Another Shopping Trip to Tzaneen

Well here I am sitting in Wimpy (a chain of café style restaurants which do really good breakfasts), drinking cappuccino and typing on the internet.  Life in rural Africa can be really hard sometimes!  We do it tough here.  Which reminds me of some of the ‘curious’ and sometimes amusing differences between Afrikaans and English.  In Afrikaans, a ‘café’ is a supermarket, and generally the only coffee you can buy comes in jars or tins.  It took me about three weeks to figure that one out, as every time I went in to Gravelotte (the local small town), I was looking around for a coffee shop.  An orange is a ‘lemoen’, pronounce ‘lemoon’, didn’t that one confuse me for a while as every time someone asked me if I wanted a ‘lemoen’ I said no and couldn’t figure out why everybody was eating an orange.  On our radios when somebody wants you to talk they say ‘staanby’ in Afrikaans, pronounced ‘standby’ which means send, anyway for about a week I couldn’t understand why people were being told to ‘standby’ then talking.

Anyway, back to the topic, here we are in Tzaneen on our monthly grocery shopping trip and we have extra money to cover our two new staff.  Mind you every time I go into Tzaneen I spend a lot of money.  Today I am going to buy a raincoat, given that mine is doing the rounds of South African bureaucracy.  If you think I am still annoyed about the whole issue then you are correct.  After talking to customs they said that you have to write ‘old clothes’ or ‘used clothes’ on the parcel.  Even without that why do they try and collect 80% import duty on one raincoat.  I guess overseas internet shopping is not a bit thing in South Africa as it would be taxed at both country of sale and by RSA Customs.

The other night we occupied a clandestine listening post in a ‘sloot’ (pronounced slew-it) which is a creekline that has been used by poachers in the past to access the property.  A good plan Gary, except that I forgot it was also one of the hippo paths.  Not only that, it was about two metres from the boundary fence which the hippos also use as a territorial boundary and consequently mark it by copiously defecating while flicking their tails from side to side.  This causes a spray of ‘shit’ up to about 2 m high.  So in the middle of the night when I heard the hippos coming towards us I decided that discretion is the best part of valour and moved very quickly.  I figured that if any poacher wanted to sneak in while the hippos were there then he was a braver man than me!

Anyway, off to spend some more money.

The offending hippo taken about two weeks ago.

Both the offending hippo taken about two weeks ago.

My First Encounter With South African Bureaucracy

Followers of my blog may remember I asked Ms Dig to send over my raincoat (because it was cold and raining) and some other items about four weeks ago, which she promptly did by airmail.  As at yesterday it still hadn’t arrived so I personally went into the post office yesterday and asked about it.  Lo and behold it had been sitting there for two weeks and they hadn’t got around to doing notifying us about it (because if someone is willing to pay $100.00 AUD for air mail, then it is obviously not urgent).  They brought the package out and I was all excited until they informed me that I owed R2300.00 (about $360.00 AUD) in customs import duties!  I asked how can I owe import duty on two items that I have owned for 7 years and had posted to me because I forget to put them in my luggage, and four items worth about R400.00 that I was donating to a registered South African non profit organisation?  The post master was sympathetic and said I have two options, pay the import duty or write a letter to customs asking for a re-assessment, and he will send the parcel and letter back to Pretoria for customs re-assessment.  So it looks like I will not get my parcel in the short term.  So much for air mail.  I somehow think I am about to go through the same process once the surface mail package turns up!

The moral of this story is, if you post anything to South African do not put a realistic new replacement cost on the Australia Post label.  Remember everything from Australia is very cheap!

And on the brighter side, I am now the proud owner of a South African mobile phone and a new modem from a different service provider.  Let’s see if that makes my internet connectivity and access better.  I also brought a new camera, so ‘watch this space’ in the near future for exciting new pictures.

Mind you, I am worried about the elephants as they haven’t been seen in the last 24 hr (plenty of spoor (tracks) and droppings though), which leads me to believe they are plotting something!



