A Quick Trip to Brussels

Just before New Year I planned a surprise trip for my boyfriend and I to Brussels. I had never considered how easy it really is to just hop on the Eurostar and within 3 hours be in a completely different country.

Coming Home For Christmas

So in December I left South Africa after an amazing 3 months. I surprised my boyfriend my coming home 5 days early which after lots of coordination between my mum, Jordan's mum and I we got him to the airport without knowing anything.

My First Week In AFRICA

I'm finally here!

After such a long time planning this trip and then 15 hours in airports and in the sky it really did feel like I was never going to land, especially when Frankfurt had an amazing lightning storm which prevented my first plane from landing but thankfully delayed my second plane too.

I spent my first night at Shoestrings Lodge. It's located only 10 minutes from the airport and the owner, Rob, picked me up from the airport for free and dropped me of at the station the following day so that I was able to catch my bus in time. The place was fairly basic, with communal bathrooms and a kitchen if you wished to cook, I paid a little extra for my own room and I'm glad I did as I ended up with a king size bed, exactly what was needed after a long sleepless flight. If you are wanting a stopover place with friendly people that is lots cheaper than a hotel and offers you lots of advice then I would definitely recommend a stay, some people have stayed here for a few weeks as they can get to everywhere they want, it really is super convenient, plus the pizza that you can order in is pretty tasty as well!

My room at the Lodge

On Monday morning I left the lodge by 6.30 in the morning to catch the train to Park Station. The train was like the over ground in London, but, amazingly has better disabled access to get on all the trains as the platform to train is completely flat with small gaps. Once I had arrived at Park Station I then collected my bus ticket and by 8am I had begun my 6 and a half hour journey from Johannasburg to Louis Trichardt. The bus felt like it lasted forever but thankfully I did manage to get some sleep. When I finally arrived I met one of the project leaders, Sam, and then went to get my week's worth of food. Thankfully they had a large supermarket to get everything I could ever need!! After that we headed up to my new home, Lajuma, which took a good hour due to the huge mountain climb on very bumpy roads that the car had to undertake. I was then shown my little cabin and left to unpack along with cook food. I met the 3 other girls on the project as well, Hannah, Oonika and Phil before heading to bed.

My room at Lajuma

My pretty picture chain

Tuesday I got a lucky lie in until 8am and then given 2 talks, one on the project, and one on health and safety. After that I was  given a tour of the housing etc before heading into the field to conduct vegetation plots where a 5x5 metre grid is taken at random coordinates and a small survey of the area is then taken out. To get to these points meant really wandering into the forest and so therefore being scratched and scraped by many varieties of thorn bushes and many other plants. We did get to enjoy lunch sat on a rock by a waterfall though which was lovely. After 7 hours out completing these plots in dense vegetation we finally made it back to the camp where I got to enjoy a hot shower (thank you sun and solar) along with a big bowl of pasta before heading to bed at the exotic time of 9pm!

On Wednesday morning I got given my real primate talk by Caroline, who is in charge of all the primate projects at Lajuma. I was then taken around and shown  the 24 tree species that I am required to learn along with the short codes used out here for next Friday which is a little tough! This is needed as when you are in the field making observations of the Samango monkeys you are required to note down what food they are eating, which is most commonly one of the 24 species and so knowing this from memory allows observations to be easier. After this I then read all about the projects I will be helping with before heading out in the afternoon to find the monkeys ready for following on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The pretty waterfall

Thursday morning arrived and I had to be up at 5am to be with the troop before sunrise which is around 6am. We start monitoring them at 6am. We follow them all day (till 6pm) and make observations on the troop every 20 minutes. After a 12 hour wander through the forest we left them at 6pm at a new sleeping sight where we would find them again at sunrise on Friday.

