Goodbye Brisbane, hello world!

Gunner's Quoin Island Trip 11-18th October

melissa_wynn — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:52:00 GMT

Let me set the scene… Imagine an ancient volcanic island rising out of the sea; every face is a sheer cliff, 20 metres high, collapsing into the depths of the Indian Ocean below. Ancient layers of ash make up the crumbling cliff rocks, littered with boulders made of basalt; as black as ebony and often almost entirely porous with residual gas bubbles that never managed to make to escape the fiery molten depths of larva. Today half the volcano remains, the other half of the summit was blown to pieces during the volcanic explosion. The remnants of the exploding larvae and ash piling up in nutrient-rich layers, has formed what is now visible as a tropical island.

Starting at the western summit, the island is rich with native palms and densely forested areas, vines and lianes as thick as your arm, with leaves as succulent as a pig tangling everything in their wake, but providing much needed shade and retreat in the not-so forested areas. In the east, the island slopes gently down towards a grassland plateau, a boulder field full of loose basalt rocks, thrown further from the mouth of the volcano and covered in a blanket of grass, concealing the ankle-breaking dangers below. But here is less rich in good soils, the main vegetation is a spikey invasive plant called Flacourtia that forms a low but very dense canopy. Invasive, but useful; shielding what’s below from the scorching sun and rough trade-winds coming up from the South-East. Protruding out from this plateau are two small peninsulars; pointing north and south, which in more modern times, came to look like the shape of the coin from the end of a gun, thus giving the name of the island (though I like to think it looks more like a Sunfish).

Sloping down to the water’s edge these boulder-ridden protrusions of land are where the sheer force of the ocean hits the island sending enormous salty blows of white cascading over the washed-up boulders, and trickling violently down into the deep black rock pools, the temperature of a thermal spring, and encrusted with a contrasting white rim of salt crystals around the edge.

And yet with all this extremity, there is an abundance of life in every corner of the island, and this, my friends, is why we are here.

5 minutes helicopter flight across from the Northern tip of mainland Mauritius and we arrived on ‘Quoin de Mire’ or Gunner’s Coin to the non-Creole population of Mauritius. As the ‘Drove’ looped around to land on the plateau, the summit cliff (50 metres of completely vertical, crumbling cliff) loomed up above us. At the base of the cliff, a wave-shaped cave had been carved away, smoothed by a thousand years of time and the colour of history.
The water below us was a shade of paradise, mottled with untouched coral reef; underwater forests of greens and blues, corals as orange as fire, and reef fish, every shape and size swimming tirelessly, and unaffected by the rocking swell of the waves. Beyond the shallows, the sea turns suddenly to an azure blue, the depths so clear, and so beautiful you swear you can see deep into the soul of the earth below. But below, sharks loom secretly in the swirls of current, waiting for the unexpecting spear-gun diver, keen to make an illegal living, but ignorant of the threats awaiting his thoughtless and bloody fishing methods.

As we hover above the grassland plateau to land, the wind from the rotors flattens everything in sight, the door slides open and one by one we run, heads bent against the force of the wind, towards the protection of some bushes. 8 people, 1000 kg of gear and 4 minutes later, the helicopter takes off, leaving us in a tornado of dust and grass that sticks like glue to our bodies. Drenched with sweat; dusty beads running off every surface, we wave to the pilot with a slight hint of regret; it’ll be another ten days of 45 degree heat and 100% humidity till we see that red and blue ‘Drove’ again, and I already wanted a shower!

So by now I am sure you get the impression that this island is full of extremes! It really is a place so full of crumbly rocks, spikey plants, rocks as hot as the larva they were made from and humidity like an island sauna, that one may wonder how there is life here at all! But thanks to the Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) and the National Parks and Conservation Service (NPCS) the island became a closed nature reserve and is only accessible to specific people who work for those organizations, namely us; the DIRT team (Durrell Initiative Reptile Translocation team) and whichever NPCS members come with us to assess the island, in terms of forestry plans and general park management stuff.

We set up our tents out near the helipad, on a flat area of grass that was deceptively comfortable; what looked like a soft tuft of fluffy grass that one would want to just run and jump on, was actually very prickly grass that sank about 2 feet under when you stood in it. But, under a sleeping mat and tent, it was perfect and made for a nice cushioning! There was such a gap underneath the grass, that there must have been whole other world underneath, full of smaller life avoiding the incredibly hot sunshine. As you walked through rather than over the grass, each leg lift was a considerable effort like walking through freshly fallen snow; but as the grass acted as an insulative blanket over the rock, the daily grass temperature reached up to 58 degrees! As a result the inside of the tent during the day was as hot as an oven and you would have been stupid to try and stay inside longer than a few seconds!

Once our tents were set up we headed up into the thickets where vines and taller shrubs shaded the paths made for our use. Here in an open clearing we rigged up a tarp over the top of some bushes and set up our kitchen/dining/working area. Out of pure luck the guys had previously acquired some planks of wood they had found a month earlier during the trail clearing trip in preparation for this trip. They had been washed up on the rocks after a tanker had gone aground on the reef just off the mainland, upcurrent of the island, and the guys and their (pretty impressive) engineering imaginations rigged up a really strong table with a bench either side which made life a hell of a lot easier than doing everything: cooking eating and working in the dirt.

A long time ago before human settlement here, Gunner’s was inhabited by a large number of reptile species including the Telfair’s Skink, the Keel-scaled Boa, the Ornate day gecko, the Bojer’s Skink, the Bouton’s Skink, Orange-tailed skink, and the Lesser night gecko, but with settlement brough habitat destruction, cats, dogs, rats and mongeese. When Gunner’s Quoin was declared a nature reserve, most of these species had been wiped out from the island. In 2002 the DIRT team began to translocate Telfair’s skinks back to the island from Round Island to reintroduce them to their lost home. Since then the skinks have bred successfully and today there are hundreds thriving all around the island. Since then, every year the DIRT team has been monitoring and adding to this population. When a skink is translocated, they are given an identification pit-tag inserted under the skin just in front of their left hind leg, so that we can scan each skink (just like a bar code), and from this know who they are, where and when they were released, and by continuously tagging skinks on the island can begin to get an idea of the overall population here on the island. So one of our aims for the 10 days was to attempt to capture as many Telfair’s Skinks as we could from all around the island. The island was divided into habitat areas; there was North peninsular, South peninsular, Summit, Upper Valley, Lower Valley, and Central Flacourtia Thicket. We would methodically search each of these areas usually in pairs (as it helps having a scribe when you are handling a skink) and would either catch by hand (easy in open-ish areas) or using noosing poles, we would “go fishing for Telfairs” – involving a simple noose made from tooth-floss on the end of a pole. It was great how much joy you got from saying “I got a big one” on the end of a noosing pole that looked identical to a fishing rod!! But jokes aside, we would morph/process every skink we caught in the field (take body and ambient temperatures, sex, body measurements, individual scars and tail breaks for recognition, faecal samples , (for dietary analysis, these became known either as poo-tubes or kaka-tubes by the creoles :P), and overall body condition) and those which had not been caught previously, we would also bring back to camp at lunch time or after the afternoon searches in a cloth bag to pit-tag, and then release them where we found them.

For the rest of the time there, we did invertebrate sampling in all habitats, using two methods; the first, the Winkler method involves scraping a 1mx1m square of vegetation, leaf litter and top soil into a shaker with a sieve to allow all invertebrate life to fall through into a cloth sack. This we would then hang up for a 3 days with no exit point for insects to crawl out of, and a jar of ethanol at the base, so that any crawling, flying, wriggling insects would fall into the jar, and be preserved, which we would then collect and take back with us to the mainland to analyse. The other method in pit fall trapping, a simple method of digging a small hole in the ground and putting a tube of ethanol/detergent mix in to catch anything that crawls over. These were left for 5 days at a time. Form these sampling methods, data can be obtained to give an idea of what sort of invertebrate life is available throughout the island which is vital for looking at diet options available for the reptiles there.

Since human settlement, the Orange tailed skink was restricted to Flat Island, but in 2008, the invasion of the shrew happened, which took no time at all to get established there, and the species was fast on its way to becoming extinct. The DIRT team realized that action had to be taken fast, unless they wanted an extinction on their hands, and so, in 2008 a small population of orange tails were sent to Gunner’s Quoin where there are some patches of their preferred habitat. Last year, in 2010 a search was carried out on Flat Island for orange-tailed skinks, and there were next-to-none left. Quickly, the team managed with a lot of effort and to get their hands on another 10 skinks which were sent immediately to Durrell in Jersey, UK for captive breeding as a safe-guard against the small Gunner’s Quoin population should anything happen to them. Thank goodness they did, because only a couple of months later, today they are officially extinct on Flat Island. In less than 18 months, shrews had completely wiped the island of small reptiles, and it is estimated that about 1 million reptiles had been killed and eaten by these fast invaders.

