Our Trip Part 2 - Australia

Hi all

We've unpacked, we washed, we ironed and now we have packed again as we leave for Australia tomorrow!

As you can see the blog background etc has changed slightly and you can now add comments easily by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of each blog on the site. When you have written your comment there is a small drop down box which requires you to click on it and we have tended to find that hitting the anonymous button usually works! - please though ensure you put your name on your comments unless you do wish to stay anonymous!

We are going to add to the map below as we progress if David can work out how to do it but here is the very general itinerary for the next 13 weeks.

28 November        Perth
01 December - 13 January - Pick up campervan and travel around Western Australia
24-26 December   Exmouth in North West Australia.  Christmas on the beach so no turkey and trimmings but it seems a small price to pay.  For those of you with skype facilities we will be trying to contact you during the festive season - not just to gloat - honest?!
13 January             Fly to Alice Springs
14-18 January       4 Wheel Drive trip around the Red Centre
19 January            24 hour train trip to Adelaide.
20-24 January       Kangaroo Island off Adelaide
25 January - 27 February - Campervan trip between Adelaide and Sydney - highlight for David during this period will be -
5 February            Cricket Australia v India at the MCG (Melbourne)
28 February          Arrive Home

We look forward to updating you as we progress.


View Australia in a larger map



David and Dawn

Goodbye and Thank You Zululand

Our time in Africa has come to an end but none of the above would have been possible without our Monitors, the people who are trying to do their day job whilst we tag along, so a huge thank you to all:

Michelle and the extremely well trained Jane (Michelle’s pet Jack Russell who accompanied us on every outing!) although no gecko was safe.

Liam – I’ll name that bird in one, even whilst changing a puncture.

Cilla – Crazy Lady (you know the reasons why!)

Leonard – Brai Master (BBQ in real English) – vegetables will always remain unacceptable!

TJ – The smell of freedom!

Cathy – They don’t call me cat for nothing!

Finally we have a special thank you to BRONWYN without whom we would not have been on this wonderful adventure.  You kindly answered all of our email queries before we arrived and once here we did not have to worry about a thing “Bronwyn has that sorted” was always the reply.

NGLYABONGA TO YOU ALL AND WE CAN CONFIRM THAT THIS IS INDEED ZULULAND NOT DISNEYLAND!!

Not a bad sunset for the last night!

See you in Australia next week and by the way the comments section and access to our email via the 'view my profile page link on the right hand side' is now up and running again (someone pushed the wrong button!)

David and Dawn

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (aka HIP)

Last two weeks (Lots of tears!) - but hey we are just about to go on holiday for 13 weeks!

Warning again - dead animals in our pictures but this is 'Zululand not Disneyland!'

Due to no Internet for the last two weeks you may be reading this after we have returned home on the early morning of the 22^nd November so we may have even spoken to you before you read this!

The first thing to say before we go any further that is very important is that this is the park that saved the White Rhino and the vast majority if not all of the White Rhino in South Africa now come from their ancestors here.

The Park here is split in two by a main road with about 30 km’s of landscape and animals either side of it (the road has no fences and the other day we saw the traffic being stopped by a big bull elephant just standing in the middle of the main road). The North where we are based being very hilly and the South slightly less so with a large river running through it.

We are based up North near the top of a very large hill (Mountain!) As I write now we have just come back from checking where the dogs are and realised that the reason it is misty in camp is that we are actually in the clouds!

We are here with two other volunteers Helena from Sweden who has been at this camp for approximately 4 months and Michael from South West London (a devout AFC Wimbledon supporter who has watched them climb the English football leagues recently).

Cathy our monitor, like the rest of them is totally ‘insane’ (I use the word in a very friendly manner) and certainly managed to get us to see some amazing wildlife encounters including touching a baby Black Rhino that is due for release somewhere shortly.

Activities of a Volunteer

We now have realised how little exercise we have done over the last 8 weeks.

First task was to remove the camera traps that were laid 8 weeks ago by volunteers. Although the pictures have been collected weekly the survey in this part of the park for Leopards has now been completed so the wooden posts and metal cases that hold the cameras need to be removed.

