Days Go By

After two days of amazing sightings the weather finally out did itself. A constant patter of raindrops could be heard on the roof of the Loose Mongoose as soon as Abbie and I had woken up. I knew it was only a matter of time before Heike would come to tell us that we wouldn’t be going out that day. We continued with our morning routine as usual in case the rain let up before our scheduled departure time. At 8:30am, as predicted, Heike gave us the news that it was too wet for us to track the elephants. With the entire day ahead of us, K decided that it was the perfect opportunity for us to become familiar with the methods we would be using to analyze our data for our dissertations.

At 10:00am the seven of us made our way to the museum in preparation for the information session. After a brief overview of what we would be covering we broke off into two groups to learn how to use pivot tables on excel as well as the ArcMap program. At noon we took a lunch break and at 2:00pm resumed. The rest of the day was miserable with the rain being a constant presence. Because our covered sitting area is quite limited we stuck to our rooms for the majority of the afternoon. Abbie and I took advantage of our spare time to catch a few hours of sleep before dinner. I also snuck in an episode of Lost since I have yet to finish the final season. After dinner we didn’t waste anytime getting ready for bed and spent the rest of the night reading or using the dongle for internet access.

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The weather had slightly improved on Thursday. We had expected to get our laundry back today, but unfortunately we did not. Due to the state of the pants I have been wearing for the last four days I was forced to wear shorts in the face of the wind and rain we experienced throughout the day. We set out at the usual time and were soon on the trail of Ngani and Kohlewe. We found the bulls five minutes from the Loose Mongoose in a deep river line, somewhat sheltered from the elements. Every other bull and both herds are currently on Mpalane, an area of the reserve we haven’t had access to since the second week on the PGR. Focaling the bulls in the pouring rain was a new experience for all of us and neither of them seemed to be phased by the weather. By 2:00pm the bulls had retreated into the river line on Leeuwspoor West so we decided to call it a day.

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We were up bright and early this morning at 6:45am to get ready to go out at 8:00am. I made the executive decision not to shower this morning because I have been planning to shower later tonight instead. Our plans to spend the day in St. Lucia are official and we will be leaving tomorrow morning at 6:30am.

Once again the majority of the elephants were on Mpalane aside from Ngani and Kohlewe. We took signal at the Homestead for the two bulls and decided to head towards Leeuwspoor East to try and track them down. It wasn’t until we were backtracking toward the Homestead that we found them. With Ngani in the lead, the two bulls crossed the road just ahead of us and each found a tree to feed on. Our data collection for the day had begun. We tracked the bulls through the thicket on Leeuwspoor West and after taking five scans and conducting four focals our day was complete. We were back at the Loose Mongoose by 1:30pm. For the past three weeks I have been collecting and drying vegetation samples as part of my thesis so I spent the afternoon chopping one of my grass samples up into 2mm pieces. Since I started the “processing” of my samples I have averaged four hours for each one and it has been anything but riveting. But it is all part of my research so I am grinning and bearing it... most of the time.

Since we have been here we have become accustomed to the presence of Nicholas the Nyala. He is a Nyala buck, probably 3 or 4 years old (based on the size of his horns), and he isn’t fazed by our presence whatsoever. He usually strolls into our camp around 4:00pm and grazes on the outskirts of the main sitting area. During the night we can always spot him a few meters away from where we sit around the fire and afterwards, when we have put the fire out and gone to bed, he grazes in the garden. Never mind the hyena and wild dogs prowling at night, nothing will scare you more than walking out of your room in the middle of the night to use the washroom and being face to face with a Nyala. He may be harmless but his silhouette in the garden usually startles you enough to send you straight back into your room.

Today though, he decided to bring all of his friends into camp. As I was slowly chopping strands of grass five Nyala bucks nonchalantly made their way into camp to feed on the pods that had fallen from the Acacia trees. They occasionally looked up at me as I worked away in the kitchen, but other than that movement within the camp didn’t bother them. They scoured the camp for at least an hour before they moved off when Sarah made her way up to the kitchen from the lower building.

By 5:00pm I was finished my sample and was ready to crash. After uploading the photos I took during the last three days, I organized my clean clothes and cleaned my half of the room. Tomorrow is going to be a long day; we are scheduled to arrive in St. Lucia around 8:00am for breakfast. We are planning on spending the day at the beach, exploring the markets, and acting like tourists. I have been in South Africa for 5 weeks and unfortunately have been confined to the game reserves. Aside from the occasional Braai, I have yet to experience true South African culture and am looking for to it. I have heard great things about culture shock and can’t wait to experience it.