So here on this magnificent island lives a small population of orange tailed skinks, saved by the forward thinking of Nik and his team which would now be yet another extinct Mauritiun species if it weren’t for them. So during the trip we would do a daily search for these tiny but beautiful creatures; about two inches long fully grown, fast as lightening and as sneaky as ever moving around under the leaf litter out of sight. You would sit there, absolutely stock-still, listening out for the faintest rustling sound, so quiet that if you breathe, you will miss it. And then if you hear that distinctive sound that definitely isn’t a Telfair, or a Bojer or even a tiny tiny spider jumping from leaf to leaf, you shout to the others, and everyone dives down in a heap, using any limb they can possibly find to barricade off a small patch of leaves and hope that he will poke his little shiny head out of the leaf litter. It’s an intricate process attempting to capture one of these animals, and involves at atleast 6 hands, 5 arms and possibly a couple of legs and knees. They are so small and so fragile that you have to be so careful grabbing them, making sure not to hold them by their beautiful orange tails, which, with the smallest tug can rip off and leave you with a wiggling bleeding orange stub of a worm left in your finger tips, with the skink now nowhere to be seen. Although saying this, this can often come to be quite handy as the tail tips is what we were after. We wanted not only to observe as many of the skinks as we could, get GPS reading for them all, hopefully get morphometrics on them but also to collect DNA samples for them to determine the genetic side of the population to look at their dispersal and to ensure that there is a big enough population with enough genetic variation to ensure that the species survives and does not begin to go through a genetic “bottleneck” where inbreeding occurs and leads to infertility down the line. If the species begins to go down this path, then hopefully the small population in Jersey UK will be able to provide us at some point down the line with new genetic variation in the form of new skinks bred in captivity that can be released and begin to diversify the population and hopefully save the species once and for all. Ideally the eradication of shrews on Flat island will become an easy feat (still a long way off) and then we can begin to move the orange tails back onto their home land. But that is all a long way away and today all we can hope for is that Gunner’s Quoin remains a haven where this very vulnerable and critically endangered skink can live and breed in peace.

So those were the reasons we were here, but there was so much else do to see and do, with the smallest night gecko I have ever seen scurrying around on the rocks after dark. This species known commonly as the lesser night gecko (Nactus coindemiresis) is found only here on Gunner’s Quoin and in its adult size reaches just over an inch long! This species has been wiped out from all the other Mascarene Islands since the invasion of the common house gecko which unfortunately, at about twice its size, finds these little Nactus quite a nice sized meal.

When we weren’t working you would most likely find us either passed out with heat exhaustion under the kitchen tarp, trying desperately to reach that tiny breath of slightly luke-warm air that passes by, or playing dominoes, or fishing down on the rock edge on the Northern peninsular. On our last day, we were treated to the option of a swim; the only form of cleanliness we had all week. You can imagine how dirty we were after 10 days of sweaty dusty work, often involving crawling around on hands and knees after various species of reptile. So we had a much needed swim and Sam the only other girl on the trip, and I enjoyed bathing in a nice big rock pool washing our filthy hair with the only shower-gel we had and scrubbing ourselves with rough crushed shells and sand from the bottom of the pool. It was not the most pleasant bath I had ever had, but damn it felt good to be clean! When we were clean we spent the rest of the morning attempting to catch fish off the cliff with limited bait (we tried everything we saw, from fish guts (previously caught by Roopa) to crab claws to an attempt at a rock-hopper fish which was so slimy it got away pretty quick). But Sam still managed to catch the biggest fish of the morning on her first cast much to the annoyance of Roopa who had been fishing for about 3 hours already! That night was our last, and we celebrated a very successful 10 days on island with a 1 Litre bottle of rum, a banquet of fresh fish and cold soggy chips (they still tasted good), and a packet of extraordinarily melted marshmallow (singular by this stage as it had formed one soggy mass) which we dipped in nutella as a fondue! All was going great, we were all very merry until a scorpion fell from the tarp down the back of my trousers and stung me right on the bum, bummer! I in an alcohol-induced haze, luckily managed to grab it out before it stung me properly, and even before I knew what it was… lucky the thing didn’t then decide to sting my hand too! Funny thing was, Nik had sat on one 3 days previously and had had an itchy bum ever since, which I found rather amusing, so pretty sure karma had her way with me that night.

So that was the end of the trip and the dear Drove arrived the next morning as planned, and after packing all our 1 tonne of gear up we headed back to the mainland away from that magnificently quiet rock with not a soul on it but us, to be greeted by the bustling back streets of Port Louis town at midday on a Friday. Mistake. We weren’t home for 3 hours! But totally worth it for such a wonderful and unforgetable experience on Gunner’s Quoin.

More coming soon... :) Missing you all back home xo

A little bit about what i'm doing here in Paradise...

melissa_wynn — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:34:00 GMT

Hello dearest friends and family all over the world!

It’s me! Finally, have had the time to sit down and write this blog, apologies for taking so long, so much has been happening here in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

I have so far been in Mauritius (or Ile Maurice as they say here) for almost exactly a month! I shall give a brief list of the most memorable events to date: I have swum in the Indian ocean off a tiny tropical island, climbed and abseiled a cliff face below a lighthouse looking out towards Madagascar, observed and helped save the critically endangered and largest day gecko in the world, chased on my hands and knees through spiny bushes and over spikey rocks, the Telfair’s Skink and have bonded with the BIGGEST tortoise I have ever seen! (he really likes it when you tickle him under the chin). I have learnt how to make Creole-style rotis, have drunk the local beer, and rum, possibly a little too much of both last weekend ;), I have danced for hours to a live reggae band at the local pub, and have gone skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean at midnight! Not all is sunshine and butterflies though, as I have also become aquainted with a gastro virus courtesy of Mauritian water supplies, and become the victim of a hundred bruises and scrapes; most from incidences with tripping over the coral on the paths, and some with as yet unidentifiable causes! As well as have my hands become the chew toy of a gravid and very pissed of Telfair skink who wouldn’t come out of her hiding place as much as I attempted to pull her out!

During the week (Monday to Friday) I am living on a small island off the South-East coast of Mauritius called Ile Aux Aigrettes. This 27 Ha island is a nature reserve leased by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (or MWaF to us) and is used as a refuge for translocated endemic endangered species, where myself and 10 or so other staff carry out projects on the island. There are 6 projects on the island; the Olive White eye, Mauritius Fody, Pink Pigeon, Seabird translocation, Rare-plant, and Reptile translocation, the last of which I of course am working on. The reptile team or (DIRT team as we are called – Durrell Initiative Reptile Translocation team)

The month started off fairly slowly, Dany (the local Mauritian guy I am working with) and I, started off doing a vegetation survey of the entire island of Ile Aux Aigrettes, and it has taken rather a lot longer than we anticipated unfortunately as it’s not the most exciting of work!

However last week, Dany and my manager Nik went to one of the Offshore Islands (Gunner’s Quoin) to do some clearing in preparation for our reptile survey stuff we will be doing there in a couple of weeks, and so I was the only DIRT team person around so I was able to work on some reptile stuff. A typical day involves waking up at 6:00am with the Fodies, making coffee, having a good breakfast, and heading out (attempting to atleast haha) at 7:00am. I start the day off by selecting a particular area of the island to work on (try to survey the entire island once a month) and searching for Telfair’s Skinks. Once I find one, I catch it (an art which I am still in the process of learning as they’re sneaky little shits!) and ‘Process’ it, which involves scanning the pit-tag that is embedded underneath the skin, taking morphological measurements of the tail, body, body condition, scar recognition and faecal analysis (not the most amazing part of the whole thing, especially when they get so scared they shit all over your equipment/hands haha). Once that is done, they are marked with their individual ID number with a permanent marker on their pelvis and released (this is so that we do not accidentally catch them again the next day, and we can see that we have already caught them recently, the marker wears off after a week or so…) So that is my morning, and I try to process as many as I can find in one area in a morning. Last week unfortunately was not very successful as the areas I was searching don’t have the best habitat and the weather was particularly hot so didn’t see much at all.

Then in the afternoons, after a lunch break, I will go out and search for Guenther’s Geckos. This is a little different as it involves spending hours on end with your neck craned searching the tree trunks trying to find a gecko the same colour as the bark itself… But with tuned-in eyes they become failry easy to spot! Unfortunately there are only 50 adult Guenther’s on the island, so unless you know the area that one particularly lives in, the chances of finding one are fairly slim! We know each gecko by sight, (well I don’t yet but Dany does) and they each have tell-tail markings such as scars and tail breaks and missing toes/legs that help us to find out who they are). Once we know who they are we take measurements about the exact position they are in including a gps point. It is these GPS points that I will be paying particular attention to whilst I am here as I am looking at the 3-dimensional home ranges that each individual Guenther occupies throughout the year, so in other words where he Guenther lives, and using fancy algorithms and GIS mapping technology I will be able to work out the sizes of home ranges on the island in comparison to their previous home of Round Island before the translocations a year ago.

It all sounds a little complicated I know but I am looking forward to getting stuck into that, and hopefully get some really interesting results out of it and maybe get something written up for publishing at some point over the next few months.

So that Is what I do on Ile Aux Aigrettes, and then when I am not doing that, the DIRT team does a lot of work on the offshore islands both of the north coast and south east coast of Mauritius (known together as the Mascarene Islands). Now this is where my job gets awesome as some of these islands are literally deserted islands in paradise! Some of them are not accessably by anything except helicopter (!!) and no one is allowed to go there without strict permission from National Parks. Except for us, we get to go and do survey work of all the little tiny night geckos, endemically found only on a tiny scrap of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean and nowhere else on earth! One of these critters is found on only half of a tiny island on the barrier reef of Mauritius, that is 2.7 hectares in size, and nowhere else in this world will you see another lizard like it! So this is why I love my job, I get to see amazing places, and save amazing animals that would be long gone without the help of MWF and Durrell who are desperately trying to save endangered species, and prevent disasters like the many extinctions that went on during the first colonization of Mauritius. The most famous of which is of course the Dodo, but there were many other species that went extinct including a giant skink a metre long, the red rail, and many many others that have become icons here in the country. Mauritius really is the icon of conservation, and has become the centre of endangered species protection ever since that fateful day of the Dodo, now a world-wide known icon of extinction.

