Chobe Enclave

Since getting to the Chobe Enclave was quiet a drive, we had to get up super early so that we missed most of the heat. On the way there, we saw some lions in Mobabe National Park which comprised of an adult male, 2 sub-adults and an adorable cub who spent the time we were watching them, just lying on his paws staring back at us. I was on the other side of the landie trying to take photos and when I stood up ever so slightly to get a better view, Robyn sternly told me to please sit down. Haha felt a little like a poep being told off, but it’s only for safety reasons and the blond in me didn’t think of that. We finally arrived at Chobe just before sunset, it’s a beautiful camp and the rooms we stay in are pretty larny for a research camp. We even have someone cooking food for us. And the research lab had huuuge apple computers in. It’s amazing, I want to take one home.



So far, life in Botswana hasn’t been too bad, I’ve seen ellies every day, some huge herds most of the time, with the most adorable babas, and we were even lucky enough to see a pack of 12 wild dogs. We watched them a few hours to get good id photos, unfortunately during the process I managed to format my card :x luckily I had saved some of my photos which I took when we drove to Chobe but I lost the eclipse photos that my sus and I stood up at 3am for. Sorry dude (haven’t told her yet). I’ve spend about half half in the bush and in front of a computer editing the data previous students had inputted into excel spreadsheets. Retarded excel users is the nicest description I could come up for them. Thanks for making my job a pain in the ass guys. Some wouldn’t even make the effort to check the right spelling of species names. And why in the word would you make yourself more work by typing km or hours after each entry! How on earth are you supposed to analyse data like that? Magtig. Ok rant over. I’ve formatted each excel spreadsheet so that they can only input the data a certain way otherwise it won’t allow it (evil laugh). I just hope they aren’t turds and create their own spreadsheets. If I become the monitor I’ll definitely be checking up on them.

Now the heat, on my goodness! You might have noticed that the weather is a definitive repeating complaint of mine, but since I’m a winter baby you have to understand. But I make the girls laugh about it every time I proclaim that "it's sulip time!" (sweaty upper lip). It's pretty hilarious, me making fun of my sweaty appearance. I've repeated it so often that the girls have been using the phrase :p I've also started complaining about having sweaty eyelids - what in the world?! Didn't know one has pores there...need to think of a name for that one, but my one bestie, Adri, is more creative in that department. Thankfully though, there are not hotties to see us like this... The biggest problem out here is that every building in camp was definitely not build to keep the hot air out. Even the lab is badly built - the windows are too small and it’s not even under a tree! It wouldn’t be such an issue if the aircon is working but they insist on using local guys to come fix it. What on earth does a local guy, who grew up in the bundoes know about fixing electronics? The cooked dinner hasn’t been too bad, except it’s been stew stew stew most of the evenings and they love their carbs. My tummy does not. 

Now I better get to bed so that I'm not a zombie when I wake up at 4:30am for our next transect...

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