And finally, how cool is this South African 2 min noodles in boerewors and biltong flavour (mind you they both taste like beef ones to me!).  They also have pizza, crispy chicken and cheese.



Any Camera Experts?

Sorry for the break in transmission but the same old excuses, it has been a combination of being very busy, no internet connection and my camera not working properly.  I started writing his on the 26^th Jul, but as I type I am sitting in Tzaneen having breakfast and about to go camera shopping.  So despite the title I have given up on trying to fix my old camera and I am about to go shopping for a new one.  I also intend to buy another internet modem from a different network to see if that will give me better connectivity when I get back to the farm. Anyway just to show you what my camera is doing I have included a picture below.  Any suggestions?

Any suggesions on what might be causing this?  It seems to happen mainly in low light, so I suspect it has to do with shutter speed, but I can't seem to change or reset it?

We have a couple more staff starting with the Anti-Poaching unit in the near future so if they work out that should ease the pressure a bit.  I have no one to blame for the increased tempo as it is my doing, making sure that the team does its job properly.  Talk about turning a holiday into work!  At the moment we are working about 14 hours a day, but they guys are accepting it extremely well.

On the plus side, I have seen my first porcupine and spitting cobra, both were pretty cool! Unfortunately still no photos, which is annoying because I have had a number of excellent wildlife photo opportunities.  I bet it won’t happen again once I get my new camera.

Once again BA (bad attitude) Umfumu the elephant was out to get us last night!   He cunningly lured us up onto the new dam wall in the bakkie (ute) and then tried to cut us off before we could get away.  We managed to reverse out at high speed though.  However, to pay us back he pushed a small tree over the road (see below).

AJ realising that the panga is not going to work on this one!

Bye for now!

Not a Lot to Report

I have had a couple of average days, patrolling and conducting night listening posts.  Mind you the elephants are at their tricks again!  Yesterday afternoon we called into the Rehab Centre between our afternoon patrol and occupying our night listening posts to boil the kettle and fill our thermoses (it is still freezing here overnight).  While inside, Umfumu, the bad attitude elephant decided he was not going to let as leave.  Every time we approached the gate he would mock charge to warn us off.  He couldn’t get in and we couldn’t get out, therefore we were bottled up for about an hour until he decided to wander off.  Mind you, after AJ and I occupied our night listening post nearby we could hear him pushing over trees and trumpeting around the area.  As I said a bad attitude!

Unfortunately my camera is playing up at the moment so no new photos.  I took 30 odd photos of a 'composite' group of bok (antelope) last night (before Umfumu bailed us up), which included impala, eland and kudu, but every single one was blurred.  Here are some I ‘prepared earlier’:

Umfumu the 'bad atitude elephant' charging the bakkie (ute).  The photo is blurry because we are diving away as fast as possible!

Bukisa, the dominant male of the heard just after drinking at the camp waterhole, about 75 m from my tent (outside an electric fence).

Bukisa, about to depart.

The Tyranny of Internet

As you all may have noticed I have some major issues where I am located getting ‘reliable’ Internet access, therefore my posts are a bit haphazard.  Additionally I am often unable to access my e-mail account (I can receive but not send), which is why I appear to have been rude and not replied to your e-mails.  The same goes for phone coverage.  

Therefore, please feel free to post comments on this blog whenever you can/feel like it, even if not totally relevant to my posts!  I hope to hear from you all soon.

Regards,

Gary

The Reason Why (Warning Graphic Images)

20 Jul 11

On Tuesday we were on our way back from a shopping trip in Tzaneen when we got a call to divert to a nearby wildlife rehabilitation centre, which SanWild interacts with quite a bit, to pick up a dead zebra.  Locals had brought in a zebra foal that had been caught in a poacher’s snare.  Unfortunately the damage to its leg was too great and the zebra had to be euthanized.  Now you can see why I have given up my comfortable life in Australia to live in the African bush!

Barend, Gary and Bob lookig at the 'snare wound' in a young zebra in the back of our bakkie (ute).

What a poacher's snare does to an innocent animal!  We do this job to stop this type of thing happening.