So on the weekends we have a weekend house on the West coast of mainland Mauritius, in a town called Rivière Noire (or Black River) where we all congregate to do our washing and internet and socialize and drink rum and watch football, and play football, go rockclimbing, and sit on the beach and pretty much just have a relaxing 2 nights before another big week ahead!

So that Is what I have just done, but it is late and I need to get a good night’s sleep. I wil be back online next weekend, and then Tuesday-week I am off to one of the other offshore islands for 5 days on the North side to do survey work of little critters! Very excited, photos will come soon!! After that, 2 more island trips with single weeks inbetween, so lots of island living coming up hooray! Will try and be better at keeping this blog more up to date.

Until we talk again, I hope you are all well, sending love and hugs from Mauritius!

Melissa xox

Photos: Volunteering in Mauritius

melissa_wynn — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:07:00 GMT

Salut! Hello from the land of the Dodo!…

melissa_wynn — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:03:00 GMT

…Where the sea is gin-clear and bath-warm, the rich scent of Indian spices waft through the villages, and the gentle rustling of sugar cane fields can be faintly heard over the market din. Voices chanting, voices jeering, a multitude of colored tropical fruit thrust into your face by a cheerful Creole, skin like Cadbury milk chocolate, and clean shaven, his skin reeking with the smell of turmeric and cloves.

But out on the water, a small island sits, home to the ancient lime kiln and an old war house. Here lies a refuge for creatures once wiped out from the mainland, a place to grow and breed without the threat of mongeese, dogs or cats. An ancient coral reef, this small flat island has risen above the Indian Ocean and now holds the remnants of a once thriving Mauritian ecosystem. Pink Pigeons coo moodily in the shade of an endangered Gastonia tree, while the largest day gecko in the world: the Guenther’s gecko basks lazily along a spongy branch, eyes peeping out for danger. If you look closely you will find a tiny ornate day gecko, with fluorescent blue and red markings, perched at the ends of the branches licking the sweet nectar from the flower buds, and watching you, innocently with those huge round ebony eyes, but before you know it he has flitted off to the other side of the branch as light as a feather and quick as a flash; his toes perfectly adapted in sticking to the thick and shiny leaves, now his refuge from our prying eyes.

Across the worn-down coralline foot path towers a native ebony tree, the branches twisting and writhing, mottled with black and white lichen, and leaves like shiny, deep emeralds. Flitting around the branches is the once critically-endangered Mauritius Fody, but today, it is the most common bird on the island. The male; a head full of scarlet plumage calls shrilly to his lady; a dull, green and grey little bird, who, with an inquisitive look, hops ungainly towards you on a branch, cocks her head, chirps, and with a flurry of movement disappears in pursuit of her mate. On both are seen coloured bands on their legs, red over white, red over blue: an individually unique identification tag used to monitor breeding seasons and behaviours.

Then, out of the corner of your eye a tiny green/grey bird, small and round as an olive, hops shyly into sight, a white ring around each eye, like a mark of innocence for its increasingly hopeful future, it looks at you inquisitively, one can only wonder what it is thinking. This endemic and once critically endangered Mauritius Olive White-eye is another species saved by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, brought back from the brink of extinction on the tropical Ile aux Aigrettes…

I have been in Maritius for 3 ½ days now and am so far having a wonderful time! Have spent the weekend off in the beach house on the mainland with all the other volunteers, then tomorrow back to work on Ile Aux Aigrettes till Saturday morning. Am very positive about it all, I think that once I have settled in fully I am going to absolutely adore this place and especially the work I wil be doing. Once I know exactly what that is I will be sure to update you all! But for now, just doing a few different things until the guy I am working with gets back from the UK.

Until then, I hope you are all well, sending love and hugs from the Indian Ocean.

Talk soon!

Melissa xox

The Tale of the Double-overhand-reverse-cobra-grip Mana Trip!

melissa_wynn — Fri, 5 Aug 2011 01:44:00 GMT

Hello dear friends!

It is now the first week of August, I’ve been in Zim now for a good 3 ½ months but the end is drawing near! I’m leaving in 19 days for Mauritius, just his morning my work permit was finalized so it’s official!! I am off to island paradise once again to save endangered reptiles with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation for 6 months (although my permit is for 9 months, so finance-depending, I may stay on a little longer! After all, why not?!)

I am very excited! But I am also very nervous! I think this experience is going to be quite unlike anything I have ever had, it’s all very romantic to think that I am staying on a tiny island off the shore of Mauritian mainland, in a house nestled amongst the forest for 6 months playing with geckos (well, YOU guys may not find that romantic, but each to his own right? :P), but there is going to be no internet except at weekends when I go across to the mainland, and no electricity for half the day (or so I hear), and the boat that goes across to the mainland (yes you can only access it by boat!) only travels between 8 am and 6pm so I really hope there is another way across apart from swimming after hours!! So yes, there aremany things I am unsure about and I think they are making me a little nervous, but you know what, it will be nice to get out of the hustle and bustle for a change, live in the wild for a bit, find myself again. So I am staying positive about the whole thing, I am sure there will be ways around it all once I get there and talk to the locals and the people I’m working with (Who, I have heard are all very nice according to a friend who is over there right now helping out with MWF, so that’s lucky!). And plus, the island looks BEAUTIFUL! Real tropical paradise and nothing like I ever would have seen before :)

On a more current note I have been having a ball here in Zim!!! 2 weeks ago I got invited to Lake Kariba on a houseboat trip for 5 days with a friend and some of his friends, very spontaneous trip, but turned out to be a lovely holiday, a little too much drinking going on for my liking, but I just decided to take a detox week and enjoy the Kariba surrounds instead. Again, each to his own, kariba is for whatever you like it to be for, but for me I went to get out of the hustle and bustle of city life, bar-work and rowdy crowds, and just have a good old chill! As a result I got some good fishing in, and early nights allowed me to get up early, make a cup of coffee and sit looking out over the lake listening to the cry of Fish Eagles and the grunt of hippos and read my book! :) It was lovely!

Then back to work for a week, and off again last Friday morning, at 5.30 am to Mana Pools! One of my all time favourite places on Earth! This time I went with a different crowd, including the Honeybear crowd from work and a few of their mutual friends who I had never met, but SUCH a great crew, it was awesome! I can honestly say it was the best Mana Trip I have ever done! I have never gone with friends before, always with family groups, so it was a new experience and one I would definitely like to do again!

There were 12 of us altogether, and we booked 2 campsites at Nyamepi Camp; the main camp, and set up a VERY fancy camp, thanks to yuppies who brought electric fences and all sorts of yuppie things to kit it out with! But, to give them their due, they did (sort-of) work to stop the honeybadgers and hyenas from coming into camp and stealing everything. Ok wait, scrap that on day one a honeybadger got into someone’s tent, and someone else cleverly tied their guy-ropes to the fence so it set the alarm off in the middle of the night… sigh whatever happened to simple camping?!!! So anyway it was all rather amusing!

There were a lot of game drives and sundowners, sometimes spending a whole day in one place cooking brunch for 3 hours, attempting to catch Tigerfish and instead catching a tree root which took about 20 minutes to reel in, it felt like a rock it was so heavy! Plus all the late night campfire stories about double-overhand reverse cobra grips courtesy of Bigger ROOO! That and the red “Dick-head” dress that you had to wear if you did something stupid that day… it did get passed around quite a lot, but surprisingly I never got to wear it!

But the wildlife was amazing! We saw tonnes of eles with their little calves, SO cute, and a very large herd of both Eland and Buffalo, quite a rare sight nowadays! The highlight of the trip was a pride of 8 Lionesses with their 2 cubs on day 2, and then again on day 4 the morning we were to drive out, and thank goodness for good timing as the second time we saw them one just happened to cross the road in front of us which then led our eyes to the rest of them all lying in the sun gnawing on an Eland carcass freshly killed a few hours before! What an amazing sight! After a good 2 hours of great photos we unfortunately had to head back to camp to help the rest of the group (there were only 5 of us on the game drive that morning) pack up all our stuff in order to leave, sadly as none of us wanted to leave at all!

Now, back in Harare, the countdown begins…. 19 days till I leave and sadly, only 3 weekends left at Honeybear where I have made the most amazing friends! But will stay positive and make the most of my time left here, and try not to wish my last few weeks away, as exciting the prospects are, or I know I will regret it!

Sending love to you all out there, missing you guys in Brisbane, and all over the world! Will write again before I leave on my next leg of adventure; Mauritius! :)

Much love,

Melissa xoxox

Photos: Zimbabwe

melissa_wynn — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Zim: It's like plugging that green earth-wire in.

melissa_wynn — Thu, 7 Jul 2011 01:10:00 GMT

Hello from freezing cold Zimbabwe!

It’s been a while, sorry folks, has been almost 2 months since I last wrote, apologies for that, just been busy and having way too much fun! ;) Lots has been happening since we last spoke, I have been working hard at Honeybear, the bar/restaurant round the corner from my place 3 days a week, and also working with some others on the redesign of the Zambezi Society website and logo soon to be released (hopefully!) Have been making a lot of money (although lately I’ve been a bit naughty and have been spending rather a lot) and have also therefore been having awesome times back here in H-town! I have made so many new friends it is unbelievable, especially those who work at Honeybear and their friends. Working in the coolest bar in town also means I get to catch up with all the regulars at work, which is always nice or amusing depending on how late in the night it is :P

One of the best friends I have made is my manager here at Honeybear, an awesome chick, tiny as anything but as fiery as a stick of dynamite! Have made good friends with all her friends and have spent a lot of time with them which has been great fun! Also my amazing partners in crime behind the bar, you know who you are ;) You are so much fun and I love you! You and all your crazy crazy red-head and (gorgeous) Irish sidekicks… how does one family produce two such beautiful people?! ;) Then there’s the (in his words as he just wants to be famous): "sexy bar owner with a sweet heart of gold..." But seriously, too selfless for his own good, and kind to everyone; so much so that it’s almost to his own detriment. Funny as hell though so it’s all good.

