Feb 18

I went out on a bird drive this morning. It was a foggy morning, which made the spider webs very dewy and neat to see. We saw lots of birds as well as white rhino, giraffe, nyala, and a python! We also drove by where the zebra kill was last week. The hyenas have eaten everything left over by the lions and the bones were spread about the area. Man did it smell! After lunch we all worked on mini volunteer projects. I helped design some bulletin boards and did some other crafty decorations. In the evening on our game drive we didn’t see too much. We saw three lions laying around and playing with each other for about an hour until it got dark. We had a bonfire after dinner.

Feb 17

This morning started with a nice warm shower before the hippo and croc tour. We saw tons of hippos, baby hippo, birds, crocs, snails, zebra, and waterbuck. We saw a hippo trying to mate. After lunch, we headed out for our horse ride. It was absolutely amazing. My horse, Assagyi, liked to be at the front of the pack which gave me an amazing view of the land. We came close to zebra, blue wildebeest, and impala. We saw a massive snakes skin as we rode through the grass. We also rode along the beach, not just walking but we trotted as well. My butt is already sore! We came back to Thanda tonight and met the 3 new research/community volunteers.

Feb 16

Woke up and went to a cute little café for breakfast with a few of the girls. As we were leaving to rush back for our horseback riding it started to downpour. We got completely soaked! Our horse back riding has been postponed until tomorrow. That means today is an internet and shopping day! We had a volunteer group dinner before going out on the town.

Feb 15

On this mornings game drive we saw a lions kill, it was a zebra. All the lions were pretty much hiding so no photos. We quickly saw zebra, impala, wilderbeast, warthog, and a leopard tortoise. Our guide asked if any of us wanted to hold it, so I did…he was quite heavy! We then took a ride to St. Lucia for the weekend. We all jumped in the pool when we got to our lodge. We had a nice shower that didn’t require standing in a bin! Then we met up with the volunteers from African Impact who live in St. Lucia. We did a fun photo scavenger hunt around the town to raise money for charity. After we had an amazing dinner followed by drinks at a local bar…interesting place with lots of locals! Our scavenger hunt team came in second place, we got a bottle of champagne!

Thanda Living

Our rooms are equipped with mosquito nets above the beds which is nice. The toilets do not refill so we have to fill the back of the toilet each time with a jug of water to flush. The showers don’t always work…some days we have no water at all and it can last for 3-4 days! When we do have water, we take quick 3 minute showers while standing in a little barrel. We then take that water to fill the jugs for the toilets. I have become quite a pro at filling the sink with the little water that comes out and taking a sink bath! We have big meals usually with rice, potatoes, meat, salad, and butternut squash. For breakfast there is bread, sometimes pancakes or muffins, cereal, and there are always apples out all day.

Bugs!

As my blog followers have requested, here is a picture of the beetle that came in to my canopy (1st photo)… Also here are the Orb Spiders we drive through. We also drive through the Bark Spider, which is smaller and furrier. It is hard to get a great picture of the webs across the path…

Feb 14

Happy Valentines Day! This morning we did the conservation project again. I was getting pretty good with the saw. I’m going to have some big muscles when I get home. One of the volunteers hasn’t been doing well with the accommodations here, she had a melt down during our tree cutting and is going home now. :/ My tough skin from my sunburn has started to not allow me to sweat and it is bubbling up! I also twisted my ankle today, it is walkable, just sore. And I had to have some major surgery on my back to get a thorn out! We took our first quiz today. The photographers against the researchers. The photographers won! We went on a shorter game drive tonight and stopped at the top of a hill to watch the sunset and have sundowners (alcoholic drinks). When we got back there were chocolate muffins, cookies, and we had chocolate cake!

Feb 13

This morning we took a drive to Jozini Lake for a boat cruise. It was a very large lake with animals all along the side. We saw hippo, giraffe, buffalo, wild horse, and a herd of 60 elephants! It was a great sight to see. Then we headed to Ghost Mountain Inn for some lunch and internet. I am having a hard time with internet which is frustrating. I had a grilled bacon, banana, and cheese for lunch! Quite the combination, it was sweet and salty! Tonight on our game drive we saw the cheetah brothers, giraffe, zebra and baby ( we named Zeeke), hyena and baby, elephant, impala, yellow billed horn tail (Zazu from lion king). On the drive I asked Jessie to teach us some sign language for the animal names ☺ I am very itchy because my sunburn is starting to peel!

Feb 12

This morning we headed out into the bush to do a conservation project. Parts of the land gets overgrown with invasive plants which makes it harder for animals to graze and rest. So we started clearing a large section that will probably take the entire year to clear out. We used machetes and saws to cut down thorn bushes. It was painful and hot! Quite therapeutic to use the machetes though! It was great to see what all 15 of us volunteers were able to accomplish in 3 hours. ☺ Before the drive this evening I noticed both my batteries were dead! I plugged one in and got 5 minutes of charge. I was nervous, but it was just enough power. This evenings game drive was 5 hours. A group of us went on a drive to find wild dog. We had to go over to the neighboring reserve since they escaped from Thanda the other week. We found them hunting along the path and followed them for a few hours. They were beautiful and acted just like domestic dogs. On our way there a bird flew into my head!

