Pants on Fire

Aerial photo of the fire - Photo by Orty Bourquin

There is something about witnessing a beautiful scene that makes you feel like you should be able to take a picture of it and treasure it always. They say a picture tells a thousand words, but sometimes a thousand words are just not enough. Moments like this evening, when Chellak, one of the male leopards in the area, decided to amble into camp and take a long and satisfying drink from the pool. While leaning on my car watching him, amazed that I had previously imagined this scene in my head, one of those long, incredibly bright shooting stars went whizzing across the sky. After having the worst day it was definitely a sight for tired and weary eyes!

Chellak by the pool - Photo by Orty Bourquin

Its moments like this that I bring to my head often in the coming week, reminding myself why I am here. You see while many of you know that I live in paradise, not all of you understand that paradise comes with its costs. Living in the bush is not for sissy’s and can be tough. Fighting fires, as we have been doing recently is no joke. When you wake up in the middle of the night with smoke invading your senses, the first thought through my brain was certainly NOT “aaaahhhhh paradise”. October, or “Suicide Month” as it is fondly known, is not only the month of unbearable heat, the onslaught of insects and all things crawly but also the month of fires. Grass and dead trees, pushed over and spread around by elephants are ready to burst into flame without so much as a warthog fart or impala sneeze. So once one starts it’s very difficult to stop or put it out. What further aggravates the problem is elephant dung. Yes, elephant dung. Normally who would think of such things when there is a fire threatening your livelihood? But what most of you don’t know is that elephant dung burns for hours and can never be put out…or so it seems after endless stomping, spraying of water and beating with sticks or anything you can find. The little embers smirk up at you, knowing full well that a whole lot more effort is needed to stomp them out of existence and looking around at all the piles of elephant dung is no encouragement.

One of the brave fire-fighters - Photo by Orty Bourquin

Thankfully, there have only been a few fires that have caused worry lines and being able to fly and see the fire from the air has helped us immensely. And by stress I mean blisters, sore backs, cuts, flat tyres, sleep depraved nights and occasional panic. We also know now that we not only have to watch out for normal fires but fires started by lightning. This lesson was learnt after a dead tree was set on fire during an impressive thunder storm a few days ago. We have bets on how long the tree will smolder for, for as try as we might we have not been able to put it out despite half of it collapsing. Fires causes you to look with new eyes on dry grass, dead trees, elephant dung and farting warthogs.

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African Barred Owlet

This little African Barred Owlet was responding to the Ipad ESasol bird calls...as you can see he was very confused.

Wrinkles in the Moonlight

Once again, I confess that yes I will never receive an award for the most dedicated blogger! I see so many things during the day that make me say to myself….”that will make an interesting blog, I should definitely write about that”. Yet by the end of the day the memory is just that, a memory. However, I have purchased something that I am hoping will inspire me to write more and possibly even relax a little…a hammock. And yes I said relax. For those of you who think that I live in paradise (yes you are correct) but it does not always feel like paradise. The actual activity of relaxation is in fact hard to perform out here. When you live where you work, the damn work seems to follow you around the place. While there are many many positives of living far from human civilization, there are some down sides. For those of who do not appreciate coming home to a brick walled house and not having to chase all manner of cretins from your bed before lying down on it…start appreciating. Those of you who after having a bath, actually look clean…start appreciating. Those of you who don’t have to drive from one part of your house to another without fear of being chased by an elephant….start appreciating. I appreciate my surroundings almost on a daily basis…however I do sometimes miss the comforts of home. Which brings me to my story….

Sven (the person who keeps me from the grips of bush fever, a very dangerous and sometime fatal disease) is away on holiday. While his absence has quite a few negatives, along with them come a few positives and boy are they nice. For instance, I can get through a meal without having to physically defend my food from the grips of the bottomless pit that Sven calls his stomach. BUT by far the best positive is the fact that I can take over his tent, equipped with tv AND a bath. Two of the home pleasures that I miss the most. In the last two weeks I have managed to acquire not only one pinched sciatic nerve, but two. Arn’t I special? The doctor informed me that I need to find a relaxing pastime or hobby, yes that word again…relax. So with this mission in mind I headed to Svens tent one evening. Awhile ago, before Svens time at Dibatana, whoever lived in his tent at the time decided that a marble bath was the order of the day. Who has marble baths…seriously? This marble bath looks out over the waterhole and boy is it a nice view. So having filled up the bath, which by the way is enough to fit like 4 people and a lilo for each of them, I get myself comfortable. Of course, fitting the story well, it is a full moon. Next thing I know, there is an elephant at the back of the tent, rummaging around in the leaves. He shuffles round the side of the tent until he is standing about 7m away from the bath at the edge of the deck, unfazed by my presence. I have to say it is quite a surreal experience to be up to your eyeballs in bubbles watching an elephant browse a few meters away. And because of the full moon I could see small details, such as the wrinkles in his skin and his long eyelashes. He was so relaxed, leaning his weight from one foot to another. As my toes and fingers became wrinkly, he continued feeding so close I could hear him breathing. I never tire of watching elephants. I think they are incredible and fascinating creatures. While I do find them formidable animals and not to be reckoned with, for me they carry a calming feeling. Saying this, I cannot vouch for the rest of camp, as recently the elephants have been creating a certain amount of mayhem, tearing up water pipes, breaking down branches and such. Having just mentioned a calming feeling and also mayhem, I have to giggle as right now there is a young male at the waterhole with quite an attitude about him. He is particularly grumpy with the guinea fowl taking up his space around the edge of the waterhole and according to his actions encroaching on his personal bubble! So back to the relaxing. All that’s needed is: 1.) a marble bath 2.) a waterhole in the Okavango Delta 3.) an elephant to share the scenery with 4.) full moon. Mix together and let stand for 10-15 minutes. Results are total relaxation.