Have also had the chance to catch up with previous friends who are back in town who I haven’t seen in literally, years! Last night was able to have some drinks with 3 very good friends who I haven’t spoken to properly in atleast 6 years! So that was fantastic, and always a pleasure to see people you used to know so well :)

But the thing about Zimbos is this: they are REAL people! None of that false crap that so many people I’ve met before in my life tend to put on. No, these friends I have made are all genuine zimbos, hearts of gold and have stuck it out here and made a life for themselves! It’s very inspiring how people have persevered in this country, they haven’t run away like they used to 6 years ago when I lived here before, but instead they have done what all zimbos are famous for and have ‘make a plan’ for themselves, and as a result many people are very very successful here still! It is such a relief to see a country like this (which was once shattered to pieces, and not many people thought it would ever pick itself back up,) but it has, and it is wondrous and inspirational to see the lives people have made for themselves here regardless of the difficult circumstances here over the last 10 years.

So it has been this that has made the last 2 months here in Zim both such a surprise, but also such a fantastic time! The other thing I marvel about the people here is that they truly love their country inside and out, and they will take time to enjoy everything it has to offer, even if it is an afternoon trip to Wild Geese lodge for a grand total of 3 hours, where we set up a skottle braii, threw some steak onto it, put our fishing rods into the ‘lake’ that was really just a large muddy puddle, grabbed the cooler box, popped open a Castle Lite and enjoyed the sound of African bush, even for just a second before we had to go back to work. And you know what, with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, even to drive out there where there is nothing but bush and a little wildlife, it is worth it even for an hour or two. It is an instant relaxant, a form of meditation unlike anything else, and you know what, it brings us back down to earth again, and grounds us all over again, which to me, is worth more than any holiday destination in the world.

… Speaking of holiday destinations…

I found out about a week ago that my preliminary work permits for Mauritius have been approved, and now I just have to wait for about another month to make sure that my actual work permit is completely approved and get the paperwork. WOOO! So I have booked my flights (tentatively incase I do need to postpone them if something goes wrong) and am flying out of here on the 23^rd of August; 7 weeks today for Island Paradise for 6 months! HOORAY!

Now just to save up enough money to keep me going for that long over there volunteering for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. VERY excited as you can imagine, and I can’t wait to get there and do what I love best; work with lizards again! Also excited to escape this winter and get to a nice warm tropical island ;)

On that note, I shall make myself a hot cup of tea and put a movie on, in bed, and enjoy my last night off before very busy weekend behind the bar :)

Missing Aus very much, and to all my friends and family there, love and hugs to you all!

Missing my Cayman friends very much too, got a little teary re-reading earlier blog posts, we had so much fun!!! :)

In short, I am loving being back in Zimbabwe, and being able to call it home once again, it is an experience I am really glad I got to have, it’s so nice to have zim blood running through my veins again. Where I go next, after Mauritius, is still a mystery to me… I want to return to Brisbane and do Post grad, but I am not sure if that will happen straight away, I do kinda like the nomadic lifestyle I have made for myself ;)

Lots of love, and miss you all.

Melissa xoxox

"Blonde-sprinting, hunters-chugging, espetada-munching machine”

melissa_wynn — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:53:00 GMT

Hey guys here's an older blog i wrote about 2 months ago and forgot to upload!...

Hello all!

So I have been in Zimbabwe for 3 weeks now and so far have got 3 jobs, made a whole load of new friends, found two new weekly hobbies, and am now nicknamed as “Wynner!”

I am predominantly working at a small privately owned restaurant/bar just round the corner from where I live. A cute little place set around a pool with thatched roofs and a nice little bar that becomes the place to be after 9pm. I am working in the bar, and it’s a lot of fun (most of the time), although we do have the usual drunk suspects who try to ruin your night from the other side of the bar and are absolute a-holes. Luckily I just ignore them and if they try talk to me like their bar wench I give them a piece of my mind! Normally though, the crowd are well behaved and very friendly, good old Zimbo’s out to have a good night and enjoy a beer or three. This job I work 3 days a week; two late nights and two afternoons. During the rest of the week I am working one to two nights a week at another bar, also the place to be after 9pm, this time a lot bigger and often messier. Tonight I am working here for the first time so it shall be interesting to see what it’s like from the other side of the bar! Nice place full of people I know and have heard of but never met, so it’s a bit of a blast from the past which is always nice.

During the rest of the week, when I am not behind a bar, I am supposedly helping to redesign a website for the Conservation Organisation my mum used to work for, but things have been going slowly with that so haven’t actually achieved anything with that yet.

When I am not working I have taken up playing ultimate frizbee twice a week for a couple of hours, and hope to start playing tennis at a mate’s house on Wednesdays, depending on work commitments.

I have made many new friends through these jobs and have been reminded at how wonderful Zimbabweans are, and how much I miss this place. But I am only here for just over two more months, and I have to say, have got the travel bug so cannot wait till I can leave again for Mauritius!

This country is awesome, but at the moment there is not much here for me in terms of my career and what I hope to pursue over the next few years. And it’s not that easy to live here either, salaries are terribly low, and everything is still so unpredictable that I am quite glad I am not staying here permanently.

Till next time,

Love Mel xo

Photos: Volunteering in Grand Cayman

melissa_wynn — Mon, 9 May 2011 11:50:00 GMT

I got the Blues...

melissa_wynn — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:50:00 GMT

It’s 4.30 am New York time. I have been sitting in JFK airport for 7 hours now, dozing on and off on a café couch to the sounds of loudspeaker announcements and air conditioning. My three month time in Grand Cayman has come and gone, it feels like I lived a dream for 90 days; a dream in which I feel I excelled not only personally but also professionally. Now that time is up I can’t help but feel thoroughly sad that it is all over. The things that I did, the stuff that I saw and the people that I met made for the most thrilling and enjoyable life experience I have ever had.
My goal for the trip? Was to help conserve the most endangered iguana on earth: The Blue Iguana; Cyclora lewisi and to have as much fun as I could while doing just that. Goal accomplished!
But now I’ve helped save the Blues… I’ve got the blues… Extinction lasts forever, but my three month dream in one of the most beautiful places on earth, cannot. In some ways though, I am glad that I am going home… I think that such wonderful experiences should always end eventually, or how can we ever compare them to everyday life in order to fully appreciate them? I can honestly say that I had the best three months of my life over there. I was challenged to try things I had never done before; I was encouraged to work harder than I had ever done before, and I was rewarded with the most beautiful and fascinating people that I met along the way, and the knowledge that I had, in many ways, made a difference somehow.
Last night, as I flew over the east coast of the United States away from paradise, I watched as the sun set for 70 beautiful minutes. The longest sunset I had ever seen; the horizon glowed red for over an hour and the deep orange orb of the sun sat; teetering on the edge of disappearance for an hour as we flew ahead of time itself. A beautiful end to a wonderful long three months, the last sunset I will see for a while in this hemisphere. I hope not too much time will pass before I may see one again.
I could go on to thank all the people that made my time in Grand Cayman so wonderful, but they would just be unnecessary words on a page. They know who they are, and what they mean to me. They are absolutely beautiful people, who I miss terribly already and who have each changed my life a little bit for the better in their own special way. It is scary and wonderful how people can connect so well, at a level deeper than anything, just by sharing a passion. It is these moments in life that make us so human, and thus so vulnerable to every experience that comes with it. But that is the beauty of life.
Smiley face.
xo

The story of the seven-mile-beach sand-iguana and his rum.