Feb 11

I slept well despite my sunburn. During our game drive this morning we saw giraffe, elephant, white rhino, impala, blind snake, and zebra. We saw baby elephant, baby rhino, baby impala, and baby zebra! During our game drive this evening we saw inala, impala, white rhino, vervet monkey, rabbit, zebra, and the black rhino. We saw baby monkey, and baby black rhino! It was the day of baby animals. The black rhino is very very shy so my picture is quite blurry. But it is a rare sight to see.

Feb10

I woke up at 5am to go down to the beach for sunrise photos. It was misty out which made the sky beautiful. We had an early breakfast and headed down the coast by car to a private beach at Black Rock. There were beautiful reefs, blue nosed jelly fish, snorkeling, and hot hot sand! The guys from the lodge took turns showing some of us how to surf. I got up on my first wave and caught three more in! I was the only one who got up…they think I’m a natural and should keep surfing…I don’t know how much surf there is in Boston… We got back to no running water, absolutely sunburnt! We loaded the cars and headed back to Thanda just in time for dinner. They cut down aloe from a bush on camp, opened it up, and rubbed it on my back for my sunburn. It was very soothing ☺ Then I got my internet to work! My hands are starting to get puffy from sunburn…

Feb 9

Woke up early to walk the beach this morning to look for turtle nests. We didn’t find any but the sunrise was amazing. We got ready for our snorkel trip after a big breakfast! We took a half hour drive to grab our snorkel gear and I got a wetsuit. We drove from there along the beach to the boat launch. Our first stop was near the reef to look at some fish. Beautiful, but I was starting to feel claustrophobic in the wetsuit. I took it off when we got back on the boat. Then we took a 15 minute ride looking for dolphin. The waves were very large and I was beginning to feel sick. When we got to the dolphins I forced myself in. There were 7 wild dolphins swimming right up next to us looking right at us. I felt sick, so I waved the boat over…got in…and lost my breakfast for the rest of the trip on the ocean. I missed out on more dolphin interaction and seeing the ragged tooth shark. All I could think about was solid land! But it was still a great experience. I’m glad I forced myself in at first and it was very neat to see them jumping out of the water right next to the boat! The ride back to our lodge made me get motion sickness again so I took an hour nap on the deck and had some sugar. I met up with everyone down at the beach for the last few hours of sun. I collected some shells. The men who run the lodge cooked us a braai (barbeque) over the fire of steak, brughtwurst, corn, onions, and sweet potatoes. After dinner we went on a scorpion walk. They were tiny, only about half an inch and they glowed! This is a picture of our little deck where I took my nap on the right side.

Feb 8

I slept great last night…bug spray must be the key. Duh. On this mornings game drive we saw giraffe, lion, impala, buffalo, and zebra. On our way to find rhino we had the worst spider experience yet. Oh my gosh. My fear of bugs will be gone by the end of this month. We didn’t find rhino, but we saw a leopard! They are hard to spot because there are only 2 known on the reserve and they are very shy. The guides are amazing at tracking the animals, such a talent. We got back, said our goodbyes and thank yous to Paul and headed to Rocktail Bay for the weekend. It was a long drive. About four hours in total. We were on a truck with open sides so lots of wind and dirt flying up at us! We went for a quick swim when we got there to get all the dirt off. My first time in the Indian Ocean! It was amazing, such warm water…clear! The lodge was completely secluded and there is nobody on the beach! We had a few beers by candle light on the porch and had dinner. We sat around the campfire and played the bongo drums. We went down to the beach and stuck our feet in the water. We could see the phosphorus lighting up green in the water as the waves came in. It is a type of algae that whales eat. The stars were breath taking! It was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen in my life. The sky was so huge with millions and millions of stars. It is hard to describe, but the sky was almost like an omnitheater and seemed three dimensional. I saw the Southern Cross. Wonderfully beautiful night!

February 7

I slept good last night. I sprayed bugspray all over my bed and myself. We saw elelphant, lion, cheetah, and finally giraffe this morning! There were 3 giraffe, the lighting was kind of harsh which made it difficult to photography them but I was so so happy! We had more photo class and then took a 45 minute drive to a part of the reserve called Kingsland(section of land that they are ‘borrowing’ from the King for 200 years) to watch the sun set and take landscape photos. It was a little cloudy but fun to walk around the top of the mountain in chest high grass! No ticks yet! On our way back there was a giraffe running along our path and met up with 4 other giraffe. Such a graceful sight to see a giraffe running.

February 6

Last nights sleep was not the best. At almost midnight I heard a loud flapping noise in the curtain above my bed. It was hitting against the window and making loud biting sounds. It fell down and slammed against our nightstand. I turned my torch on to see what it was and it came onto my canopy. It was a massive beetle. About 5 inches long. It started crawling between the small crack in my canopy and I started wacking it with my water bottle which made it latch on tighter. I was up for a while flipping my light on to see if it had crawled away yet! We had our first morning game drive. We saw cheetah, hyena, lion, zebra, impala, and buffalo. The rest of the day was all photo class with Paul. We painted with light this evening outside. I tried to take some lightening shots as well, only got one crummy picture.