The cameras are bolted onto metal posts and hammered into the ground by young fit 20 year olds! These have now hardened into the earth and require rocks, crowbars and a lot of brute force to remove in 30+C degree heat.

The requirements for the job are your chosen rock to counterbalance a crowbar and someone’s shoulder to lean on to keep your balance whist jumping up and down on the crowbar slowly forcing the metal post out of the ground. Not a pretty picture from behind.  A number of techniques were tried, including the bounce, jump and wiggle but from our exhaustive research we are able to confirm that the bounce is the most effective.  Not sure when we will be able to put this knowledge into practise again but will be stored away in case of need.

A Day Off

Our first and only full day off in 9 weeks! A trip to the St Lucia wetland park on the coast.

A great day out involving a 2 hour trip on a boat around the estuary seeing plenty of Hippos and Nile Crocodiles followed by lunch and a trip down to the Beach again.  We finished the day at the Crocodile Research Centre just in time for feeding.  What looked like huge docile sleeping logs soon sprang into action when the dinner gong was sounded!

The Challenge

Coming back from a morning in the bush to find that there is no running water!

Oh well it should not to be too bad we have gone without showers for a day or so before and we have some purchased water from a previous shopping trip to drink. 4 days later the water is turned back on again when the pump for the bore hole gets fixed! So the water supply consists of the tubs of rain water that has flowed off the roof (if you get any animal bits in the water you just think extra protein apparently). In the case below Dawn is fetching her shower (please note the distance the photographer had to stand)!

An Amazing Sighting

We managed to find one of the female Cheetahs in our area the other day with her two 11 month old cubs and after waiting for about 6/7 hours over two days we were lucky enough to see her stalk and kill an Impala. The impressiveness of this viewing was brought home specifically when we mentioned to some of the research team who have worked here for a number of years that have not seen this before – apparently this is rarer than a Leopard sighting (we are though very greedy and wanted both!).

A couple of pictures can’t show the tension or the thrill of the chase but show Mum in full stalking mode and then the whole family enjoying the benefits.

  

Lion Call ups - Again

Ah, more fun with Lions. This time we needed to call them in to place ID branding (note ‘V’ on front leg) so the park knows exactly who breeds with whom and also take blood samples etc.

When the two darted lions had fallen asleep our car’s job was to chase off the other 4 lions – who by the way only ended up being 20 metres away watching our every move!! Then everyone dragged the three drugged lions back to the carcass which was then followed by all the work – just before they woke up we managed a quick photo.

  

Tip of the week - Be nice to Elephants – Part 2!

We thought we would finish off the blog from this park with a bit of a cheat, as this is a picture of a picture in our kitchen. These people did get out all ok with the car having some lasting dents!

We look forward to catching up with you all soon.

David and Dawn

CALLING ALL LIONS!!

Care not for the squeamish


All you need is the following:-

• 1 x carcass
• 1 x rope to drag the carcass around the vicinity to advertise your wares.
• 1 x chain to tie carcass to tree or appropriate object - must be sturdy and lion proof.
• 2 x Large megaphones to play soundtrack
• 1 x sound system
• 1 x soundtrack - squealing pigs known to achieve excellent results
• 1 x  "bunch of Nutters" to set this all up as the sun goes down and to listen to squealing pigs soundtrack into the night.
• And don't forget the picnic and suitable drinks - although the toilets are closed for the evening!!
• A whole lot of patience!!

Once this is all organised you then sit and wait whilst playing very loud squealing pig noises for twenty minutes on and twenty minutes off.

Eventually you hope you get to see some lions which could take 1-5 hours.

As you can see we were very lucky with the two events and got some good shots.

The technical term for this exercise is a Lion Call Up - we feel the Lion Ice Cream Van describes the process just as well.

We do not know what is planned for the next two weeks at HIP but will keep you updated internet allowing.