melissa_wynn — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:21:00 GMT

Hello dear friends,

It has been a while since I last wrote; life has been a bit hectic up until about just under a week ago. We finished the 3 week baseline population survey of the iguanas in the reserve and are now free of field work! So to celebrate crystal and I have been enjoying the freedom and spending a lot of time in town exploring places, meeting new people hanging out on the beach, laughing at tourists and you know, the usual stuff you do when you live on an island… drink rum? Yep.
So I have heard from numerous people, (family mostly) about the fact that more often than not, there seems to be an alcoholic beverage in my hand rather than a blue iguana… now don’t get me wrong, I love the things to pieces, but my field work section of this trip is over. It was very successful, we fulfilled the requirements of the job to date, and worked our asses off, so we deserve to have time to enjoy our free time and appreciate this beautiful island and what it has to offer. I mean we are in the Cayman Islands for goodness sakes, and that deserves some appreciating! We have had to argue this point to certain people who have been less than respectful of this situation over the last few days and now thankfully we can reap the benefits.
Ok rant over. So last Friday, we had a day off before our last trip out to the field ever, so of course to celebrate we went to Rackams for a drink or 3… as it turned out it ended up being a few more than that but that’s beside the point. Before we went there however we decided to go George Town and buy some souvenirs as gifts for friends and family and finished up the day having a Hurricane (lethal drink as it turns out, with 3 shots of dark rum in it) at the Hard Rock Café overlooking the harbor and sunset. Never been into this place before so that was pretty cool, good music, and we got to keep our glass afterwards as a memento which is pretty sweet.
Then we went to Rackams and made friends with Cam and Stephan, the bartenders there. This is of course always a mixed blessing as you end up with happy-hour discounted prices all night (awesome!) however they do tend to refill your drinks rather often. So as a result we were both wasted but ended up paying almost nothing for a great night. Best part about it, is that every time we go there now we get cheap drinks and have a mate to talk to behind the bar. Unfortunately we had to hike out to the field site the next morning, which was not fun, but had recovered by the time we had to do the work.
That trip out was a pretty shit one to be honest, the weather was crappy, the wind was really strong all day every day, it was cold at night and in the mornings and evenings and boiling hot at midday, so either way we hardly saw any iguanas and got about 3 hours sleep both nights between us all. But the time came for us to do the tiresome hour and a half long trek out to the road where Doug was to meet us and take us home. Now an hour’s trek doesn’t sound hard to anyone, however as you can see from the photo I have uploaded, its not as easy as you might think. The terrain is sharp and full of crevaces and holes that if you aren’t looking where you are putting your feet for even a second, you could fall into a rock hole slice open your legs with sharp rock and bleed to death, or possibly break either your ankles or your neck. So its not fun, and requires not only physical energy to balance and walk over the rock but also mental ability as you have to think about where you put every single step and if you start to fall or reach out towards a cactus or agave plant, you have to suddenly change your train of thought so as not to hurt yourself. But saying this, we have done the hike out there so many times now it’s like second nature to us, we know every rock hole and every wobbly rock and every poisonous and prickly plant and where to avoid them. So far I have only sprained my ankle lightly twice by slipping off a rock into a hole and got a thousand cactus and agave spines in various places, but (touch wood) haven’t done anything too bad yet. I just hope to god I haven’t just jinxed that luck :P.
So anyway we got out for the last time to be met by Doug who had brought 3 cold beers wrapped in an ice pack in the back seat. Legend. Not before a cop car had driven past us to find 3 scruffy and sweaty looking people with back packs sitting on the side of the road reading books and eating snacks. Of course I stupidly waved to him (I was in high spirits with finishing off the survey and so was feeling happy and friendly) so of course he thought I was hailing him and he quickly did a U turn and came back to find out what we were doing. After 5 minutes of carefully explaining what we were doing looking like tramps on the side of the road, and reluctantly giving him our names and origins, the nosey bastard finally drove off. The fuzz will do absolutely anything in this country to find trouble, they seem to have nothing better to do all day than drive around the island, and if they feel like the traffic is too slow to let them get back to their lunch break they will throw on the siren and speed back to HQ.
Anyway we got home eventually and thus began the moment of relaxation and realization that our job was done, and done well! So of course that night we went to Rackams again …
This time we planned to go with the 3 of us; Crystal, John and I, and also with Chris, one of the other volunteers who was flying out the next day back to London and so wanted a last night out on the town. However John (the light weight that he is) had had a couple of rums at home already, so as soon as he had 2 more he proceeded to throw his guts up, on the way into town from Fred’s place as we had to drop off our data sheets before we went home, and then said that he couldn’t handle it and wanted to go home. Chris then bailed too so we were left with just the 2 of us. We called Scott and he was keen for Rackams so we picked him up on the way through. We ended up having a fairly quiet one actually, it was a Monday night, really quiet, about 10 people in total at the bar, and Cam was bored as he had no one to serve drinks too except us so we kept him company for a few hours until we were the last ones there and decided to go home. Highlight of the night was our discounted bill which had Cam’s number scrawled across it; turns out he had the day off the next day and said he was going to hang out on the beach all day and that he owned a condo on 7-mile beach and as we now had no place to be, would us girls want to hang out with him?! 7-mile beach is mostly privately owned so unless you want to sit with the throngs of tourists from the cruise ships, having a private sun lounger on a private beach with blue blue water stretching right up to the doorstep of your condo is quite a luxury so of course we said yes! SCORE!
The next day town was buzzing, it was an absolutely beautiful day, blue blue skies, flat calm water and the colours of the Caribbean sea were just to die for! Perfect beach day! Of course everyone else thought so too, and there were 6 cruise ships in that day, the most I have ever seen docked in George Town, each carrying about 1500-2000 people, so in total there were an extra 12 thousand people on island that day! It was insane, but of course we had only about 4 people on our nice stretch of private beach right next door to Royal Palms; the main tourist venue for cruise ship tourists, with a bar and banana umbrellas on the beach. They also have a bunch of water sports going from there like jetskis and banana boats, parasailing which was fun to watch. So we had an awesomely lazy day hanging out with Cam and his roommate Colin. Cam had some stuff to do in the afternoon, so Crystal and I decided to build a sand Iguana and spent a good hour perfecting the spines and scales, and in the end it actually looked pretty fantastic! Cam arrived near the end and thought at first we were a pair of kids down on the beach building a sand castle…. So worth it! About half an hour later we had a sundowner drink from Royal Palms and sat on the beach watching the sun go down right infront of us, with the silhouette of the Jolly Roger ship sailing past. It was absolutely breathtaking. Some people walked past and pointed at our Iguana and said “Aww look some kids made a crocodile on the beach, how cute! Crystal and I fumed silently at the comment but we all ended up bursting out laughing at the hilarity of it, and complete stupidity of them. We then went to Trivia at a pub down the road (Crystal and I made us win the science and nature category!) where we of course drank many things including unfortunately many rounds of jagerbombs, but as we were with a big crowd of new people they all payed for the bill and didn’t want us to pay any which was rather awesome! At about 10pm I started on the water though and stayed that way for the rest of the night, the rum wasn’t going down so well at that point :P. After we were the last 3 people in the bar we headed back to the beach and played a game of (slightly drunk) Boccé Ball and made sand castles in the shape of Star Wars characters that ended up looking strangely falic (Crystal and Colin the artistes denied this fact of course!). And our awesome iguana was still there, looking proud and strong having not washed away in the high tide! 
We then crashed in their spare room and spent the next day recovering and lying on the beach again, drinking coffee and eating oranges. It was a hot hot day, and you couldn’t be out of the water for 5 minutes without sizzling in the sun, so there was a lot of swimming too. Most amusing part of the morning was sitting watching the tourists from the cruise ships and laughing at their hilarious comments and lame attempts to pick up girls on the beach.
So after an extremely lazy 2 days we got the bus home and have since been cleaning up the house and being all domestic as now we actually have the time! Tonight we are meeting up with a returning volunteer from the States: Ae, and a retired reptile vet who are working on the program for the next 2 weeks (at Rackams) and Cam will be working too so hooray for cheap drinks and the famous Curry Fries, best curry fries on the island!! Very excited about that so now will leave you all, if you have got thus far into this blog and have survived reading all my bullshit rambling then I am impressed!!
You know what though? What is a blog if it isn’t a completely honest day to day account of my happenings? So that is what you have been getting I hope I haven’t bored you all :P
Lots of love to you all, until next time.
Melissa
xox

Ps: Very excited! In 6 days will be spending a week with a great friend Reilly who is visiting GC on his way from Brisbane to the States, and will be exploring the island with new eyes! :)

Red Ants are crazy! Don’t listen to them, they’re drunk on cheese!

melissa_wynn — Wed, 2 Mar 2011 02:18:00 GMT

It’s been a great week. We haven’t been out to the field to camp for over a week now and have had a huge amount of time off which has been fantastic! Today a new volunteer arrived from the States, and another one is just about to arrive, also from the US I think… Then on Tuesday one more is arriving and he will be in our group with Crystal and I for the survey which will start straight away with 2 nights in the field and two nights off again.
This weekend was awesome. Friday Crystal and I helped John out at the park in the morning, he had a school group of 88 seven year olds coming for a tour of the Blue Iguana Breeding Facility and the botanic Park, and Crystal and I took half of them and gave them a tour around teaching them about the iggys and the medicinal plants and fruit trees and things that are all around the park. They were reasonably behaved, and really cute, especially when they decided you were their new best friend and would try to come up front with you all the time and hold your hand and be all cutesy and cuddly! It got rather annoying after a while though, as I think It was just a ploy to get to the front of the single-file line their teachers were making them form! I remember those lines, I hated them, especially when they were height ordered as I was always up front!
Then as usual, after work was finished and we had collected Saturday’s iguana feed in buckets and put them in the fridge, we headed to the nearest bar to have lunch and a beer. That night John and Mandy joined us 3 musketeers for a proposed pub crawl to check out more of the night life in town, and it turned into an all night sushi crawl instead… we went to 3 clubs, the first two we ate enough sushi between us to feed Japan, and drank Japanese beer, amazing apple martinis and a bottle of sake mmmm… I haven’t eaten so much sushi in my entire life, it was amazing it even came on a boat!! (I had my flippy-floppies!). After we had stuffed ourselves with sushi we went to the Wharf which is a beach-side bar that has a 70s, 80s party every second Friday, and we danced like crazy people for hours it was awesome! The DJ played real old classics, was so much fun!
Musketeer number 3 and I saw a beach on an empty plot just next to the bar, and decided we would try to find a way onto it, and so found a hole in the fence bordering the plot and tripped over some bushes and crab-holes and made our way onto the sand, while dancing to some Scottish 80's song and singing at the tops of our voices! It was random, and totally awesome!
John dropped us both off at Scott’s place and we crashed there for the night, starting off the next day making blueberry pancakes (with real Canadian maple syrup) and spending the rest of it swimming in the pool and sitting in the sun, or should I say baking. Let’s just say that the sunburn still hurts and its been 48 hours! It was pretty amusing actually; some little kids had a birthday party by the pool so when we weren’t eating Cheetos or sleeping in the sun we watched these kids have the time of their life in the pool. It’s amazing how 4 hours in a pool never becomes tiresome to a 7 year old! And yet 4 minutes of seven year olds screaming in the pool is enough to make anyone go mad!! Eventually as the sun set we went across the road for $5 Quesadillas and nachos and $15 bucket of coronas! Mexico was a fantastic discovery!!
So I think we had our fair share of tiny people this weekend! Today, C-rock (new nick-name for you Crystal) and I helped John out at the park again, and collect food, then as usual went to the volunteer ‘canteen’ bar called “Over the Edge” up on the North side and had a few well-earned afternoon Coronas and watched the Friggate birds swoop down to catch the chicken scraps. It was a hot day and they tasted amazing! (The Coronas I mean, but I am sure the chicken scraps tasted just as good to the Friggates! :P)
Well it is getting late, and we have a big day tomorrow, have to help the newbies out at the park so better get to sleep soon. I cannot believe it is nearly March already!
Until next time, take care, and miss you all!
Xox
Melissa

Flip-Flops and Wet-Wipes!

melissa_wynn — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:49:00 GMT

Hey friends, family and anyone else reading this blog.