The Gods Must be Crazy Part 3

19 Jul 11

About 25 years ago as a young Staff Cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon we were taught how to do the perfect ambush, however when it came to applying it at the time something always seemed to go wrong.  Barend has just come back from a week’s leave in the nightclubs and bars of Pretoria and was coming out on his first ambush since getting back.  Therefore being a good leader and knowing how confusing occupying an ambush in an area you have not scouted before can be I made sure that we moved into the firm base behind the ambush site early in order to show him the ground in daylight (everything was going to plan because the elephants were not around!).  We were sitting in the firm base and I was giving confirmatory orders to Barend about half an hour before dark, when all of a sudden he jumps up and says ‘watch out it will kick you’.  Being the highly trained professional I was immediately on guard and spun around to confront this evil threat only to see a young ostrich who had decided that this looked like fun and he wanted to join in the orders.

Immediately I thought back to my intensive training at Duntroon and scanned my memory for the ‘what to do if an ostrich walks into your firm base when about to occupy an ambush’ lesson.  Nothing came to mind (I must have slept through that lesson!).  So here is Gary and Barend jumping around like epileptic octopuses trying to shoo this ostrich out (AJ and Hennie were away sitting in an observation post at the time).  No matter what we did the ostrich would not leave.  While we were pondering what to do next, one of our most trusted local workers is cycling past on his way home along a road about 150 m away, so in my best tactically silent bellow I shout ‘Jeffery, come here’.  At this, Jeffery almost has a heart attack, drops his bicycle in the middle of the road and bolts off into the bush, meanwhile the ostrich thinks this is a great game.  When we finally get to Jeffry we tell him to get rid of the ostrich, so after running around and waving of rifles and branches Jeffry manages to chase the ostrich off to a nearby water point and goes on his way.  I wonder what my directing staff at Duntroon would say?

The anti-poaching ostrich at arriving at orders.

The anti-poaching ostrich getting excited at the prospect of the ambush!

Occupation of the ambush now goes ahead smoothly.  Anyway about 2100 hr Barand hears a stealthy approach through the bush on the other side of the track, here are the poachers we have been waiting for!  As the moon is not up yet it is pitch dark so Barend turns on his active infra red (IR) on his night vision goggles, and lo and behold there is the eye shine approaching through the bush.  IR off and Barend raises his rifle, time for a quick final check IR back on, and there is the poacher only about two metres away, head down and weapon pointed straight at Barend.  He stands about two metres tall, weighs in the vicinity of about two tonnes and is a huge white rhino!  Barend being the cool calm professional and experienced bush hand acts without thinking.  He screams, jumps up, turns around and runs!  Meanwhile, the rhino screams, turns around and runs, in the opposite direction!  Barend is pretty shaken for the next few hours, especially as the rhino keeps circling us looking for his mate who went in the opposite direction.

I will have to write to Duntroon and tell them to include actions on ostriches and rhinos in their training.

Notably, throughout all of this, not a peep was heard from the elephants, and I am sure they had something to do with setting this night’s activities up!

Nocturnal Animals

18 Jul 11

I am referring to the Anti poaching Rangers here! At the moment we are conducting intensive night operations doing all night ambushes, so combined with the poor internet connection I have been unable to post recently. 

One of the advantages about being up all night is that you get to see a lot of cool nocturnal animals up close, but unfortunately no photographs.  So far I have seen a Civet (a native cat, just fractionally larger than a domestic cat), jackals, bats, owls and a lot of impala.  We tend to spend the night being serenaded by the lions and jackals.  I have got to the stage now where I am getting able to pick out the roar of a few individual lions.  There is one dominant male who starts it, and all the others join in. It is a territory and dominance thing.

Dressed for a night ambush.  Yes that is two polartec jackets underneath my shirt.  It is freezing over here at the moment!

As I have not spent a night in my tent for over a week, I thought I would include some photos.

Australia House. My tent at Bukisa Camp, complete with washing!

My bed and office (although recently I have adopted the bar as my office).  Very comfortable really, with its own en-suite bathroom through the tent flap.

