Week 3

Week 3 already… time has flown since I’ve come here. It has been a calm week, where I’ve finally started collecting data for my project.

Monday was really easy. I had my individual meeting with Grietjie in the morning, where we discussed a bit on how I would tackle my project. In the afternoon I went on a walk helping Toni with her project. We tried to find the vervet monkeys she is doing her project on, but we couldn’t find them, so it was just a walk through the bush. In the afternoon the whole camp went with Grietjie to place two carcasses found in the bush somewhere in the reserve and camera trap it in the hope to get footage of carnivores eating from them. It took about an hour to get to the planned place and place the carcasses and the camera trap, now to wait and hope that some hungry carnivores pass by.

Tuesday was a bit different for me, as I went to Polokwane for shopping. This also meant that one person was leaving us, and another person, Solène from France, would join the group. In Polokwane we had a couple hours to kill before Solène would arrive. Wandering through the Polokwane mall, we stumbled upon a place called “The fun company” and we spotted a bowling alley inside. Quickly we decided to head in and go bowling. Killed about an hour and a whopping 32,5 rand (just 2 euros) we wasted some more rands on other games in the arcade and then it was time to meet the new person. After a coffee and lunch we did the groceries and it was time to say goodbye to Romkje. After dropping her off on the airport, we went back home to Bush Camp. 

(This picture contains the carcasses in the background, skip it if you don't want to see them)

Wednesday was my first day of data collection. I went out into the field with a GPS in one hand and my phone in the other, trying to find burrows around the reserve. I walked a transect I knew at least two burrows of, but apart from those two, I couldn’t find the rest. Apparently I had used the wrong map with burrow numbers that didn’t correspond to the burrows logged in the GPS. Basically having wasted close to 3 hours of my day I tried to figure out what went wrong the rest of the day. In the afternoon me, Floris, Kèvin and Eloïse went to the local school to get a little tour. We played some games with the kids and then we were on our way again after around 1 ½ hours.

Thursday, second try on finding the burrows. This time I used a different map that seemed to fit with the logged coordinates in the GPS. This time it worked like a charm and I found all the logged burrows. The transect guided me past the carcasses we had placed earlier this week, so I had a quick look but they were still there, untouched (but now very smelly). Having walked 2 transects in a day, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon when it started to cool off, I had walked a bigger distance than ever before in my life (I think at least). Between the walks we went to the Crafts & Art Centre of Mogalakwena Research Centre, where local women get to make embroidery and other things for some money. A small tour and a beautiful song sung by the ladies working there, we went back to the Bush Camp. The 23 km I walked this day had me exhausted so I kept the evening short and I went to bed pretty early.

Friday I walked the final two transects that the previous person on this project had walked and finished my first part of data collection. 7 of the 28 burrows she looked at showed signs of activity, while others were either uncertain or not active. Before dinner, everyone did a work-out, however not everyone had as much success. At first I went to do pushups and places my hand on a hiding branch with thorns on it (ouch). A bit later, just after the pull-ups, I slipped off a little step and cut my knee on a rock (woops). That was enough working out for me for today. After dinner we had the Friday poker night where my luck also wasn’t really on my side. After the poker we all went to bed, exhausted after the long week.

Saturday was a day of relaxing and recovering from the week (and some injuries for me). Nothing major happened as nobody really did anything. The Saturday night braai was interesting, as it was my first time eating Ostrich steak. Together with the traditional South African “poitjie” and pot bread Tanja made, this steak made for a delicious dinner next to the fire. Now today, Sunday, is still a day of relaxing. Not having data to analyze makes for long free days where you don’t have anything to do on your report, so here I am, writing for the blog a little early. Nothing else is on the planning today, apart from watching Madagascar 2 tonight (if the wifi allows us to download it in time…). With that I have nothing else to say, so here’s goodbye and until next week!