Well, it’s been a very busy five days since my last post. First of all, a very happy 18th birthday to my daughter for Monday the 8th of August. I did try and ring her about 8 times (and left about 5 messages) but obviously she was too busy to answer her phone? I even got AJ to take a photo of me phoning her while we were out tracking a poacher!
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| Me attemping to phone my daughter on her 18th birthday! Our fence had been cut the night before for the first time in a month, although we chased him off before he could harm any animals (unfortunately we couldn't catch him). It is assessed as a scouting mission so we back tracked him through the neihbouring farms to identify where he came from (successfully). |
On Tuesday we got two new staff who wanted to try out to be anti-poaching rangers, a girl and a young English guy. The girl only lasted 24 hr until she made a decision that being an anti-poaching ranger wasn’t for her. Maybe it was being chased by BA Umfumu on the first night of guard duty? Anyway AJ and I have figured out what is going on! Tradition has it that if you see a duiker (the smallest of the antelopes) then this is a premonition of an ‘event’, as duiker are notoriously shy and live in the thicker bush (it must be a bugger being the smallest antelope in Africa!) and are not often seen. Well, both times that Umfumu has chased us out of our ambushes we have seen four duikers earlier that day. Anyway, Charles the English guy has taken to the job like a duck to water so that will ease the pressure slightly, who knows I may even be able to roster a night off for each of the rangers over the next few weeks.
Everybody knows that pussy cats can climb trees, and everybody knows that lions are just big pussy cats. Therefore as a logical deduction then lions must be able to climb trees? Well none of the experienced hands here had ever seen it before, but have a look at the photos below! That is an almost full grown lioness in the tree, maybe 400 kg. We now also know how the lions get over the two metre high electric game fences. |
| Lioness up a tree (see the game fence in the background). |
Hi Beautiful,
ReplyDeleteOur Chick was working until 10.30pm on her birthday - she got your messages when she finished work and thought it would be too late to wake you (she had the time difference backwards). Have you had a chance to catch up with her since?
Actually, with your time difference, you're probably best placed to speak to her when she's awake and compos mentis! I have to aim for when she's just waking up in the 'morning.'
Love,
Ms. Dig.