A monkey feeding

As the troop were slightly further away we were awake even earlier but we thankfully found the troop and followed them to a beautiful waterfall area and spent most of the day lazying around in the shade which was lovely. On the way back to their sleeping site another male attempted to take over the troop and we got to witness the attempted takeover which not many people get to see. The fight was vicious with both monkeys making so much noise and they were both crashing through the trees. Once they seperated we were able to see that the male trying to take over the troop had gained a really bad head injury that was bleeding alot! He kept lying down as if trying to get the blood off, but it was thought he may have a concussion along with a pretty bad limp! Scar, the troop leader had won the fight but had gained a really nasty gash to his neck and a very deep bite mark on his arm. Not long after that we left the troop and hoped that Scar was ok.

Scar feeling sorry for himself!

On Saturday we yet again started early but the monkeys were nowhere to be found at the sleeping site, after 2 hours of trying to find them we came back and then went in search of the Vervet Monkeys by scanning for the collared individual, Violet. We never managed to find them though as they were moving pretty quickly away from the camp site. As there sleeping sites have been disrupted quite a lot recently due to the Durham University field course, they may have been moving away to get some quiet but we won't know this until we find them again next week. On the way back after our unsuccessful trip, we came across the Samango Monkeys which we had been unable to find that morning. We then spent the rest of the day following them. Thankfully Scar seemed fine and healing well. When 6 o'clock came we said goodbye to the monkeys for a few days before heading up to the Bri with the Durham Students for a meal which was really tasty.

Sunday was finally a day of rest! I still woke up early, my body now thinks 5.30 is an acceptable time to get up but it was nice to not have to walk and follow. Typically, both the Samango and Vervet monkeys were right outside my room the days when I am not trying to find them!

Today I went to town and was able to upload this post, internet at the camp is limited and so uploading documents is slow going.

I shall update you all on my travels in a few weeks as there is lots of exciting things coming up!

My Next Exciting Chapter

I will be where the red dot is, Lajuma Research Centre, South Africa!

So today I leave the comfort of my home in Cheshire to start a new 3 month adventure in South Africa. After successfully gaining my placement back in April to work as a research assistant conducting Primate Predator research I am finally all packed and ready to go.

It feels like it has taken forever to come around and now that I am leaving this afternoon I'm in a panic as to whether or not I am ready at all!

I still find it impossible to put 3 months on a scale, this summer feels like it has been going on forever and it has only been 3 and a half months since I finished my final exam for second year. All I know is that I am so excited to get to see a part of the world that not many will, as I am so far away from the nearest town or village. I can truly say I will be living with nature at its finest which is incredible!

I will continue blogging during my year in industry when I have the time or find something that I think you will all find slightly interesting, so my next post will be from the other side of world.

I hope the rest of you all have an amazing year whether you are at University or, like me, exploring.

Love

Paris

So last weekend I headed to Paris for a jam packed weekend of sight seeing with my boyfriend. We had booked our hotel through secretescapes.com and it certainly didn't disappoint. Located in the 15e and right near a metro station getting to anywhere in the city was super easy. The Platine hotel where we stayed also provided breakfast so we didn't have to fend for our selves in the morning.
We managed to obtain weekend day tickets for the metro at only 3.75 euros each which was a massive saving because we were under the ages of 26. Definitely a recommendation to ANYONE who is under 26 and planning on going for a weekend.

Friday

Flying to Paris is a lot easier than I expected. Once we landed we took the RER to the centre and then using instructions I had found, wiggled our way to our closest metro station, Charles Michels. This took about an hour. After arriving and checking in to the hotel where we were allocated the Gold room we went on a wander around the area before heading of to see the Arc de Triomphe at night.

Our Gold Room

The Amazing Bathroom

There was construction work taking place on the building which meant that we got to go to the top for free and although the view towards the Eiffel tower were slightly ruined it really didn't take away the wow factor of all the hustling night life.

Jord And I at the Top of Arc de Triomphe

Once down from the top we wandered down one of the main streets until we found a cheerful restaurant and gorged ourselves on pasta (and chocolate cake) before returning to the hotel to catch 40 winks.