Long lost blogger....

Yes I am indeed alive! Apologies to those who read my blog and havent had any news for the past few months. Much begging and scrapping is in order and I shall try make it up to you!

So an attempt to update you on my situation: Yes...I am still in Botswana, living at Dibatana in the Okavango Delta. There never seems to be a dull moment out here. Starting at the beginning, Sven and I embarked on a trip to Gabarone to submit my lion research proposal to the DWNP (Department of Wildlife and National Parks) and despite our incredibly hard work and support of the University of Botswana the permit was rejected. I shall not go into detail about the reasons to avoid incrimination and bashing of particulars involved. I do however have one statement...it is incredibly sad and disappointing that people who claim to be "conservationists" allow their prides and need to control, get in the way of further work and funding going into an area.

As C.S Lewis says, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you".

At some point a person needs to stop and ask themselves...why am I doing this? I am doing this for my own personal gain or am I here to protect the environment that I have come to love? I suspect that some people will discover they are doing it for their own personal gain. As is human nature at the end of the day. The focal point of why we find the world in the state that it is.

HOWEVER, despite the bitterly disappointing rejection of my project, the Impala project which we applied for at the same time was approved (which was quite lucky in fact as we had the vets (Anne-Lise and Louise) arriving that same week). There was a big rush for darts, the collars and drugs that we needed to collar the impala. Sven did a fantastic job and organised everything within a matter of days. The following 2 weeks were stressful and incredibly frustrating but the kind of period of your life you can look back on and laugh. Alot. Anne-Lise and Louse were fantastic and did a superb job, as did the rest of our team.

Now you have to understand, impala are one of the hardest animals to dart and collar successfully. The following logistics are involved:
1. Moving a large and rather noisy vehicle within 10m of a prey animal, naturally skitish and not suprisingly move faster and more nimbly than a ten ton 4x4 vehicle equipped to bash and smash its way through even the thickest of bush.
2. Once within 10m, the animal has to be of correct gender, weight and age. Somehow, it always seems to be the weedy teenagers who strayed within darting distance. Murphys Law.
3. The surrounding bush had to be of low-medium density so that once darted the animal would not be lost. Once darted the animal would normally start showing signs within 2 or 3 minutes.
4. The dart gun had to work....properly.
5. The dart had to penetrate and inject ALL of the drug.
6. Runners allocated to both vehicles had to be equipped with radio, knife and possibly survival kit after being lost by drivers whilst running through animal infested bush for possible km...or 2...or 3 after a half drugged animal thanks to point 4 & 5 stated above.

I could continue but as you can see...it was a rather a difficult process. Point 1...actually finding a herd that you could approach in the right areas was the hardest. There were several times we spent up to an hour driving around trying to get closer to a particular herd.

On one particular darting (my most exciting of the 10 collaring experiences) we darted a large adult male. However, as on other occassions he did not recieve enough of the drug to bring him to lying down state. I was driving the two vets and having lost the other vehicle in the bush whilst trying to follow the impala, we were down to one runner, as Anne-Lise was not allowed to run being pregnant and all. After handing over driver designation at a rather speedy pase...I joined Louise in running after and stalking the large male. After several unsuccessful attempts, Louise managed to confuse the impala using a tree to hide behind. Having grabbed the large male by the horns Louise had that look on his face..."Now what?". Seeing my opportunity I sped my way to the two wrestling individuals and launched myself onto the male impalas back. A short rodeo followed, with me as the winner. Having grabbed his two front legs so that he could not extend them again I was in firm control of the beast. As the usual team to dart consists of around 5-6 individuals, Louise, Anne-Lise and I were quite chuffed we had succeeded especially with such a large and stronge male. Unfortunately, the video of the whole escapade was videoed over. However, this does leave opportunity for the story to be expanded on and much exaggerating (which of course was not included in my story)!

Other news I made a trip to South Africa to collect a rather sexy and awesome short wheel base Land Rover. I managed to get through the border and the long and tedious process of importing and re-registering the vehicle in Botswana. At the moment the little red engines parts are being fixed or replaced. Future work being planned includes snorkel, protective side bars, roof rack, protective under plate, radio and new bush tyres.

My parents were here recently. They both had a fantastic time and got to see lots of animals both in and out of camp. They were both thrown in the deep end with various jobs around camp and helped me tremendously. Next week we will be hosting the Smithsonian and 16 students (Total of 20 people) for a two week conservation course. A rather busy time to say the least.

On the research side I am investigating various avenues but basically waiting to see what happens with the concession as the lease goes up for tender in the next few months. I continue to look into conservation that will be important in terms of knowledge but more importantly aspects that will be applicable to management and future conservation of this beautiful area. While I am fairly frustrated at the delay I am concentrating on coming up with new ideas and prospects.

In the mean time, my war with the squirrels continues with the latest development being that they have invaded my tent eating and chewing anything they can get their grubby little paws on. I suspect my mother was an undercover agent of theirs, used as a ploy to get into my tent and "make friends". They seem to have a secret tunnel now and despite my best efforts are still reeking havoc with my things while I am in the office. The battle continues...