Rhino Poaching 101 for Australians

Of all of the amazing animals that I have seen so far over here, nothing compares to the uniqueness of the rhino.  When you are in their presence they have a quality which is almost like a modern day dinosaur walking the earth.  However sadly, the rhino is also going the way of the dinosaur – extinct!  In this case the extinction is not being caused by some natural catastrophe but rather by human greed.  Rhinos have been virtually wiped out in Africa by hunting and poaching except for in South Africa, where even now a number of unscrupulous individuals are well on their way to ensuring their extinction.  In 2010, 333 rhinos where killed in South Africa and so far in 2011, 247 have been killed (although it is believed that both of these figures are higher).  We are now at the stage that almost every rhino requires a full time armed guard to protect it.

I know it is easy to say ‘so what’ especially if you live outside of Africa where many countries have fauna extinction problems, but believe me as an Australian I strongly believe that the world will be a much worse place if rhinos are wiped out.  They are one of the very special species of our planet!

Sorry for the heavy stuff on a light hearted blog, however this is a tragedy currently happening and everyone needs to be aware of it.

Regards,

Gary

A Magnificent Animal!

Mimi Spirits and Elephants

Every culture on earth has stories about mischievous creatures which go by many names, Gremlins, Pixies or Mimi spirits.  However I have discovered the true mischievous creatures of the world, and they are called ‘elephants’!  Why do elephants push over trees – because they can!  Why do elephants push over trees on the road – because they enjoy watching the Anti Poaching Rangers cut them up with blunt pangas (machetes).  Why do elephants walk on the roads – so that Anti Poaching Rangers can take the longest route available to avoid them.  What do elephants do when you want to drive past them, they chase you.  I think you get the picture.  Four out of our last five journeys have been turned around by having the road blocked by elephants.

Members of the SanWild elephant herd.

Part of the SanWild herd of elephants just off the roadside.

Bukisa, the dominant male of the herd chasing us away!

AJ and Barend cutting up a tree pushed over by elephants (Gary supervising - because I am good at that!)

Another Day at The Office

12 Jul 11

Sorry, the internet connection hasbeen down for a few days, so I am a bit late posting.

The last few days have been fairly routine (I originally typed average, but for a wandering Australian, nothing is ‘average’ in Africa), patrolling and rhino guarding.  Last night was a perfect night for poachers, so we stayed out all night and did dawn sweeps of the fenceline in all high risk areas.  No fresh sign!  I don’t know if the message is out there that we are a hard target and therefore the poachers are not coming (maybe they know there is a crazy Australian here, and still remember the Boer War?), or if this is a statistical blip and we are about to be overrun with poaching attempts.  The last poacher caught just before my time was roughed up pretty badly by both the local workers and police.

I am pulling my third straight shift tonight rhino guarding as two staff are away, one planned and one at short notice for family.  Leading by example!

Me at the back of our ute about to start a fenceline patrol.

I thought we may have a cat theme for photos today.  Unfortunately I only have photos of lions and cheetahs, and even they are not that good.  I have seen three civets during the night but very fleetingly, and I have yet to see a leopard in the wild.  Leopards are notoriously shy, but I have seen spoor (tracks), a kill site and have heard then several times (does that count?).

One of our young lions.

A bit hard to see, but there are two cheetahs in this photo (look for the head).

Another cheetah in the bush.

Where’s Wally (Ranger)

AJ took some photos while we were doing a sweep the other day, and just to show how effective the multicams are, try and find Wally (Ranger).  By the way look at the thorns on those bushes.  Everything has thorns over here.

I am not hiding, just standing still.  Hint: look for the rifle butt.

I am not hiding, just walking.  Hint: Look for my head/face which is not camouflage.

Another Day Patrolling

 

Well, today is Sunday and just another routine day at SanWild.  We patrolled some of our high risk areas today looking for fresh sign of poacher activity.  None was found but we did find a lot of old snares (shown below), including a cable snare (probably the worst kind) and one with a very elaborate knot.  The weather remains absolutely miserable, and I am on rhino guard all night!  Ms. Dig has posted my stuff on Monday morning, which means only one more week of cold until it arrives!



