My Africa Update

So the past two weeks have been crazy busy, from finishing my final training for the Samango Monkeys and experiencing my first 12 hour watch of them on my own, to learning 24 African tree species and somehow fitting a trip to Botswana in as well, it really has been go go go.

 The most exciting thing has got to be my trip to Botswana! We left last Sunday morning at the very reasonable time of 7am and then it took 3 hours to get to the country and through border control (half the time it takes to get from Johannesburg to Louis Trichardt!), Crazy hey.

My hammock

Once we arrived we pitched the tent and hammocks, and I was lucky enough to sleep in a hammock under the stars for a night. We then went on an afternoon game drive where we saw crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, zebra, blue wildebeest and some spotted hyena cubs which were pretty cute!

We returned to our little camp and cooked tea before retreating to bed. It took me a while before I managed to fall asleep. Sleeping in a hammock definitely requires practice. In the morning we set off again on another game drive at 6 where we saw very similar things to the day before, sadly there was no sign of cheetahs, lions or leopards but our hyena was visible again which was cool.

Elephants!!

It truly was a whirlwind trip and we got to see so much in a 24 hour period. We then returned, stopping off for lunch on the way where I had a HUGE smoothie and stocked up on fresh food for the next week.

Spottedd Hyena

On Tuesday we were out conducting veg plots in horrendous heat and in bush that you really would say there was no chance of fighting through, the week before had also been just as brutal. On Tuesday night I was awake for ages with 100's of bites all over my legs and arms, the same had happened the week before and so mine and Onnika's rooms had been fumigated (she had the same thing) as we thought we had bed bugs, but we have now realised we are being bitten by something in the field. I had hardly gotten any sleep before I had to be up at 4:45 to start my full day with the monkeys and by Friday I was so tired due to the bites waking me up on Wednesday and Thursday night that I was so relieved to have my non follow day on Saturday!

On Thursday I did get to see the two troops that we follow have a fight as barn troop had been caught in house troop's territory, interestingly only the females fight, the men just observe from at the back.

Friday night I experienced the first rain out here in Africa, hopefully it won't rain for another few days but apparently this week is meant to be REALLY hot. I think the 37degrees on Thursday was plenty hot enough for me though.

So that's my update from the past two weeks, it's crazy to think that I have already been here for 3 weeks, and that in 10 weeks I will be nearly on my way home.

Love