A new beginning

Matambu - one of our collared elephants. It's amazing watching him use his other senses to navigate around - he's blind but has the most gentle personality


Wish I could help keep them safe 

It felt like he was looking write into my heart
So much has happened in the last month!
I resigned - after getting an offer closer to home with (hopefully) less drama where I can actually gain experience in the field, I decided it's now or never. I didn't want to wait till things finally settled down and things became more organised - there were just too many variables working against it and the project was definitely no ones priority except mine.

So here I am, back in good ol' South Africa, doing field work for a post-doc elephant researcher. It's just lovely, I get to go to the field every second day to record rumbles of collared elephant bulls while also taking ID photos of all the individuals we see.
It's very different to Botswana - of course not as wild - having to get used too fences again:x and the fact that they trophy hunt in the area I work. People suck. And I also don't live as isolated anymore - which is probably a good thing, now I just need to force myself to be more social.
But my heart is happy here so I can't complain. Will however just add a side note about the horrid oven I currently have to live in. THIS HEAT IS INTENSE. But I do love the lightning storms, which occur too infrequently.

This job also means that I don't work with volunteers - although that definitely has it's perks and you get to meet amazing people, it's nice to have a break of having to people-please.

I do however miss driving a Land Cruiser and feeling like a queen driving it in town while all the guys stare at you :p

Going to the field tomorrow - 4:30am wake-up call for me after which recording rumbles awaits <3

#wildatheart

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