of work on the project being done by one of the other interns - his work on the improper disposal of non-biodegradable waste. There are 25 campsites along the river on turnings off from Zambezi Drive. 10 were done last week, but we spent the morning walking along through the other 15 sites and picking up any litter that we found. I was glad to discover that there's remarkably little there. In all 15 sites we only found some paper, a plastic bottle, and the wrapper off of a water bottle. It was slightly annoying to hear that there was a pride of 4 lions right at the point that we were walking towards - we wanted to go and find them, both to see them and more importantly, to make sure we knew where they were as we walked along! The afternoon we were back out in the park, but this time on Elephant and Giraffe Research. Knowing that there had been lions around in the morning, we were rather hoping to find them, but there was no sign. Unfortunately the elephants were nowhere to be seen anywhere either. We went for sunset drinks afterwards at the safari lodge, where we watched a few marabou stork down by the water. 

Wednesday was a rather odd day... We were supposed to have a full day of Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Survey as usual, but it went somewhat wrong... First we got a flat tyre before we even reached the first homestead - normally we get to the first one around about 10am, this week we got there at 11:15! We did the first two homesteads, and got back on the car to head to the third when we heard that the car was being called in for a service that day! We literally just stopped for lunch and came home! I spent the rest of the day doing more IDs instead. At 7:30 we headed out on night drive, but it was very similar to last week - absolutely nothing to see...

African Hawk Eagle

Thursday started off with Elephant and Giraffe Research. We went to Chamabondo to look for them first, where we found no giraffes, but 1 small group of elephants. We also saw a beautiful African Hawk Eagle perched in a tree. The elephants were entirely unhelpful that morning. Firstly, the group that we saw in Chamabondo was hidden very well in bushes, but they also got quite aggressive. The first elephant that we saw crossing the road really didn't like seeing us there... She was almost all the way across the road when we came around the corner, at which point she spun around, tossing her head, and getting ready the charge at us! We made a hasty retreat back around the corner, and unfortunately missed all the rest of the group bar 2 more females and a calf, so we have no idea how many there were. Once we left the park, we went for a quick drive around the Big Tree as usual, and found a group of 8+ elephants but they were too far away and hidden in bushes to determine an exact number or to get any photos for identification. The afternoon was not so pleasant... Hyena tracking is normally quite fun as we go bush whacking through the park, but this time the GPS point that we were heading for (showing the last point where the hyena was) was right on the edge of the town, just in among the trees next to the road. Being right next to the town, the trees and scrub are absolutely full of litter, including some pretty disgusting bits and pieces that I never want to have to walk through again! When we finally found the point there was a single paw print, but no other signs of the hyena and the telemetry aerial could pick up no signal from the VHF collar. 

The first of the groups of elephants

Bird survey was the research activity for Friday. At first we saw very little, probably because of the cold. It's getting to be absolutely freezing whenever we go out early or late, and even in the middle of the day I often still wear my jumper on the car now. Once the sun came out, the birds began to get more active, and by the end of the hour-long session, we'd counted 19 species, including several that we don't often see: black-crowned tchagra, village indigobird, orange-breasted bush-shrike, and a grey-backed camaroptera. Afternoon was great - we went camping again in Chamabondo, and when we arrived at the platform we saw so many elephants! Broke the record this time when we reached a total elephant count for the day of minimum 108! Of course I wasn't able to get the best data because after a while it got dark and the elephants changed from easily-identifiable individuals with obvious ear notches and nicks, to large dark blobs shifting around by the black waterhole. We had really good fun watching the elephants, and also saw springhares and zebras. The best part was definitely the cute little baby elephant that, when trying to drink, fell into the waterhole! It was so cute! At first, the calf just swam and played about in the pool, but then the group started to move away and the calf couldn't get out! Mummy-Elephant had to come over to the pool to pull it out, and eventually hooked the calf out with her trunk around its tail. Finished off our night with s'mores around the fire, roasting marshmallows and chocolate on sticks. We woke up very cold on Saturday morning, and then we headed home for much-needed showers, and now it's time to get back on with more elephant IDs!

Helping her calf out of the Waterhole!

Enjoying a nice long drink

Yet another ele!

We didn't drink enough... Had to come back!

Ok this is getting scary now... I swear it was less than 2 days ago that I was last writing this! How does it all go so fast?!

