Day 11!!!

12:30 Thursday afternoon
34 Degrees
Scratches = 57
Trips over rocks = 24
Sweat Patches = 1093
Hyeana Bites = 2

ALREEEET!!!

Oh my gooodness, IT IS HOOOOOTTT!!! Even the locals are struggling, its good to be out of the sun. Ive spent the morning with George and the two other volunteers walking around the outskirts of the farm looking for poachers traps. Luckily we didnt find any snares which hopefully means that there arent any! Which is good. Aside from the heat grinding us down it was a pleasant and long walk, we were next to the river mainly and I saw lots of birds and funny looking creepy crawlies. We were also lucky enough to see 2 Baboons walking on the other side of the water and boy were they big! Absolutely massive! I was so glad they were on the other side or else they might have ripped my head off! Haha, but they were very cool and making some funky noises too!

Yesterday was a good day. Being a bird fan i was asked to join Quentin with some visitors from the Raptor Conservation Programme to walk around the farm and check all of the bird boxes, it was really interesting and these people really knew their stuff, we saw to African Fish Eagles flying around so i whipped out my Binoculars and had a good look, they are beautiful creatures and grow up to about 75/80cm long, and these too looked big even from a distance so im guessing they were full grown ones.  There are so many different birds out here and i keep trying to copy them to see if they will come any closer to me, much to amusement of the other volunteers, So far the closest ive got is to Erika the lovebird who lives in a cage by our cottage...so i dont think that really counts, although she does talk back to me and we like to have a little natter in the morning and evening. Shes a bit of a bitch, pecked the male that was put in with her to death apparantly! But that doesnt have anything to do with me so i talk to her all the same.

Whilst we were out on our walk with the Bird peeps yesterday we stopped off to visit Kahn the black Leopards and Luke and Nyeba the Hyenas. Volunteers arent supposed to go in with them anymore as they have gotten too big but seeing as it was just me i was allowed in. After some sniffing around and a gentle hell from Kahn, he went off to play underneath a tree. Then came the Hyenas, they sniffed around the guests and seemed nice and calm...that was until they came up to sniff me...they were behind me sniffing my legs which seemed quite normal but something changed and they didnt seem to like me anymore, one of them bit my left calf which really hurt! So after squealing like a baby pig it did i again! This time harder, luckily Quentin arrived just as they were both about to mess me up and he held them back whilst i ran like a giraffe on drugs out of the enclosure where i obviously had to act cool! Smiling and laughing it off i went to talk to Kahn through the fence, however the guests didn't stick around in the enclosure after that! I am sporting two very large, lumpy and purple bruises on my left leg today! haha...its not so bad, if they really meant business it wouldn't have taken them any effort to get past the skin. However, i wont be going in there again, apparently if Hyena doesn't like you, it will never like you! And that's all i need to know!

After lunch yesterday most of the workers and the volunteers went off to clean the houses but i was asked to stay behind and do some work on the computer in the office, which was fine, i managed to update a lot of spreadsheets and stuff, mainly to do with the lions and the enclosures...feeding charts and birth charts etc etc so it helped me to learn some more of the  names, but again, it was hot! There is no breeze in the office, just heat so every time i stood up i had wet shorts from where my legs had sweated to the material! Niiiiice! Spent the afternoon looking like i had wet myself continuously!

It was whilst i was in the office yesterday avo that Quentin shouted for me to get outside quickly, he had been encountered by a Mozambique Spitting Cobra on the path which we walk up and down to get from the nursery to the office, by the time i had got there it was gone, but he said it had stood up tall to confront him but had got scared and slithered off. The snakes spit in its preys eyes to blind them and then when they cannot see they move in to bite and kill them before eating them. Quentin was clearly too big, although he said it must have been 2 meters long!...I seem to have adopted a slightly animated walk whilst heading up and down the path now...almost like i cant walk without lifting my knees up to my chin...its attractive!

There haven't been any more bat incidents thank goodness and i didnt find it suffocated under Annas pillow which was a blessing. She was convinced it had got into the next bedroom however, i don't think this was true as the door was locked, and im not sure that Bats can fly through doors?

I haven't had any ticks so far this week which is nice. Last week i found one snuggled into my arm pit and one on my ankle! And those buggers hurt when you pull them off i can tell you! They cling on with dear life! I did wash one down the sink and it looked quite fun as it went round and round and round the sink bowl until it finally popped down the plug hole, almost like a really big water slide! And i am sure i heard a very faint 'Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' as it went!

Hahahaha,

Ok, I have to move on now before i get stuck to the chair again!

Ill be back on Saturday. Enjoy your Friday! xxx