Have just spent the day lazing around at home, watching some tv shows and doing some housecleaning and laundry and all that kinda stuff after a big weekend.

I am sitting in bed listening to some music, currenly playing some Florence and the Machine. It’s a beautiful balmy Caribbean night, the moon has just risen, the stars are slowly disappearing, and the waves are lapping gently on the shore sending clouds of ghost crabs scuttling away to the safety of their burrows. But I am exhausted, the last 2 nights I have had about 5 hours sleep in total, and it has been SO much fun it has honestly been one of the best weekends I have ever had and I feel I have to share it with you all!

We got in from the field on Friday and have since had time off as we are ahead of schedule and have pretty much finished the work we need to do up until the start of next month. J So It has been fantastic, having an indefinite amount of days off, it really does make a world of difference!

Friday night was Mandy’s birthday. Mandy is John’s wife, and John is the head Warden for the Blue Iguana Recovery Program breeding centre and for the botanic park itself. A fantastic couple, from New York / DC; always kind and friendly, and particularily generous in providing Crystal and I with a bed countless times after a night out and J. They live in a 3 bedroom townhouse on the water front of North Sound, and they have 2 cats (19 and 20 y/o)!! who throw up and shit absolutely everywhere in the house, but are so old and loved that they are not possibly going anywhere soon. So Mandy just turned 35 CI (you do the math for the conversion to US dollar) – a little joke here in Cayman what with the CI$~US$ conversion rate being set at a standard rate of about 0.8 CI to 1.00 US.

Anyway, we went to Rackams, our typical Friday night bar, set in Georgetown on the waterfront, ( same place as where we went 2 weeks ago and I ended up with a 2 day hangover, a drunk proposal from a blonde wannabe-dreadlocked Scottish guy who claimed to be a dive instructor and then proceeded to jump of the balcony into the water below surrounded by very large Tarpon fish who get fed every night by the kitchen staff with meat scraps…. To cut a long story short we left shortly after that before he could notice we had gone).

Ok getting side-tracked… We spent the evening at Rackams, and I wasn’t in the mood to drink as we had spent that morning cutting trails and then had hiked back out of the park and it was bloody hot; about 35 degrees or so. The weather the last few days had been terrible, the wind had come in from the North and was blowing down a gale for about 5 days straight, clouds everywhere, terrible beach conditions but awesome field work conditions as it was so cool. However as soon as night fell, the tent flapped endlessly and so ontop of the fact that we sleep on wooden boards and holey air mattresses, we also kept getting woken up every few seconds by the tarp flapping insanely loud by our heads. So we were exhausted, I had probably had about 4 hours total for both nights, and then had to work all day in the sun, so my energy levels were seriously diminishing by Thursday afternoon on our walk home as we were finishing the trail cutting. Crystal and I got into sleepy-giggle mode and proceeded to hang up my blanket over the bushes to use for shade, and whilst we waited for Doug to catch up to us on the trail as we had done our bit, we sat under the blanket and talked random sh*t for half an hour, crying with laughter at random comments. By the way we have decided that Cats should lay eggs, it would be awesome! Weird, but awesome!....

Ok seriously I am getting very sidetracked now.

So everyone but me drank rather a lot on friday night so I drove Mandy's car home, and we stayed at John's place for the night, finally getting a decent night's sleep :)

Saturday was awesome. Scottish Musketeer number 3 came round and we bought some rum, fruit juice and cherries and spent the afternoon/evening/night/early morning walking on the beach drinking rum punch out of plastic glasses with removable bottoms to stick in the sand. We saw the sunset over the coconut palms, watched the almost full orange moon rise up in the East, saw the stars arrive and fade away, and finally saw the moon chase the sunset, setting in the early hours over the sleepy island. Scott was the only one who was awake enough to see the sunrise again, Crystal and I had both fallen asleep :P

We walked along the beach to the Cemetary down the road, I lost my flip-flops half way along, and we went to look for a coconut to drain the juice from. We found one, but unfortunately I only found out it was rotten AFTER I had made a hole in it, stabbing my hand with a paring knife, and drank some of the unusually brown cocunut water. It was disgusting!

We went for a moonlit swim at about 3 in the morning, in our little swimming hole in the turtle grass, it was freezing in the wind once we got out so had to follow it up with a hot shower. The warmest place of thewhole night was actually under the sand, and so the times we were lying on the beach, we buried our hands and feet. This would explain why the house was so full of sand the next morning!

Well I think that just about covers the awesome randomness of the whole night, it was very enjoyable and it has been great to make some awesome friends. I also have the coolest roomate ever, she's as crazy as I am and she loves reptiles. Seriously awesome.

Tomorrow out to the field for the day to do a little more track clearing, and tonight heading to Musketeer number 3's place to watch some weeds and hang out with him and his awesome roomates Graham and Laura.

Until next time, I shall be living it up Caribbean style, as usual :P

Love and hugs,

Melissa

PS: If you were wondering what the title of this blog means; after a day out in the field doing the insanely exhausting sweaty and hot work we do, clearing trails and cutting trees out the way, we look forward to getting back to camp, sitting down, drinking a huge amount of water collected from the rock-hole, taking off our work boots, putting on our flip-flops and getting out the box of wet wipes as a substitute for a shower. It really is the best feeling to have flip-flops and wet wipes! Out there, it's the little things that count! :)

A Canadian, an Australian and a Scott walk in to a bar…

melissa_wynn — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:57:00 GMT

Hey guys, so as of today I have been living in Grand Cayman for a month exactly… Nope ok that was weird, I just remembered I arrived on the 24th so that’s a lie… I have only been here 3 weeks, and it feels like I have been here for ages!! Anyway, the point is, its time to write some blog again, I have been seriously slacking.
So I will tell you a little about what I am doing over here. I am volunteering for the Blue Iguana Recovery Program which is a breeding program set up to bring the critically endangered blue Iguana back from the brink of extinction. The Blue Iguana is native to the island and is also endemic to this island, ie is found nowhere else on earth. It was the most endangered species of the Genus of ‘Rock Iguanas’ (Cyclora spp). Back in around 2004 there were only 15 animals in the wild, as their habitat is slowly being destroyed by the hundreds of expat Americans who flock to the Cayman Islands to build their big fancy condos and beach houses and hotels so they can live a tax-free live sitting on a beach drinking Rum Punch. Also feral cats and dogs run around free everywhere on the island as the locals don’t lock them up when they go t work during the day, so they are free to roam around wherever they please and eat whatever they please including, unfortunately, the beautiful Blue Iguana. There is one other iguana found here, the common Green Iguana, however it is invasive, and became widespread on the island after hurricane Ivan, when cages housing them broke (they are highly valued in the American pet trade) and they were able to escape and colonize the place.
So my job as a field volunteer is to help prepare a new protected area on the island, away from all the development, so that it is fit for the release of young Blue Iguanas from the breeding centre. This will hopefully increase the genetic diversity of the wild releases and hopefully bring back the wild population of Blues to the standard it once was before we came along and fucked it all up. The field site I am working in has been mapped out, and certain areas of the site are suitable habitat for the Blue Iguanas. It is in these areas (approx. 300x300 metres square area – not huge areas) that around 200 2-year old Iguanas, fresh from the breeding facility were released last summer (American summer, so they have been here about 6 months) to start increasing the numbers of wild Blues in that protected area. The Blues and all the equipment was airlifted into the researve as the terrain is rough and nasty and it takes an hour just to walk into the release site from any accessable place on the island. The babies and wooden box-like retreats were placed strategically around in order to ensure that each baby had enough space for their own territory and suitable basking spots at all times of the day. No work has been done on them since they were released, and so my job, akong with two other volunteers is for the moment to prepare the site for the baseline population survey that will determine the status of the youngsters and see how they are all getting along in the wild. This involves trail clearing so that we are able to easily access each retreat without having to worry about getting tangled up in vine or poisonous Maiden Plum trees, and so that we can walk around the reserve easily, looking out for Iggys without having to worry about watching where we are going (although the terrain is so shit we have to do that all the time anyway!) We walk into the reserve in the morning, and stay 2 nights at the campsite that is set up in there. It takes too long and is too exhausting to walk in and out in one day as well as get some work done, so we do this so we can have one full day of work in the field.. Then we get back and have 2 nights at home, in a comfy bed, drink a lot of beer, swim in the sea and then head out again. Then maybe if we have worked hard next time we will have 3 nights off after that trip.
After that is all done 3 more volunteers are arriving from overseas to help with the actual survey in March, and for a month we will be walking around scanning the retreats for the babies as they all have pit tags (like microchips in a cat/dog) and looking for their own individual bead combonation on the back of the neck to identify who is living where, what is the home range like, and how many of the 200 released have managed to survive being out there alone.
Once the survey starts, the work won’t be quite as tiresome as we won’t be having to do back-breaking trail clearing and will get to enjoy the Iggys far more as we get to watch them all day.
Yes I know what you are thinking… she disappears off to a Caribbean Island, and this is what she does?!! Trust me sometimes I have the same thoughts, but these animals are truly awesome, I have gotten to know a few in very close terms, and they really do have the best little personalities, and to think that without this program they would not be alive today at all. It would be yet another “Dodo episode”: another Extinction Fuck up on our hands, due to our own human selfishness and ignorance.
So I like to think that what I am doing out here is really helping something that needs it, and the Blue Iguana has become a huge icon here on Grand Cayman, tourists flock to the botanic park to see the free roamers dozing on the sidewalk, and to hear their awesome success story.
When I am not working on that however, I try to live it up “Caribbean style” as much as possible, this island sure does know how to drink, and on our days off we can normally be found at one of the many beach side bars; with palm trunks for support and giant coconut palm leaf roofs, drinking a pint of Caybrew Beer or a Rum and coke, and watch the unbelievably blue water roll in from the Caribbean sea, and lap gently against the white sand.
Crystal and I have also been tasting the night life here in Grand Cayman, and have recently met a young Scottish lad from Glasgow, who’s name is Scott… (his parents had wild imaginations!) and is a professional golfer, here working for the fancy 5star Ritz-Carlton hotel as a Gold caddie… It’s a tough life. Anyway so we’re kind of like the 3 musketeers, we go out to bars and check out the night life, we have been trying to try each bar and club on the island before we all have to leave… trust me there is a lot of bars! Last night we went to a bar that had a mechanical bull setup… need I say more? :p
So hence the name of this blog entry… I haven’t yet thought of a punchline, which is proably just as well, as knowing me I’d probably just forget it… so we’ll leave it at that for the moment, and I will check in again soon to let you all know what is happening. In the meantime, I hope you are all well wherever you are, and the New Year is turning out the way you want it too. To those of you know know me best, I miss the hell out of you, but I promise to bring back real Caymanian pressies, and you never know maybe a postcard might be on the way at some point in the near future ;)
Miss you and love you all. Take care of yourselves.