Elephant blocking the road

So what have I been up to this week? Well as usual the main answer is elephants. I've done several ID sessions, and am now up to 14th April, which is a really HORRIBLE sighting where none of the elephants were close, or had big notches, and most importantly, none of them were looking in the right direction... The kind of sighting that takes forever, but at the end of it you really don't get anywhere. Not much fun but eventually it will be over and I'll get to nicer ones. As for the sightings this week, barely any have been actually in the park. They've mostly been around the Big Tree - the largest baobab around at 18 m girth. I've never seen them right next to it, but they've broken the fence down that protects the tree from people going up and scratching their names into it. Hopefully not too many will take advantage... We also saw a large group in Chamabondo Vlei on Friday afternoon during a research session. There were over 40 of them (though unfortunately only 7 came close enough to get decent photos) and I got so excited by the tuskless matriarch leading the group... but no it wasn't my favourite girl, Sierra... 

And his friend!

White fronted bee eaters

Human-Wildlife Mitigation survey on Wednesday was not especially fun this week, as the road was even bumpier than usual. We were sat in the back of the car getting our teeth shaken out of our heads! Not quite sure how we managed it, but somehow we got back by 3pm despite only skipping 1 homestead because they weren't in. Spent the afternoon out at the golf course where we went to take some photos. There were warthogs, impala and waterbuck there which was cool to see, and we managed to get pretty close to them, particularly the warthogs which were almost all cute little sub-adults. The waterbuck however we had a problem with - they weren't aggressive at all, but they're skittish, which means that to get close enough for photographs you have to drop down to the ground and crawl along on your stomach... Which is fine when there aren't ant nests underneath you! Gets very itchy at times.... The night drive on Wednesday wasn't so successful as the morning research and afternoon photography session however. Seeing nothing but one small duiker was frustrating enough for us when we've been loads of times, so we felt really bad for the new volunteers who have never been out or seen hyenas. It didn't help that the usually freezing night had warmed to just very cold, so we were all bundled up even more than normal, which then led to everyone being so warm and cozy that over half the car was struggling to stay awake! It was unfortunate that we didn't see anything, but as we always say - it's what makes the other times more exciting. 

Emerald spotted wood dove

3 sessions of non-elephant research this week: bird survey, hyena tracking, and game count. Game count wasn't brilliantly exciting on Friday - we saw 2 bushbuck, 2 waterbuck, warthogs and impala. Not a bad session, but obviously we always hope to see predators, and of course I love to see my elephants! Hyena tracking was a very fun session this week. We had several new volunteers with us, so when we got to the point and found lots of tracks of different species, we had some fun going through them all, discussing what they were, and making various estimations as to how old all the different tracks were. The area was a dried up stream bed, where we saw tracks for civet cats, hyenas, lions, and zebras. We then moved on to a dried up waterhole, and there we tracked several hyenas, confirming our suspicions that they use the same route over and over to get from the park to the dump, where they scavenge on human waste. Finally bird survey - it was just the 2 of us which meant fewer eyes for looking around for them, but then that also meant we were able to spend less time pointing things out to new volunteers!

Sable antelope blocking our way this time!

Saturday morning was completely different. We started off with a litter pick along the roads outside the hospital and the school. It was so much better than last time - we actually managed to make a noticeable difference when we did this 2 weeks ago. However, we still collected about 5 bin liners full of litter. Having said that, I can't believe how much had accumulated there already... We headed home briefly, then went out again, this time to the lions, where we went for a lion walk with the clients. We took Lekker and Lala out, and walked them down to the river. Lala was totally mad - she was leaping all over Lekker and attacking him, keeping hold of his tail in her mouth when he tried to walk away, and generally being as much the annoying little cousin as I probably used to be to my big cousins! (Sorry guys...) There were a couple of elephants wandering around the area too - captive ones from the elephant back safari company next door - which was just slightly surreal... walking 2 lions with elephants in the background? Awesome!

Waterbuck

Another week already?! 3 months left now which is somehow managing to seem both very close and also a long way off! 

