Weeks 1 & 2: Emakhosini Ophathe Heritage Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

I’m in Africa!  Woohoo!  J

My adventure began with a tense hour and a half at Heathrow airport after being told (along with 4 other passengers) that we didn’t definitely have seats on the flight because they had overbooked.  Ahem.  Following some kind volunteers giving up their seats and one very quick sprint to the plane  with only 30 minutes before take-off, I was in my seat – sweaty and a bit breathless – but in my seat at least. 

Following quite a smooth flight in a large plane, we landed at Johannesburg airport where I caught my (delayed by a few hours) connecting flight to Richard’s Bay.  By contrast, a VERY bumpy flight in a VERY little plane!  Eek!  On arrival at Richard’s Bay airport, I was transferred by minibus with 2 other volunteers to my home for the next 2 weeks.

So, home is in the Emakhosini Ophathe Heritage Park – a huge park which is looked after by Ezemvelo, a government-run organisation that looks after all the parks in KwaZulu-Natal. The park is right in the heart of Zululand and has important Zulu historical sites within it. 

There are four of us on the project at the moment.  Lisa is the wildlife monitor in charge and Kasper (from the Netherlands) and Ann (from Germany) are the two other volunteers here.  We all get on well, which is great.  We live in a big house (see picture) in the middle of the reserve, so often have wild animals in our back garden!  (nothing too scary though!)  We have a big pond at the end of the driveway too, which is full of bullfrogs.  They are ridiculously noisy!  When we first heard them, we thought they were motorbikes! 

The project we are working on is a leopard survey, organised by Panthera (http://www.panthera.org/) and run by Wildlife ACT. (http://wildlifeact.com/) 

The aim of the project is to identify and count the leopard (and other endangered species) living in the area by setting motion-sensor cameras at points throughout the park to take photos of whatever walks, runs, flies or slithers past!  The survey has been running all year in a number of different locations.

Our work involves getting up quite early (4.15am for the last few days!) and driving out on the back of a jeep to the various camera sites in the park.  There, we take down the cameras (see picture), change the batteries, download the photos on to memory sticks and then fix the cameras back into place.  It’s amazing to be out and about in the park and to see and learn all about the animals.  Lisa, the monitor, knows SO much about every creature – big or small – and is great at giving us interesting information about them.

The park has been really dry, but as there has been a little bit of rain, the green leaves are starting to appear on some of the trees, which is really pretty.  There has only been one storm since I’ve been here, but there is more rain due, which the park really needs.

When we get back to the house after our drive, we upload all the photos on to the laptop and look through them to see what animals we have captured.  It’s pretty exciting and some of the photos are very funny when animals get really close to the cameras to have a good sniff.  We see a lot of Warthog selfies!

I can’t tell you about all the animals in the park -  poaching is a real problem here, so we are asked not to share too much information on the internet - it’s safest for the animals if the poachers don’t know where they are.  It makes you mad to see photos of animals who have been caught and injured by snares. 

But, here are some that I can tell you about – giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, kudu, impala, honey badgers, hyena, aardvark, caracal, warthogs, mongoose, baboons and many, many more!  I’ve got very good at identifying animal poo now – I should be an expert by the time I am finished with Wildlife Act in December!  As you can see from the photo, I’ve also enjoyed getting close to the little critters!  J

So, I’ve decided to end every post with some useful words or phrases (well, probably more useful to me than you!) in the local language and an interesting fact!  Here goes:

Language – Zulu:

Hello – Sawubona (pronounced saa-wu-b’aw-naa)

Do you speak English? – Uyasikhuluma isiNgisi?  (u-yaa-see-ku-lu-maa ee-see-ngee-see)

Hyena – Impisi (ee-m-pee-see)

Interesting fact:

Vultures can see for 70km and have been recorded as flying at the same height as Boeing 747s.

J

X

p.s. especially for my Champions – I hope you appreciate the font I’ve used! – it took me ages to find an acceptable one on this blog site!  ;-)