Joburg Airport - and there's Nelson Mandela.....
Chameleon backpack lodge in Windhoek. Cool place for a night stopover - pool, bar and game pizzas!
En route to Okonjima - Brewed Awakenings Coffee shop at Okahandja. A very welcome break - and the coffee's pretty damn good as well!
Entrance to Okonjima reserve
And finally the 'road' to PAWS.
Our home - A-frames to protect the tents from the storms.
Warthogs to greet us...
... a common site in camp.
Grey go-away birds on the salt lick
Ablution block - yes hot and cold running water. Note one mirror damaged by Baboons. They evidently don't like their own reflections.
Loos and showers with a view - very invigorating.
And the laundry area - which is fine when its dry (see later :))
The eating / meeting area, or 'Lapa' (look it up)
Clive - our illustrious leader planning the campaign.
Downtime - Colin with beer and barbecue.
Kudu horns - from an animal which died while trapped in the wire - one of the things which needs to be cleared from the reserve.
Acacia thorn in camp - we were to get rather well acquainted with this stuff.
Some of us found ourselves sharing our tents with these guys - common Namaqua Rock Mouse. Vanessa was sufficiently unimpressed to have hers trapped (and removed off-site). I suspect they all came back tho'.
This is the nest which my mouse ('Jeremy') built under my tarp. On removal, he just built another one the next night and so on for 4 nights.
Half the team on board 'Shez', Clive's 42 year old landrover. and still running - after a fashion :)
However, no windscreen and the coachwork needs attention ! Beth at the wheel.
Out on game drive - looking for Leopard.
Clive - nice hat!
The volunteer group - Fred, Cindy, me, Jenny, Colin, Celia, Vanessa, Steve
Clive and Beth discuss the chances of Beth getting the hi-lux over a dry river bed. (and yes she made it...)
View over 55,000 acres of Okonjima from the 'Zen Garden'. The problem is well illustrated here, in that overgrazing in the past has turned a grassland savannah (think Maasai Mara) into an Acacia scrub. This makes it very hard for Cheetahs in particular to hunt and survive. The PAWS program, in part, is working on clearing the scrub,
Okonjima. Spot the giraffe
Okonjima. Again, this should be grassland, but the over grazing from farmers has stripped the surface and the rains have washed away the top soil so nothing now grows.
This is how it should be - an area cleared by PAWS in previous years.
On foot, looking for anything of interest. The only real way to get close to the wildlife.
Clive with a blindworm.
Grassland area - with ubiquitous Acacia.
Felix with the radio tracker looking for Cheetah.
..and here they are - chilling out on the road. A common site for them as they get good visibility while they warm up in the morning.
Cheetah - Note the radio collars. These are rehabiliated and released wild cats from the Africat project, and are tracked for research and health purposes.
Cheetah - its a hard life.
..very hard....
Oh well - time to get up I suppose.
Cheetah paparazzi.
Another popular site - on a small mound under the trees.
and again
Time for us to go.
..and for the Cheetah as well.
Rain moving in. We had storms most afternoons or evenings as this was the end of the long rains.
Deluge in camp. Getting caught in it (with no rooves on the vehicles) was pretty entertaining (in hindsight)
Umbrellas occasionally useful :)
Or else improvise!
A settled evening after the rain.
..and a sparkling sunset.
And so to work. Here at the Africat foundation.
A box trap used to live capture cats (and other things)
Inside the Africat surgery
And the information centre. Bones ...
... skulls and skins.
Colin painting the timbers.
Fred on the interior - grand designs eat your heart out!
Dismantling old nets and enclosures
More timber work.
Time to get your hands dirty - Cindy and Jenny.
Collecting up the metalwork rubbish
and the disposal point (actually mostly retained for reuse at a later date)
Okonjima airstrip - in case of emergency or else tourists flying in.
Preparing for action in the cheetah enclosures.
Welcoming committee. These guys are not particularly agressive - just a bit curious and want to know what's going on. On the other hand, they are wild so not a great idea to turn your back on them!
More inmates - most of these guys will be released back to the wild at some point, when they are ready to go. Meanwhile they are held in very large enclosures and fed but not habituated to people.
Sometimes you just have to wait for them to move on......
....and so off we go. The job here is to clear scrub from the grass margins to allow grass cutters in. This is important so Africat staff can get a good look at the cats when they are feeding them - for monitoring/health purposes.
Scrub chopping - pangas....
.... and loppers.
Cheetahs are never far away...
... and sometime you just get the feeling you're being watched .....
...from a number of vantage points.. :)
....and just checking that we're leaving!
The aftermath - having Acacia thorns removed. Lucky we had four nurses on the team!
Even Clive caught one - and major surgery was undertaken on his thumb! Full theatre team in attendance
A visit to REST - Rare and Endangered Species Trust.
However - no free tour, so we park up to collect rocks.
..a lot of rocks!
Which are then used for shoring up the road to the Trust, against flash floods washing it away.
Road repairs at REST.
Next job - Fred clearing evidence of the last major vulture feeding session (at the 'Vulture Restaurant'). A lot of donkey bones (and hooves....)
An unpleasantly enough, the next course - a bin full of offal. Just what the vultures ordered!!
REST site and aviary on the hillside
Their vulture sculpture ...
... and the view from the top.
Inmates at REST - Southern White-Faced Scops owl.
Lappet-faced vulture.
And then there's Nesher - their Cape Griffon vulture
Nesher
Nesher - this is his best side :)
Nesher being fed. He can't be released but acts as an ambassador for REST- helping to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the vultures in Namibia.
Bateleur eagle - smart bird!