Love

David and Dawn

Elephant Week

At last we have managed to find the real Elephants of Tembe. Not only have we now seen the biggest ‘Tusker’ (Tusks that are over 100lb or 45kilos each) in South Africa but also a number of the other top 10 as well as some close encounters.

Isilo – biggest ‘Tusker’ in South Africa

Don’t upset the locals whilst having their lunch or they will throw it at you!

The above Elephant Bull was quietly having lunch by ripping some trees apart when we wanted to get past and he decided that we needed to pay a toll! Unfortunately we did not have any peanuts on board (just before people complain this is a joke as everyone knows they prefer marshmallows!) so he decided that it was best to teach us a lesson for next time and threw part of his left overs at us which landed beside the vehicle. All good fun.

We have been joined this week by Ernst again who was with us at Mkhuse as well as Philippe from France. This is very handy as the cooking is now shared between 6 which makes a real difference.

Dawn’s Sweetcorn bread is now reaching mega popularity around the camps (bread made with a tin of creamed sweetcorn and some chili flakes) as well some home made flap jacks (called crunchies over here). Slight problem last time with the flapjacks though, David set the oven temperature wrong and half the flap jacks were burnt and the rest very brittle but as Ernst had never tasted them before, he still thought they were great.

Early Tip of the Week

Don’t tell anybody out here the food you have prepared is not right until they do not eat it, as you always have some benefit of the doubt when it comes to cooking out here.

We had another great experience with Elephants on Sunday with some close encounters  with a  couple of small breeding herds (7/8 including babies), followed shortly afterwards by some large bull elephants. The bulls were amazing as they walked up the road towards us which was then followed by them slowly working their way around the vehicle whilst eating and then carried on along the road behind us. The Elephants here are seriously big and being sat out in an open vehicle is a great way of experiencing their size. Please note in the picture below we had already been outflanked on either side by two other elephants!

Tembe Road Block (who is going to move first?)

Shopping

Dawn went shopping with Cilla the monitor for our fortnightly food supplies and although the Spar was open, the locals were picketing the store on behalf of a sacked worker. Decisions had to be made, cross the picket line (the whole car park encircled by the locals with a number of police in attendance, and we were not sure whose side they were on!) or go to the very under stocked and not the food we would purchase, local market store. Unfortunately the food this week will be a little below par and someone will have to go again next week!  The lure of chocolate was strong but sense prevailed – note for Weight Watchers picket lines on all Hotel Chocolat and Thorntons shops could greatly increase members success!

Thunder and Lightening

More thunder and lightning this week mostly at night thankfully which has started to fill some dried up pools/waterholes – This has really turned the whole park now very green and will improve the colours in our photos from now on. Dull grey elephants against a dull sand background are not very inspiring but against very green grass and bushes we should start to see some improvement.

The other impressive part to all this rain however is the difference in wildlife and a serious David Attenborough time.

Termites – all hatching with us driving into swarms of them however this brings out all other prey species which is incredible.

Frogs, Toads, Scorpions, Centipedes etc – millions of them – where have they come from? Some rain appears and they are just everywhere and with that comes the amazing noise the frogs and toads make. The whole smaller animal kingdom has come out in numbers starting with the insects which is an interesting experience when driving back in the dark. Coats and jackets are done up to the top to minimise any space for them to get in and you are then attacked from every angle as you drive along. When back home you then shake free all the ones that somehow managed to get under your shirt and up your trousers, and in your hair! No bad incidents yet other than David got a fly (or something similar) hit him directly in the eyeball. We must remember to also keep our eyes closed, but how are you meant to spot animals!

A friendly termite eating cricket (actual size this photo has not been enlarged – eck!!)

After the above animals though come the higher predators such as more snakes, Eagles and other  various hungry animals – it is excellent for photography as most of the animals are so full they just are happy to sit still whilst they have their photo taken.

Question – when do you know your driver is going too fast?

Answer – when the bugs that hit your sunglasses ‘splat’ rather than bounce!

Please note this is obviously not aimed at any one particular monitor we have had on our trip, as none of them would ever be going fast enough for this to happen! (well that is what we were told to say).

David and Dawn