Today's snare collection.  All of them were old ones, but still dangerous to the wildlife.



Two of the more dangerous ones, a cable snare and a 'hangmans' type knot.



I finally got a couple of decent photographs of some wildebeest today, which are probably our most common animal.

One of our 'mobs' of wilderbeest.

A good action shot captured on the 'ancient' camera (pure luck)!

Blyde River and the High Veldt

Today I had the day off work, and went on a tour up to the High Veldt and Blyde River Canyon.  We had two very nice Australian guests in the Savannah Camp and I think that Louise from SanWild who was driving the bus asked me to come along to translate for her.  Funnily enough I actually did end up having to explain certain South African phrases and words used in English to the Australians.  Two that spring to mind are ‘quantum’ = a minibus, and ‘oke’ = a person, bloke, guy (not derogatory).

We also stopped at an old 19^th century gold rush mining town called Pilgrim’s Rest, which could have been transplanted into any of the gold rush areas in Australia, USA or Alaska (yes I know this is part of the USA) and not looked out of place.  Corrugated iron buildings, pubs and a masons lodge.  Maybe the vervet monkeys climbing all over the buildings though would have been a give away.

Blyde River from a lookout on the high veldt.

Blyde River Canyon.

The 'Pot Holes' at Blyde River canyon.  Formed by water swirling during floods.

Vervet Monkey sitting on the roof at Pilgrim's Rest.

Aloe plants.  Many species of aloes are present up on the high veldt, often in very precarious positions.

Back for an ambush that night, and our first night of rain.  I pulled the ambush out at 2230 as I figured the poachers where not going to be out and miserable like we were!  I hope Ms. Dig posts me my raincoat and hutchie soon!

Hippo Rescue

We got a call yesterday about a wild Hippo (not on a reserve) that had been caught in a poacher’s snare, so we went out at about 1600 today to rescue it.   The attempt went until about 2230 but unfortunately the Hippo was spooked and got away.  It’s very sad as it is fairly lame on land and must be in a lot of pain.  No photos though as it was night time and I didn’t want the flash to spook the animals (turned out to be a vain hope).

Barend just cooked an awesome lunch.  Simple fare but just what the doctor ordered: T bone steaks, corn and roast potatoes. The South Africans are very much into spices and sauces, a lot more than Australians, and they are of a very different type.

We spent the afternoon of patrolling before we went out to the hippo rescue, during which we drove along a road and found ourselves in the middle of a herd of elephants.  The trumpeting up that close was very impressive.  It is still amazing that six elephants can hide in the bush only about 20 m from you!

Umfumu, the elephant with attitude again!

More Zebras!

One of the senior SanWild Staff (a very masculine, old school Afrikaner) holding his wife's wrap and handbag the night of the failed hippo rescue. 

Changing Operations

5 Jul 11

I have started to implement the new patrolling schedules over the last few days and the team is responding well to it.  I am basically trying to send two primary messages to poachers and potential poachers:

1.      SanWild Reserve is a hard target because we have an anti poaching unit.

2.      SanWild Anti Poaching Unit (SAPU) can be anywhere at anytime.

This doesn’t mean that we have to make the job any less enjoyable.  For example, on Tuesday evening we did a sweep through our priority areas, then sat at Hippo Dam and had a BBQ (Brai in South Africa) dinner.  We forgot to bring a hot plate so I used a large flat rock on the fire to cook the meat.  Stone grilled dining at its best!  It was interesting sitting there eating a BBQ with the hippos in the water about 10 metres away.  Good times.

Hennie cooking our pork chops on a flat rock with my Ka Bar knife.

Barend (enjoying one beer before ambush), AJ and Oertjies (the dog) just before going out on an ambush.  Believe it or not there are actually two hippos in the background!