Water monitor lizard

GIraffes squaring up to spar

So what have I been up to? The biggest thing was my trip to Harare on Wednesday which was a lot less terrible than I was expecting, but was still one of the least comfortable trips of my life... For whatever reason, the immigration department of Zimbabwe requires me to go to Harare to collect my visa, which means a bus ride of over 12 hours each way. Got on the bus at 7:30pm on Tuesday, had my legs crushed by the guy in front of me, while the guy in the seat next to me took up half my seat too, and his son climbed all over me.... Eventually got off the bus in Harare at 9am! The countryside around Harare is beautiful - I have to admit that while I was exhausted from not sleeping, I did enjoy the last part of the journey. It may be somewhat ruined by power stations and more telegraph wires than I've ever seen, but it's still beautiful with these huge towers of rocks balanced on top of one another in impossible formations, and the mist coming off the ponds as the sun rises and they start to evaporate. Once you get to Harare...? It actually kind of reminded me of Plymouth! A very random mixture of concrete blocks and modern glass, with slightly too many people bustling around to be comfortable... I didn't spend much time outside though - I'd very much been told to minimise my time there, so I went straight to immigration, sat there for 4 hours while they put the sticker in my passport, then went straight back to the bus station for another 4 hour wait until my bus home arrived. Bus home wasn't much better - less comfy seats and this time next to a window which didn't close properly so was absolutely freezing despite my 3 jumpers! Was picked up from the bus station when I arrived at 5:30am, after 34 hours away, of which 26 were spent on a bus... and then straight off to work at 6:30am on Thursday! Slightly over obsessed with elephant research? Can't say I was entirely concentrating on Thursday's session.... 

Hamerkop

I've done 4 sessions of elephant research this week, spending several hours driving around the park and seeing almost none, and then several sightings out on the roads around town. One of the sightings included Van Gogh (F116) - the female elephant who is missing her left ear. We've only ever seen her once before, and it was several months ago with no view of her right ear - now maybe we can tie up a second female with her. Also done a Bird Survey session which yielded 27 species in the hour (the record being 28) plus another 5 at least during the rest of the drive. Bird survey is becoming more and more simply Alex and I showing off as new volunteers point at stuff and go "what's that?" and we just tell them! It's quite fun really! 

Van Gogh, F116

Waterbuck

Other research was occupancy survey on Monday morning, and 2 game counts. While I hate to admit it, I'm really not great at occupancy survey... I just can't see when this adult hyena track pointing North is so definitely different to that equal sized adult hyena track also pointing North... and when they say "this set of tracks has left the road so if we find a new set then it's a new hyena", why we then find another track and declare it to be the same hyena?! I'm just a bad tracker! Game counts we've done 2 and as usual it's been mainly impala and warthog. A few elephants and giraffes, a herd of 5 zebra, 2 bushbuck, several waterbuck and some buffalo. Not bad for a few hours work. 

Wartypigs!

Baby zebra!

Baboons on the rubbish dump after litter research

Final activity was helping out another research intern with his own research into the effect of non-biodegradable waste on elephants using the park. This essentially meant doing 3 litter picks of 500 m each along the Kazungula road, and estimating the weight of the trash that we collect. There was everything from drinks bottles and cans, to condom wrappers (yes we were very definitely wearing gloves!), to food containers. The number f beer bottles that have been launched out of windows was quite scary...

And that's it! Spending tomorrow doing elephant identification. I've now finished the March sightings, putting me back to less than 2 months behind!

Baby kudu!

Wow - another week gone by already! Feels like barely yesterday that I was writing last week's entry! Ever since my family came out here and we spent our incredible 2 weeks in Botswana, I'm struggling to not start counting down to going home. Partly because it made me miss everyone at home all the more, but also because that's been something I've been looking forward to for my entire stay in Africa, especially since I came to Zimbabwe and it suddenly felt a whole lot closer. Now, the next major milestone is.... the end.... Sounds stupid to be thinking about that already - after all I've worked out that in precisely (almost to the minute!) in 100 days, I will be  boarding my plane out of Victoria Falls. 100 days is a long time! 

White-backed vulture watching it's friends on the kudu

Monday started off with the normal bird survey. We had a slight issue with the GPS - the battery died before we even reached the park, so we had to turn around and head home to get new batteries.... what a shame - we ran into 3 big bull elephants in the road! One was Kenny, one was Arsenij, one I haven't yet had a chance to identify so have no idea.... Pretty cool to be able to recognise 2/3 of the group instantly though! Anyway, we made it back to the park, this time with a functional GPS and we counted 15 species on bird survey. Unfortunately our time ran out just before we got to the point where there were suddenly a whole big group of vultures circling and dropping to the ground. Didn't manage to count them on our survey, but we did get a great view.... and a flat tire when we went to investigate! It was a dead male kudu, but didn't see it that well. Game count in the afternoon yielded 4 giraffe, 3 elephants, 14 zebra, and a whole lot of warthogs and impala! We went through Chamabondo - an area that seems to be sometimes amazing with 50+ elephants, sable antelope, and zebras and giraffes around every corner... or have almost nothing whatsoever! 

