Bush camp and cold nights...

Author's note: Sorry if looks as if i cannot spell, it takes too a lot of force and just the right angle to capitalize the letter 'i' on this computer.

10:12 pm (in bed at twines)

I'm only going to bed this late because tomorrow is my day off. This has been and continues to be a wonderful experience. Only today, as we set off on a full 10 hour day drive did i really think of home. it may be because last night i had such a vivid dream of home and certain people. i think hte strong images and memories suddenly brought me back in a flash. i think i've finally ''realized'' that i'm here, it;s quite a weird feeling to be working and living in such a different place. Everyone here drinks tea, and lots of it, no matter how hot it is. When we head off on our morning game drive we bring the cooler with rooibos tea and hard Rusks and i love how we just jump out before it gets too warm and sit in the middle of the savannah and drink tea... to save on dishes i'm trying to get people to use sticks to stir and leaves as plates.. they tell me i'm crazy. it's nice to know that even out in the Africa bushveld i'm still considered haha wait for it... badass! :)

Today i navigated our driver up to the way north end of the reserve in the research for the rhino zula (we found her!!! ). It was hard but i only got us lost once, on the way up we spotted a hyena and a jackal together, an odd sight. After they left we walked into the bush a bit to the area they were. they smell got to us before the sight, not even 10 m off the path was a baby giraffe kill. We then rush back to camp picked up a camera trap in the hopes of getting some really cool footage of the animals that will come and feast. The language used on the radios is Shangaan and i now know how to say Elephant= Ndlovu, leopard= ingwe, rhino= originaly mkombi but since recent poaching problems we use the code name madache, cheetah=tantkaan, ngala=lion, bamba=kill, mafazi= female, madado= male. On the way home from our day I got to drive us home, it was fun but I did send everyone into the brambles maybe once or twice. This coming monday I head down to bush camp, i'm really looking forward to sleeping outside! I've also started doing exercices now, i was really in shape before leaving and since no lion has chased me around yet i'm losing my cardio... so push ups, dips, plank and yoga for 30 minutes daily from now on!

29th of may - sitting on the porch at twines.

About to leave to a reptile park with Declan. It was nice to be able to sleep in today, but my body was up at 5:30 am ready to go and it took a lot of will power to stay in bed until at least 7. ok, were leaving now.

29th of may- back on the poch at twines (false departure so i'm writting more)

We just saw a baboon spider. (Baboon spiders are really cool. look them up and be imppresed!) So this baboon spider seemed to be acting weird and extremely aggresive so we decided to bring it with us to the reptile park and see what they tell us. Now i'm in the truck and Amos (one of the volunteers) is teasing me so I smacked him and he's now calling me a female baboon spider... haha :)
Later on: The reptile park was awesome, the guide was by far the best i've ever met. He had knowledge and enthousiasm that can change minds. The presentation on conservation and the examples he gave of behavior to avoid when encountering snakes was imppresive. it was a great day!Also if you guys did look up baboon spiders you will know what the guy told us when he looked at the one we brought- the male we saw was just about to die and becomes very weak as he tries to mate; all of his energy going into having small sperm pockets on parts of his body. He will continue to live on very little until he can find a female and then after mating will die.

30th of may 10:56 am - Hoedspruit shopping center

A whole week later, almost sitting in the exact same place at the exact same time. So much has changed, i'm really starting to feel Africa now, it's no longer a place i'm comparing to Belize but turning into a place full of new and interestings things that i'm exploring bit by bit. i just bought some souvenirs and i'm doing really well with my finances, if i keep this up i'll be going home with some money extra to stick in my next travel fund (for those interested, Asia it getting to be really appealing form what i'm hearing.. :) ) - Mom, don't worry i should come home for a couple days before leaving again. :) 3 people left today and it seems quiet and really different without them around.

9:50 pm (in my tent at bush camp)

i absolutely LOVE bush camp, i knew i would but still... its great! I just came in from sitting around the fire and listening to the hyenas call. I just realized how late it is and i really need to get to sleep because tomorrow morning is 4:30 am wake up!

10:43 am at twines.

This morning i woke up to very cold weather.. bush camp is down by the river so the temperature drops substancially lower than the much warmer twines camp. We went out on a walk this morning, i love the walks it starts off with everyone blowing there noses form the cold, shivering and half heartedly tracking some animal but then... the air warms up, a crack of branches make hearts race, the sun beats down, and a lion roars, clothes come off and steps are quickened, fresh scats and a glimpse through the trees... the whole walk has changed. We think nothing and use every sense we have. we continue like this for awhile, then if the track is lost then everyone breathes again and starts walking with less care. Something like this happens almost every time and it is my favorite part.

may 31st 1;46 am - in bed, cold.

