Finishing up at Chobe

Ok so update on what’s going on about becoming a wildlife monitor – so far there are not enough students coming to Chobe for WildlifeACT to appoint me permanently, so instead of becoming a monitor, I can do my master’s through them in an area where data is lacking. It’s not a bad proposition since I’ve been wondering if a master’s degree might help me in the future and I’ve always said that if I do it, I want to do it on something that will actually be used to make a difference. And the project will be based on planning wildlife corridors so that the landboard can use that information to zone the Chobe Enclave into appropriate areas instead of just randomly assigning crop fields and farms, ultimately increasing the conflict in the area. A great example would be the cluster farm fence that they erected but half has been destroyed by wildlife since it’s in their direct path to the river. Some people seriously lack common sense.

Ellies at one of the "working" waterholes in Savuti

I almost forgot that we collared a lion! my 5th collaring:) It was much more organised than the previously one's  I was involved with. We found the two male lions mid-afternoon after Robyn's fiance informed her about them, and stayed with them till the "Wild Cru" team arrived to dart and put on the collar. This team is the same one involved with monitoring lions in Zimbabwe, Cecil (the lion who was shot for a trophy) was one of their lions. They're able to start the lion guardian program here in Botswana as a result of all the funding they received during the media hype. So he didn't die in vain. While driving back to camp around 11pm, we saw a aardvark! It was so cool :D

The last transect is finally done!! It really looked like it was going to rain, the wind was basically blowing us away during the transect and my face was so dirty from all the dust, but alas no rain in Chobe yet.

The last day was spent getting everything ready to leave the next morning by 4:15, I’m pretty excited to head back to Khwai where we can make our own food, here the ladies only cook stew, funky pizza, salad which comprises of more lettuce than anything else and tomato and onion sauce. I can still hear them announcing every meal. It was so awkies in the beginning with us sitting around the table all proper while they stood by the table, first introducing themselves and then the food. After a few nights we told them it really wasn’t necessary, luckily they left us alone after that.

After miraculously getting up at 4am without my alarm clock going off (I set the wrong time), we took the long road back to Khwai. Since Robyn’s fiancé had come to Chobe the previously afternoon, we drove back with him which meant that we were driving a lot faster than when we came. We were lucky enough to see a few lion prides, ellies at one of the Savuti waterholes (2 of the 3 are barely working with only a small stream of water being pumped out, the ellies are literally standing at the pipe, sucking out the water), a lot of antelope, a super fresh ellie carcass and a DWNP bakkie driving past us with a whole lot of huuuuge elephant tusks on the back.

After arriving back at camp at around 2pm, slightly starving and sun burnt, we quicks had to clean the kitchen because leaving a man in charge of cleaning is never a great idea. It’s super humid back in camp so hopefully it rains soon!