African Road Block!

Juvenile Giraffes

Tuesday we headed back to Chamabondo in the morning for an Elephant and Giraffe research session, and saw no eles, but did find a big herd of giraffes, and even more awesome, a herd of 16 sable antelope, including a mixture of males, females and young ones! I've never seen more than 5 in a group before. They are just absolutely stunning creatures - very bold and clean pattern, big manes, powerful bodies, and horns that just go on forever! Got very excited to see them! Spent the afternoon on elephant IDs, on which I am still stuck on the high sighting from the 9th March.... only just over 2 months behind on a 2 month old project so far! 

Beautiful female Sable Antelope 

A zebra that thought it was a Sable...

Spotted hyena during night drive. Unfortunately
didn't get a shot of anything else that night.

Wednesday was a fantastic day. Started off not especially exciting - off to immigration for the last time to get my passport stamped. My TEP visa application has now been filed and accepted, so next week it will be off to Harare (a 12 hour bus journey each way - yippee....) to get my visa finally sorted. I spent most of the rest of the day on IDs (still didn't finish the 9th March sighting) and then it was actually not until 7:30pm that it got awesome - night drive time! Best. Night drive. Ever! We started off not seeing much but other cars for ages, and by the time we reached our turning point at 8:45pm, we'd seen 1 elephant by the road, and a duiker on the airstrip and nothing else... then things got good.... Almost instantly we saw a hyena at the side of the road, and then not long after saw a genet which was awesome. Moving on we came across a bushbaby, a wild cat, and then one of the vols suddenly goes "STOP!". We asked her if it was a hyena, and she was like "no, it was bigger than that".... My reaction was to just assume it was a big hyena since the only things bigger are lion, leopard, wildebeest, buffalo, and elephant.... Oh no, she knew it was a LEOPARD, she was just too scared to say it in case we laughed at her! WE SAW A LEOPARD ON THE MAIN ROAD!!!! Driving on, we got back to the airstrip and things got exciting again - first the duiker again, and then 7 hyenas all together, just wandering down the runway towards us! They didn't care about the car at all - they just kept coming like it was a game of chicken! We stopped and one of them walked right up to within a metre of the car and just looked at us.... really quite eerie, especially when another one starts whooping very loudly somewhere just out of sight.... And the best part - I so nearly didn't go this week! My volunteer coordinator from Livingstone, and the ALERT Placement Organiser from the UK were coming across, and if I went I wouldn't get a chance to see them before they moved on to Antelope Park at 4am Thursday morning... it was only the last minute thought that actually they would want t go to bed very quickly after arriving that made me decide I might as well go.... Good thing I did, since they were both still up when I got back anyway! We had a full hour and a half long chat, and I didn't get to bed until nearly midnight in the end, having got back at 9:30! Such a great night! 

The big yellow sun of Africa is trying
to make a return after wet season

Thursday morning meant another ID session, and no I STILL didn't finish that 9th March sighting....!! Only 4 elephants to go on it now - determined to finish it tomorrow (ignoring the fact that it's theoretically my day off!) . Elephant research in the afternoon wasn't much more thrilling - we saw 2 buffalo on the section of road that we nicknamed "Giraffe Loop"... and then haven't seen any giraffes on it since! Other than that, we pretty much sure nothing. Not especially exciting but that's what I love about research! The fact that sometimes you can have a drive like that, and sometimes you can have a drive like Wednesday night? That's what makes it exciting - no 2 drives are ever the same. Sunset drinks in the evening gave us a view of some more buffalo, and a very pretty bushbuck, but no elephants or hyenas like we sometimes see there. Never mind - can't ALWAYS  be on research!

At Masuwe Primary with all the kids and their shoes 

Friday was an amazing morning. We drove out to Masuwe Primary School, which is a small school in a very rural area, with a lot of very disadvantaged children. Some of them have to walk up to 10 km to school every morning, leaving at 4am in order to make it on time. In terms of the walking, many of them don't have shoes, and that was our activity on Friday morning. Our new volunteer coordinator, after she was here last time as a volunteer herself, fundraised and bought 165 pairs of plimsolls, all ordered in specific sizes for each child. Each pair needed the laces all putting in, so we laced up 165 pairs of shoes, and handed them all out individually for each kid. It was so heartwarming to do, and seeing them running around afterwards with the shoes was fantastic. Some of them were so protective that they wouldn't put them on because the ground was dusty - not quite the point! - and one little boy got so excited that he took his old shoes off, but never put the new ones on, so ended up running around barefoot carrying 2 pairs of shoes! So sweet. Game count in the afternoon was back to the days of when I first arrived - I don't remember the last time we had one which was just me and the 2 research interns from University of Zimbabwe. We saw some kudu, zebras, impala, 2 elephants, warthogs and a giraffe. Not a bad game count! We went out Friday night for some drinks again - our last night with our old volunteer coordinator. If you're reading this Amy, I've said it enough times but you were great! 