Melissa/Mel/Liss

Ps: It’s true what they say about Jamaicans: They really do say Bacon like they say Beer Can!

PPS: I’m officially going to work in Mauritius on more reptiles for atleast 6 months starting end of July, start of August… So this blog will be going on for a while yet. :)

Day 1 in Grand Cayman

melissa_wynn — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:28:00 GMT

This morning I woke to the sound of waves crashing on the shore, and the light pitter patter of rain drops on the big tropical leaves outside the room. I went outside to watch the sun rise for my first day of a new adventure... A beautiful orange light filtered through the clouds and lit up the sand like molten gold. All around the house there are coconut palms, the beach infront of the house is 15 metres or so away, and there is nothing but a few wooden beach cottages along the beach. Crabs scuttle everywhere, and stop, dissapearing into the sand, ghost-like, completely invisible. A blue Anolis lizard is sitting perched on the tree trunk, different to every liziard I have ever seen, its dewlap quivers, in a defensive posture, if I move any closer he will display it, like a vivid blue bib under his throat.

Clouds glowed pink like fairy floss as I smell fresh coffee from the room next door. This place is paradise, it is so beautiful! My housemate; Doug is up, and he makes coffee first thing in the morning. Awesome! I think I'm going to like it here! :)

Johannesburg Zoo

melissa_wynn — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:27:00 GMT

A night in Joberg with some family friends before jetsetting off to America... Lovely people with a beautiful house just down the road from Joberg Zoo. i had time to kill this morning so I took a wander round the zoo. Everything is so cheap here! A bottle of Cape Town 2004 Cab Sauv last night cost about 14 rand, thats US/AU $2! Its amazing, and zoo entrance cost me $50. Luckily ABSA bank which is affiliated with Westpac had an ATM at the entrance so I was able to withdraw cash free of charge... I took out R100and it cost me AU $14.50. Awesome.

Anyway, zoo... Now normally, as wierd as this sounds, being a Zoologist and all, I don't actually like most zoos... animals are shoved behind bars and forced to behave infront of an audience, with very few places to hide when they get sick of cutesy noises that people seem to think all animals understand... (ok Ill admit I do it sometimes but still!)

Anyway i got a chance to see some animals I have never seen, like a pair of Polar bears, dripping with sweat poor things in the SA summer.

And Brown bears, my god I just wanna cuddle them!! So fluffy, and furry and big and well, bear-like!

And he usua boring african animals i've seen in the last 2 months like elephants and lions and cheetahs and African wild dogs and... kidding, they were pretty awesome too see again. Except I always hate seeing animals again in a cage after I have seen them in the Wild, it somehow ruins them.. they always look so folorn and sad, stuck behind those bars.

Some pretty cool things I also saw were a Puma or mountain lion, very cute! And the cutest little Emperor Tamarins, cute litle things that squeaked through their big white moustaches! Then there were some Madagascan Lemrs and black spider monkeys, which were helarious, with their long black legs and tails swinging around, SO human-like it was scary.

Well, I have to go friends, I have to stock up on suncream for Cayman... and its far too expensive there so i'm buying it 'en bulk' here. Flight tonight is at 8pm, through Dakar, West Africa, to re-fuel which should be fun :P and arriving in freezing cold (predicted temps: -10 to -5 deg C) New York tomorrow morning at 7.40 am, there for a day and a night then flight to Sunny Grand Cayman on sunday morning.

Will update you on New York from a snow-covered cafe on Broadway, where the skyscrapers tower and the city never sleeps... screw that I'm gonna sleep for hours after this 18 hour flight!!! Very Excited though!!

Hope all's well wherever you all are, and special hi's to friends in Brisbane, missing you all lots!

Love Mel xoxoxoxo

Mana Pools... some fun observations

melissa_wynn — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:32:00 GMT

Instead of a diary of day to day events for this leg of the trip, I decided to write an account of particular things that happened on this trip. Mostly of course you will notice the zoological and behavioural observations that are quite descriptive, as a collection of short ‘stories’ as it were, as I find this the best way to describe something emotively.

I will start with an account of the hippo, a large herbivorous mammal, eating only grass and living in freshwater lakes and rivers, coming out onto land to munch on huge amounts of succulent grass at night. Ironically though, it has one of the widest reputations for being the most dangerous animal in Africa. This reputation derived from its ability to attack and gore people with its powerful jaws and sheer blubbery bulk. Many people have been attacked my hippos solely because they got between it and the water (a hippo’s safe refuge) or too close for comfort when they hare calving. A hippo can be extremely insecure out of the water and very protective in the water. If we can respect their space, and give them a wide berth then perhaps we can reduce the number of incidences that do occur in Africa due to our stupidity. But tragedies out of the way, the hippo is a beautiful creature, and so this account describes the impression they have made on me throughout this trip…

I awoke to the sound of crickets chirping sleepily. It was 7am and already the sun was streaming down into the balcony where were sleeping. Across the river, a hippo gurgled and grumbled in the flowing water currents, blowing large, squelching bubbles and grunting with a sound that is so distinctively hippo-like, I cannot even begin to describe it. As a sign of territory marking he yawned; throwing back his enormous jaws and thrusting his blotchy brown and pink head out of the water. He propelled his jaws as wide open as they could go, allowing the gape to open out to about 180 degrees of large, and frightening teeth. He shook his head, teeth baring and glinting in the Zambezi sun. He owned that space, and no rival would attempt to take it from him. What strikes me most about these animals is their ability to completely change their perception of themselves in our eyes.

When they are in the water, they are impressive but gentle giants; showing off their huge jaws that are used solely for munching grass. With that and their distinctive hippo grunts, it is no wonder why so many people find them so frightening.

Then comes the moment when they heave themselves up onto the banks, slipping and sliding on the wet mud. They cautiously stop, looking around for danger, and then using their own personal mudslide, theyplod wearily to the nearest patch of succulent grass. Heads down, they munch on, needing to fulfill their enormous appetite and retain their blubbery insulative layer. In this situation they are easily frightened. They pink stubby ears like the blotchy skin of an albino swivel this way and that, their brown eyes watch intently for signs of danger. Almost unnaturally disproportionate, their stumpy legs shuffle along, heaving around their giant voluptuous backside, which gives them the impression of a slightly self conscious and vulnerable overweight adolescent.

