Happy Anniversary Ellies! So Monday morning I was fortunate to have a lay in and was up at 7.30am. I went out at 8.30 to see Shaka and Clyde and do Activity Budgets for a couple of hours. The boys were supposed to go on a walk at 9.30am, but Shaka was just not co-operating and refused to stretch down so that the guides could put the blankets on him. He was rather lethargic and just did not want to do what he was told. It took over half an hour with a lot of e...

Doing research come rain or shine! Monday morning I was up at 6am and started the day's activities in the boma. We started off collecting dung for the various tests that we carry out and then I went into the pens and removed all the left over branches. After a while Tazayi came over and asked me to help him carry the food bowls over to Harry, Namib and Tosha so with a fair amount of strength we managed to carry them over to the pens. As a thank you he then inv...

All Settled in! Monday I woke up and I was in a wee bit of pain to say the least. My sunburn had not gone down the slightest, in fact I think it was worse, but I lathered on some After Sun and went out to help in the boma. This morning we had a lot of dung samples to get so after all the elephants had had breakfast and were let out we were able to collect the dung and put it in the test tubes for the freezer. Once that was done all the pens could the n be cl...

Back to South Africa! I cannot believe I finally landed in South Africa! After leaving home on Sunday afternoon at 5pm and saying a very sad farewell to Mum and dad at Gatwick airport, I was finally on my way back! I milled around the airport for a while, and bought a watch seeing as I had stupidly left mine behind, then eventually was able to get on the plane to Dubai. I was sitting next to a lovely lady who I chatted to for a good hour or two, then for the...

Monday 12th - Sunday 18th Well I did feel just a little smug that I could have a lay in on Monday morning, but at the same time I was now stuck at the campus all week so I had to find something to do. I decided to make some Christmas presents for the family of photo's and my blog s, so that kept me busy for most of the day. I then made a point of going swimming for an hour every day in the pool, and it was great to dive in at the end of a really hot day. ...