Saturday
After breakfast we started on our action packed day. Firstly we visited Basilique du Sacré-Cœur which has incredible views of the city. We payed 6euros each to go to the top of the dome to see even further which was incredible and the sun even decided to come out when we were at the top!

Me at the top of the dome

Next we visited the Louve after a spot to eat. It was a whistle stop tour to see things like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and my personal favourite, the Wrath of Medusa. Being under the age of 26 meant that we got in for free and so we didn't need to worry about spending large amount of money. 

Mona Lisa

As we walked down the river towards Notre Dame we passed all the pet stores in a row and it would have been so rude to not at least go and stare at all the beautiful kittens, puppies, bunnies and birds, From Labradors to French Bull dogs and all of them made you want to gain a very large over draft to take them all home!

We then passed over the padlock bridge, its amazing to think just how many people have love attached to it. Although I personally didn't attach anything that day you can't help but feel the hope that so many people before have left with their padlock and lost keys.

Padlock everywhere!

Sucker for a pretty Sunset

We then entered Notre Dame which is probably the most Gothic building I have ever visited. The spire sets the unusual cathedral apart from any others I have seen whilst travelling with my mum whether in the UK, Rome or further afield and we were lucky enough to see some of the evening mass ceremony that managed to send shivers down my spine. Whether to take that as God's presence I'm still a sceptic.

After a power nap we got ready and headed to our restaurant we booked on thefork.co.uk. Booking through the website meant that we got to save 30% on each course. This meant we got to indulge without the gut wrenching price tag involved. Our restaurant was called La Cantine (46, rue Balard 75015 Paris), just in the back streets near our hotel. The owner although spoke barely any English (and us any French) did a brilliant job at communicating what was on the menu. For starters I had raw swordfish in ginger and lime. It was AMAZING. Then for mains Jordan and I both had Steak which was yet again so tasty. The meat was slightly thinner than that in the UK but this meant it had absorbed more of the herbs rubbed in. Finally for desert I had a chocolate melt in the middle pudding. I couldn't have recommended a restaurant that made me feel this welcome as .... from the lovely staff to the delicious food if you are ever in the area. We left the restaurant and headed to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at bang on midnight so got to witness it glittering for 5 minutes before a short walk and then returned to the hotel exhausted!

Glittering Tower

Sunday
After checking out of the Hotel we went across the city to Jardin des Plants where we wondered around the beautiful gardens before heading into the small zoo present. The zoo has a wide variety of animals and only cost 9euros each. For me the enclosures were not quite big enough for the monkeys and big cats! City centre Zoo's will always have a problem with space. Its what makes stronger rules required. I hope that the animals that were in small enclosures got rotated enabling them to have more space daily.

Eye see you 

We then dashed across the city again to be at the Eiffel Tower for 2pm. We had booked tickets for the Eiffel Tower the week before and it only cost 14.50 euros per person to get to the top which I thought was extremely reasonable. Yet again Paris had cheaper ticket prices for those under the age of 26 so I am not sure what a full priced adult ticket would have cost. The views from the top were amazing and the sun came out for us when we were at the top even though the wind was certainly active! We came down and headed to the Arc de Triomphe to get some pictures in day time before we had to head back to our hotel to get are bags before starting the journey to the airport.

Cool Kid

The weekend may have only been a whistle stop trip to Paris but it was one of the best weekend away I have ever had. The city is so friendly and because of subway being so easy to access, getting around the city was not an issue allowing us to cram our days to the brim. The only downside was having to return! There was lots of other things that I would have loved to do if we had had another day or two but at least I can save those for another trip giving me the excuse to go back. It certainly is said that bar hotel and flight costs the city is made for young adults and this is reflected by how much you get for reduced cost being under the age of 26.

If you are doubting whether to go then don't!! Paris captured some of my heart, so much so I'm determined to learn French so I can go back and not feel guilty understanding others around me.