Liuwa <3

Week finished off with Saturday's activities of Seedling Project, Litter pick, and a lion walk. The seedling teak trees that we planted a few weeks ago are growing nicely, requiring us to go and water them once a week. With so many of us all there together, there wasn't enough work for us all on the seedlings, so rather than working on the seedlings, the rest of us worked on litter pick. We collected a total of 4 bin bags worth of rubbish from one short stretch of road, which was both disgusting and rewarding. It was also frustrating when we walked back over a section we'd literally just cleared, and had to pick up a crisp packet that someone had dropped right after seeing us picking them up.... Take it home PLEASE! We went for a lion walk when we were done with all the seedlings, taking Lila and Liuwa down to the river where they played and stalked each other. A lovely end to the morning. The rest of my day I spent sorting photos, writing this, and generally chilling out, ready for a long day of IDs tomorrow.

Cuddles with Lila 

Lila <3

Hope you've all had a good week, and I want to say thank you to everyone who reads this every week - it means a lot to me that so many people are so interested in how I'm getting on.

SQUANK! (Again)

Another week down, another enjoyable, if somewhat stressful few days! I've yet again been doing a lot of elephant IDs and it's been crazy busy. I've finally reached the end of the 406 elephants from Zambia that all need ID sheets, bar the last 12 that I still need data for from the researcher over there which means I've managed to finally start actually going through the sightings that I've recorded and identify who is there. Exciting, but also depressingly slow and unbelievably frustrating to have the very first sighting already going wrong! If we see the mother, then we record the calf of an individual as present whether we see the baby or not, so when I found F100 (Karina, named after one of my best friends from university!) there, I also listed her calf U4.... Fine apart from the fact that the only 2 calves I saw in the sighting were not U4... so now I have 1 too many calves.... Ah well - hopefully the next sighting goes better! Uh oh - that's the herd of 67+ for which our longest telescopic lens was 250 mm so the photos really aren't great.... HELP! I'm currently 2 months behind, doing the sighting from 9th March, and with every day my list grows longer. Friday night this week we went camping at Chamabondo again, and we saw a total of 83+ elephants! Too dark to photograph most of them, but still got a lot to go through! We saw another 83+ (good number it seems!) on Monday in the park too, so lots of work to be getting on with, especially since I actually broke the record and took over 1000 photos in one day...! Camping was great fun - a nice group all just sat around the campfire, sharing stories, enjoying a drink, and then burrowing down into warm sleeping bags to avoid the freezing temperatures! It was so cold... Last time I went out there I was roasting so barely took any warm clothes with me this time, and then everyone was so cold we barely slept and were all totally buried in blankets! We saw 5 hyenas on the way back which was awesome too! 

Stanley helping me with IDs....

Stars at Chamabondo

Stars and elephants!

Giraffes

Wednesday we went to Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation as usual, and checked all the cameras. We're struggling with a major battery shortage, so if anyone has found this and is reading it before they come out here, PLEASE BRING BATTERIES!! We never see any animals, so there's nothing especially exciting out there, but we still had a good time. 

Pied Kingfisher

2 bird surveys done this week, and it's good to know that I'm improving with my species recognition. The last couple of times we've been out I've been running it, which is quite fun. Again we've averaged about 17 species, and have started listing birds that we hear now too - that I'm not good at yet... There was a guy here with a bird app on his phone that gave the calls as well as the photos, and that was really helpful. Think I'm going to get one of those for UK wildlife when I get home. Once we finish the bird surveys, we start doing elephant and giraffe research, and last time we went we saw hundreds of birds after bird survey ended, and then we saw no big animals at all! What's wildlife for if not keeping you on your toes eh? 

That's actually been all for my week: Human Wildlife, Birds and Elephants.... no occupancy, no hyenas, no community and so on. It's actually felt more like Livingstone - fewer jobs to do, more time on each one, and therefore feeling more productive!

Baboon baby!

Waterbuck baby

Little bee-eater