The lion is a fantastic and beautiful creature. In a place like mana pools, seeing a lion or a pride of lions is a novelty, they are around, but they are not common, not like a game park like Kruger or something where they are everywhere… In mana the novelty of seeing lion never wears off, the moment you see them, you get a shiver along your spine, fully appreciating the chance of seeing such a beautifully wild creature, and being able to drive past it with bated breath, constantly aware of the sheer strength of this wild and enormous cat. We were lucky to come across five of them, a young male pride, kicked out of their own home prides to begin the nomad lifestyle all young male lions do in search of a new pride to win and dominate; the prize being the ability to rule the pride and mate with as many females as they choose. This is how it went…

We saw lion today. There were 5 males; one of which had a mane and looked as if he owned the place. There were 3 cars pulled over next to the road and all staring starry-eyed at the lions lying next to a large, typically African termite mound. I watched the oldest male with interest as he sat there gazing at us with his big and utterly beautiful pussy-cat eyes, as big as golf balls and the colour of molten gold. After staring at us without a care in the world, his piercing look making each and every one of us tremble, he lazily began to stand up. He wasn’t a large male, his haunches were a little bony, like the look of a cat who hasn’t had a meal in a few days… His coat was scrabby, brown muddy stains from the African soil made his once-golden fur patchy in places. Being an outcast of your own pride at such a young age apparently had taken its toll on him. But still, as he raised himself off the ground all these blemishes disappeared, and instead, a feeling of pure and elegant strength overwhelmed us all as his saucer-like paws padded a few steps towards the other males. Looking around, slightly picturesque with his back towards us looking out over the alluvial plains and acacia trees, ( I will admit it brought to mind so many scenes from the Lion King), he looked this way and that, the clicks and flashes of cameras went off, and he knew he looked good. He looked back over his shoulders at us gently now, as if to say, “Thank you so much for coming, I do rather like this attention”, and promptly walked a few more steps before sitting back down on his haunches and gazed at us intently with those deep amber eyes. After a few minutes of what can only be described as stardom, he got tired of the camera clicks and whispering tourists and flopped spectacularly but somehow elegantly back down, resting his mane on his paws. He gazed at me intently; it was like staring into a saucer of molten lava, golden and glistening. He had air of mutual respect about him, a touch of endearment flashed across his beautiful eyes. A hint of a smirk showed through his mane suggesting he was wise for his youth; he had seen things we couldn’t even dream about.

Six Legged Sleepy Ele

I was listening out for frogs, it was a stormy afternoon, big ominous clouds rose up from the Zambian escarpment and flashes of white were followed by great claps of thunder that shuddered windows and echoed around the Zambezi valley. Out of the Vetiveria grass, also known as ‘Adrenalin Grass’ (named aptly for the feeling you discover when a well hidden buffalo or lion appears suddenly behind a clump of it) came a bull elephant. He wasn’t old, but neither was he young, perhaps he was at the age where a mid-life crisis is about the only exciting thing to happen to you. Half asleep, he plodded wearily down to the river. After eventually deciding he did, in fact want a drink, eyes half closed he plunged his trunk into the flowing river, sucking up water and lifting his trunk, he let it run into his mouth, tilting his head back as if drinking from a teacup, getting every last drop of water, then sleepily letting his trunk flop unceremoniously back to the water with a splash. The third time he did this, he dozed off, trunk still in his mouth, eyes drooping, legs collapsing under his weight. His nose was crinkled up in unnatural folds, bent awkwardly to the side, halfway to being tied up in a knot, and yet he dozed on. Soon his front leg began to slip in the mud on the bank, he jerked his head up, like a half-asleep commuter on a train catching an uncomfortable nap, his trunk flopped back down landing with a splosh in the water. His eyes opened wearily, then, looking around to see if anything had changed, or if anyone had been observing this act of what can only be described as a lazy loss of dignity, he sucked up some more water, and dreamily drank his last. By this point he was so swelteringly hot under the afternoon sin, he decided to go fro a swim. He ambled down to the river, trunk curled skywards sucking in air till he reached the point where the current swirled on his back coating his tough mud-caked hide in cool refreshing water that absorbed the moisture greedily. He stood, swaying slightly trunk a snorkel lazily held an inch above the water line, no doubt getting rater a lot of water up, or rather down his nose. Satisfied and refreshed, he submerged his trunk, blew a few bubbles and sloshed a trunk-load over his back, sending a sleepy and unaware egret into the air with a flurry of white wings and alarm. Making his way back to the back, he began to haul his weight out, leg by leg, stopping for a 20 second shut eye between each. This was apparently far too exhausting for him to manage, so when all his legs were finally on dry sand, he lent forward and rested his trunk on the sand in an unnaturally bent L-shape. With the aid of this fifth leg, he released his back leg, letting it drag out behind him, and fell asleep. At this point an enormous and slightly pink sixth leg, (also apparently unimpressed at the heat and this exhausting set of maneuvers), flopped out unceremoniously to the ground, dragging slightly on the sand as he swayed dreamily from side to side. Bum towards me, his skin was wrinkled up, 5 times too big for him, at an angle which I can positively say was not his best by a long shot! All in all it was the most unattractive and inelegant pose I had ever seen an elephant use, and for some inexplicable reason I was utterly charmed by this undignified and modest behaviour and sincere inability to (figuratively, and most likely also literally) give a sh*t.

Biltong and Bilboards!

melissa_wynn — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:50:00 GMT

So it's been 3 days, and I am ashamed to say that I have already started taking photos of the crazy things I have seen here so far...

Yesterday I bought a sim card for US$2 (the currency used in Zim now)... 5 years ago a sim card cost ZIM$10,000 the equivalent then of about 100 bucks! Times have changed. The currency has finally been standardised so that people can either use US$ or South African Rand.

Thank god, as a year ago notes started to have 14 zeros on them: that's

100 000 000 000 000!!!! (1 hundred trillion dollars!) If you don't believe me see the photo below!

So anyway, back to the original story... (yep I did a Mel)... I went to buy this sim card, and Econet, the mobile service provider had RUN OUT of sim cards... "Eeeeh we don't hev eny mor!" Apparently they get in a big box of sims every two weeks, and had sold out of them all! Turns out what happens is that the guys who work there sell the sims to all their mates for $1, each of tehm buy 100 cards, and then go onto the side of the street (literally) and sell them on the black market (also quite literally!) for $6 thus marking up the profit at 600%!

The funny thing is it works... as we then went and found a guy on the side of the road and bought a sim card off him for six bucks. So now I have a working phone, which is a plus.

Apart from all that, these guys at Econet have decided in the last month that one Gig of download quota for the so called "broadband" will cost you US$100 !!!!!!! Bastards. And pretty much the whole country has been in outrage at how they have screwed everyone over, and how unreliable they are.

Anyway, onto the billboards.. Zimbabwe has decided that the only form of income coming into the country is via advertising, as there is absolutely no other money coming in, as ther are no more farms or agriculture, and nothing is being exported anymore.

So yes, they have now decided that every 5 meters there needs to be some form of advertisement, including 20 meter long billboards bridging a dual carrigeway main road (see photo!).. The punchline is this: the billboards are all advertising for the Econet Mobile company! l.o.l and I quote "the fastest, most reliable and affordable mobile service!" again with the lol.

But on a positive note, this country is picking up! I bought a very large piece of biltong today, during which kieran and I cringed as the butcher was handling a yummy fillet steak (mum is currently cooking that for dinner mmm), flies were landing all over it and no one was wearing gloves! He then went to grab a slab of biltong with cow blood and god knows what else all over his hands! I had to look away!!! It was totally worth it though, the biltong was tasty as, and I haven't got sick yet...

There are things in the shops now, you can pretty much buy anything you want, but they are expensive as pretty much all of it is imported from South Africa. We have had electricity most of the time we are here, and even when it does go off, we have a generator that switches on straight away, and a large water tank that collects the municipal water when it is actually available. So all in all things have picked up. The town is much dirtier than it used to be, it's not such a pretty sight anymore but the benefits of living here far outweigh the issues:

We have just been invited on a road trip around the country to Victoria Falls, and Nyanga (two opposite sides of the country) both within about 5 hours drive, both of which are absolutely stunning parts of the country, and completely isolated from the crap that Harare contains. It is the bush: pure, simple, beautiful wilderness. Then we are heading north with the family to stay on a houseboat on Lake Kariba, eat large amounts of freshly caught fish, enjoy beautiful sunsets, listen to lions calling 50 metres away from the boat at night and watch herds of elephants come down to drink the the afternoon. I can't wait. This is the reason why this country is still so beautiful, and the reason why everyone who can appreciate the country's positives still return.

On a fun note: today I also visited my old junior school and hugged my headmaster who 10 years ago I was utterly shit-scared of! Everything seemed smaller at the school.. it was wierd! I also caught a gecko... so that I could work out if it was the same as the ones in Brisbane... still havent worked that out but i'm pretty sure it is!

Welcome back to Africa

melissa_wynn — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:23:00 GMT

Have arrived in Zimbabwe, after a long 48 hours of being awake. My body clock is completely confused... An interesting 3 flights, surprisingly not a lot of sitting around, except the part where our flight to Harare was apparently inexistant according to the arrivals board, and we got told it was too full and we would be on the waiting list...

Funny story, we hadn't been in Africa 5 mins when someone tried to help us get to the gate in Joberg Airport, I was amazed at how helpful he was, of course didnt stop to think there was monetary incentive in it! (The joys of living in Aus). After grabbing my suitcase and running up 2 escalators towards the line, with kieran and I trailing after him (Kieran thought he was stealing it), only to push infront of the line. He then tried to guilt trip us into giving him a "little somethin somethin for his troubles"... After explaining that we didn't hve anything on us except aussie dollars, he stormed off. Oh Africa how have I missed you! Cupboard love...

Until next time, I will marvel at giant milipedes; chongololos; an animal i had completely forgotten about, and drink multiple cups of coffee grown on African soil.

Testing Mr Blog.

melissa_wynn — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:50:00 GMT

11 days to go! Still in Brisbane, waiting on one last exam then Uni is OVER! Flying through Melbourne to Johannesburg on the 23rd Nov, then up to Harare, Zimbabwe. Will be in Zim for 2 months, will update you on what is going on while I am there. I can't wait, it's going to be EPIC.

LoveMel