So everyone told me that i would fall in love, and i would relive some complicated sceanario involving my heart... well, i did fall in love but since i'm me, and me couldn't do it any plain way... and complicated situation this one will be when i try to smuggle this 8 ton elephant across customs with me... i don't quite know what he looks like, but looks aren't everything... but from his rumble he has seduced me. So i'm not having the best sleep tonight it seems, but i don't mind because they is an elephant outside of my tent!

may 31st 3:55 pm - sitting on the porch of bush camps kitchen.

Today, i had a cold shower (ice cold) then I did some yoga with Stephany on the sleep out deck, it was absolutely amazing, wobbling on one foot and looking down on giraffe and wildebeests!

june 5th (sitting around the fire at twines)

I'm summing up my week now, since i haven't written at all. Being at bush camp has been great, cold as ever but great. Only thing is we are confined to camp area, which does make sense but Declan who is in charge doesn't quite see eye to eye with me. unfortunate for both of us, and we bicker constantly, still in a friendly playful way but when it comes down to it...i feel traped within my 10 by 10 ft of alloted space and having Declan as my babysitter is the motivation to jump up and down on the other side of it. You'll be happy to know that i don't, quite mature of me i know. And the sparkes only really go when it's really cold, early/late or one of us is in a particular sour mood, but for the most part it makes everyone laugh. There is a party planned for Saturday to fund an animal orphanage ( Daktari) i'm excited. This week was a less busy one since bush camp is mostly going off and finding animals, learning about different plants and birds. All the data is noted but the long part is the excel work, graphs, and working on id kits which are all done up at Twines. Many people are leaving this monday so all the volunteers are going to be working exclusively up at twines but going out just as much on field gathering. I'm actually happy about this because, despite my very badass exterior i still feel the cold, and man was it cold. It goes down to 3 degrees at night and 10 blankets are not enough to keep me warm! it's funny, when i get up in the morning and get dressed in my sleeping bag I cannot possibly remember that it does indeed warm up. And then, at 11:30 am when its 35 degrees in the sun i can't imagine how cold it gets at night, until it does and the whole process begins again.

Saturday's fundraising party was quite a good time, it took place on a dirt road that cuts through the whole area of animal reserves/ game parks. Stanging there, drinking a beer surrounded by wild people is now going to make any party no matter how great seem like nothing compared to this. When i say wild i do not mean the person on ecstasy in the club driving home at 3 am. i mean, overgrown hair wild, dirt permantely to our skin wild, bright eyed wild people. i love people like this, AND my not so dirty (dirt wise) friends.

Saturday night went on into sunday morning hanging out in the "freezer" back at twines talking with 3 other volunteers since it was the warmest place to be... I wussed out of sleeping in my tent that night since the next day I was going to a nearby reserve (tshukudu) that do work with cheetahs and i was going to assist them following the cheetahs on their morning hunt. Sunday morning we left at 3:45am to go to Tshukudu a precious 2 hours of sleep in me. But it was worth it, to see the cheetahs chase down a duiker (small anteloppe) was breathtaking and of course pretty cool to get to pet one afterwards. Saturday night we had another braii and we played volleyball, teams were non europeans against europeans... the non europeans won by one point.. it was great fun.

And now it's 3:29 pm and it's really quiet; everyone went into town today to get odds and ends and to drop off the people leaving. There are 2 guys here now working for BBC trying to do some film work on the animals so me being the only one hanging about ( i wanted to sleep in) they brought me along with them, it was on of the best tracking of elephants yet, so close on their trail we could smell them but still could not see them! Finally after being extremely close we decided to head back to the truck, as we were driving home only about 35 m further than the point where we turned back we bumped into a herd of 12 elephants!!!
Jana (a new ranger/intern ) came in last week and since then i've been hanging out a lot with her, she knows so much and she is quite the character. Later she's going to help me learn to shot the rifle.
A day off feel nice and when the others get back we are going to make some muffins and watch a movie. :) Today for the first time i read everyone's comments on this blog. Makes me miss you all and i'm really looking forward to sharing theses stories with you all and in return hearing all the fun and adventures that everyone is having without me. (please don't forget about me hey ! :) )