And then to the school. Built by Okonjima initially for the children of the workforce, but hopefully it will become something of a community centre and even adult-education centre.
Starting the day with song !!
Register..
.. and lessons begin.
But then we had some stuff to give them which we had bought with us -
Its one way to gain their attention :)
Lots of interesting gifts..
.. and even a bag of Chelsea stuff - good job they were not all Manchester United supporters!
We brought a trailer full of tyres from the reserve 'dump'..
..which have many uses. Seats...
Transport...
... and the play area for the reception class.
They have horses on site for the children to become familiar with (they even wander into the classrooms ...)
Preparations for sports day
Sack races..
Tortoise races....
Tortoising fun..
Watched by the crowd (parents)
Hoola hoop contests..
.. and dog racing :)
Substitutes wait on the side lines
while volunteers provide coaching...
or just someone to talk to :)
Joining in...
..and the team photo. Thanks Yolandi - it was good fun!
Back at camp, Felix and Peter start their (San) bushman walk. These 'huts' are where the San live
..and here they are making string from Oryx-Horn (a plant). We all had a go at this later with somewhat mixed results :). (Fred won the competition...)
Setting small traps..
..and the porcupine trap!
And of course, making fire - not as easy as it looks...
... and it even took the guys some time!
..But finally!
We had a little time at one of the main lodges - great views.,
Clive chatting with AJ - Africat's research co-ordinator.
Phil with Donna Hansen. The Hansen's are the family responsible for all this - and taking responsibility for putting the environment right again.
We even managed one 'proper meal' at the lodge (no offence guys - the camp food was pretty good as well !!)
Clive pondering the next storm on its way in - will we have time to get back to camp?
And so to the * Natural History * section. Starting with a termite mound with fungus...
Baby Leopard tortoise. They change pattern as they get bigger...
(dead) Millipede being usefully recycled by some excellent beetles.
The Armoured Cricket - brilliant insect all over the place in the cheetah enclosures.
Totally harmless and happy to keep Cindy company for a while :)
Fab ground beetle - Africa style. 3 inches long.
Dung beetle
More dung beetles - at work!
'Flatty' spider
Golden Orb web Spider (Nephila) female - one of a large and varied family.
Nephila spider female - with the really small male underneath....
Another large spider - possibly a Nephila, but if someone can help me out on this one that would be great!
Preying Mantis
One of any number of moths...
Owl moth - common in the Lapa in the evening
Large lacewing - wingspan around 4 inches
..and a lacewing in the waterhole in camp!
And now the butterflies - a real feature of this trip, there were large clouds of them on the roads. This one is the Yellow Pansy
Male Diadem butterfliy
Male Diadem - wings up!
Female Diadem (or is it an Africa Monarch ?!?)
Female Diadem.
Darker Commodore?
Garden Acraea butterfly - with transparent wings!
Now this one should be something like a Large Copper - but for the life of me I can't find it. Beth/Clive - any ideas here?
Stumped on this one as well - but should be a leaf butterfly of some kind.
Broad-bordered Grass Yellow.
Zebra White Butterflies
Brown-Veined White
Dotted Blue - took some time to find this one, but got there in the end :)
The 'Elegant' grasshopper - what a beast!
One of the pyrgomorphid grasshoppers - possibly a Toxic Milkweed ??
To the birds. Red-billed Quelia - small flock!!
Northern Black Korhaan - female.
Red-billed spurfowl.
Young Pale Chanting Goshawk - lived with its parents by the Africat centre.
Cape Glossy Starling (I think!)
Red-billed Buffalo weaver nest - in a disused windpump on the reserve.
Close up of Red-billed buffalo weaver nest - very sociable birds with an unpenetrable home!
Monteiro's Hornbill - with cricket!
Monteiro's Hornbill - another cricket!
White browed sparrow weaver - in camp.
White-browed sparrow weaver nest.
Red-eyed Bulbul.
Spotted thickknee - on night drive. Is it just me, or do they look a bit dim?
African wildcat - rare (and somewhat poor!) shot. Still - I'll take what I can get!
Predators now. Paw prints - leopard and hyena.
Leopard!
..and there he is.....
I'll need Beth or Clive to identify which cat is which here, but note the collar as these are radio tracked leopards...
Leopard.
Leopard - I think this is TJ ('Tyson Junior'), top cat in the reserve.
This is Wahoo - a beautiful cat who cannot be released as he is has no fear of people (long story...)
Wahoo in his enclosure.
Wahoo at feeding time.
Wahoo.
Tracking spotted hyena - I think this is Paddington.
Paddington.
..And I think this one is Pooh!
Pooh.
Collared cheetah team.
Cheetah.
Cheetah in the enclosure - no collar.
Cheetah - what are you looking at?
Cheetah - too many flies on the nose....
Cheetah - bored now.
Black-backed Jackal
Hartmann's Zebra - with red-dust coats!
Hartmann's zebra
Oryx, or Gemsbok.
Angolan Giraffe ! Sometimes this is all you see....
Angolan Giraffe
Dik Dik - in camp.
Steenbok
(Greater) Kudu - Male. Very tasty !!
Female Kudu.
Impala
Male impala.
Eland - biggest antelope in Africa.
Eland
Warthog - in camp.
Warthogs chewing a (very) old skull. Unusual practice - presumably after the calcium from the bones?
Warthog camouflage!
Ground Squirrel - pretty cute huh?
And so heading home - on the new Airbus A380 double-decker. This seemed all a bit unreal after 2 weeks 'in the bush'. Certainly wasn't ready for the crowds AND THE NOISE!!!!
Windsor castle - and home!