And one for Ms. Dig: This place is just one big artefact scatter, everywhere there is bare earth there is a plethora of artefacts, mainly quartz cores, flakes and various tools, but there are also a lot of hammer stones.  It appears that the bare earth patches have been that way for a long time and they were used as both kill/butchering sites and quarries.



A couple of tpical quartz artefacts (not the best).



AJ standing in an artefact scatter.  Basically every white spot is an artefact, mainly cores and actual retouched tools.

A Week’s Worth of News

3 Jul 11

Sorry for the break but things have been a bit hectic here over the last week or so and then when I finally got my internet connection working I managed to spill coffee over the computer keyboard.  I have just finished putting it back together and it appears everything is working.

Key events over the last few days include a day trip into Tzaneen (a town about 50 km away) for our monthly grocery shop.  Also managed to buy a stack of things that I needed like a sleeping bag, as it is freezing here of a night and we spend most nights out either in an ambush or guarding the rhinos.  It was also nice to have lunch in the pub and a couple of beers.

On Sunday we went out to a neighbouring farm to help out the owner who had been threatened the day before and had prowlers around the house that night.  He had previously been kidnapped and robbed about a month ago, so he was fairly nervous. We swept the bush around his property and generally made ourselves noticed as a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms.  It was as much a PR exercise as a practical one.

More ambushes each night and guard duty this week.

Me sitting in the back of our 'awesome' Mahinda 2WD ute while on s vehicle patrol.  Probably not the best choice of vehicle for the team, but I am sure it was cheap!

I had an interesting experience on Monday morning when looking for our two white rhinos.  We found a kill site where a leopard had killed an impala, then dragged it off about 100 m to hide what it couldn’t eat.  After killing the animal, the leopard opens it up and empties the stomach and bowel contents on the ground, thereby removing all of the smelly bits.

A curious/friendly Zebra (the striped one - for you Australians), Oertjies (the brown and white one) and AJ (black jacket).

Elephant coming out of the bush towards the car.  Its amazing how something so big can hide so well.

New Job

29 Jun 11

Had a meeting with Andre and Louise today who have now put me in charge of the Anti Poaching Unit, so I spent most of the rest of the day on the computer putting together a concept of operations.  I will be spending a fair bit of time over the next couple of weeks developing training, patrol programs etc.

Ambush again last night.  Nothing to report.

Just a couple of wildlife photos to keep you interested:

Wildebeest, the farm has these evrywhere, but I haven't managed to get a close up shot yet.

Kudu Bull in the bush watching us.  You will probably need to blow this picture up to see him proberly (its worth it).  The Kudu, while there are a lot of them are quite lighty so this is the only shot I currently have of one.

Tracking

28 Jun 11

Spent the whole day tracking a poacher who had come in the night before and we ended up being able to recreate his whole night’s activity.  At one stage AJ and I had spooked him as we were driving back to camp after an ambush that night. He dropped his hat and high tailed out of the Farm by the most direct route before he could set any snares.  Knowing we are here and that SanWild is a hard target should keep him from making another attempt in the short term. As we were reacted quickly in the morning I forgot to take my camera so no pictures for today.

Getting Over the Animals

27 Jun 11

Well I have now been here a week, but as I write this I still haven’t been able to get an internet connection.  I am writing this each day in a word document with the intention of posting it when I finally get a chance.  So by the time you read these entries some will probably be a few weeks old.  Hopefully you will still find it interesting?

Although I say I am getting over the animals, it is not really true!  Every day I am seeing new animals, which is a real buzz, however I am often not able to photograph them either because of my ancient camera, or they are so fleeting.  I didn’t want to get to repetitive initially so I am only posting a selection of photos so if you have any requests please put a comment on and ask for more!

Giraffe on the road.

The Game Drive vehicle with Barend driving it (what he does when not anti poaching - a very hard worker).

I had a mob of vervet monkeys who decided that the bush around my tent was a good place to play at dawn this morning.  Just what you want after coming back from an ambush at 0200 in the morning.  However, they were very interesting. 

The Rangers don’t get paid until – Sorry have to go fresh human spoor (tracks) have been discovered on the farm and we need to track him down.