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In search of ... "birds flying high you know how I feel, sun in the sky you know how I feel, breeze drifting on by you know how i feel, its a new dawn, its a new day, its a new life for me.....and I'm feelin good ..." just call me Ella!

Mountain Phase

SOUTH AFRICA | Friday, 8 February 2008 | Views [518]

We get taken up to do mountain research in small groups, so 5 of us set off for the week. Basically we set traps for small mammals, knock them out in a bag of Ethanol then measure them, snip their ears for identification and record all details. The side of the Marieskop mountain we are based on is protected so nobody else other than the mountain ranger is allowed there, it is so beautiful and peaceful. ( a have a trillon photo's when I eventually work out how to up load them). 

Our aim is to record a species list for the Univesity of Pretoria as the mountain has unique biodiversity for the area. They have already found new species of snails and the rare golden mole, but we had no such luck when we were there. We mainly caught striped mice which although cute do get boring after the first few traps.

The mountain cottage is very quaint, it hasnt seen a lick of paint for a few decades but does have a log fire which is cosy in the evenings.  The day we arrived there we had no water at all, there had been a landslide and a large boulder had fallen on the pipeline to the house. So this resulted in us having to bath in the stream, which was more like a big puddle by the side of the dirt track....absolutely freezing. It was a bit like the Botanics advert but with less finess, and when we climbed out we got covered in mud again.  Why pay money for a spa treatments when you can do it yourself in a freezing cold stream?! After a week it was good to get back to base, not that the mountain isn't beautiful, its just there is only so much stinking mice piss you can handle. Give me the lions anyday.  

Tags: mountains

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