Just back to Antelope Park, my home fro the month I'm in Zim. 3 of us were at teh stage 2 semi-release site since monday so we have been locating and observing the 6 released females for the week to study their habits etc. Was a very strange but very interesting week. The site is located in a hunting ranch, a huge one and apart from teh managers house about 5 minutes drive from the house we stayed in there is only a small village of mud huts located nearby!! No phone, internet or aerial ... only a radio that was a bit temperamental to bring with us when we were on site in case we needed back-up ... which we did because we got a puncture in site this morning and the scanner was beeping to tell us the that the lions were not far off. had to get picked up by Roy in his pick up truck 2 people at a timea ... was quite exciting!!
Also this week, we got a good introduction and overview to teh legal hunting trade ... very interesting and maybe not totally destructive, still absolutely disapprove though!! I got to shoot a shotgun, got to see an African Rock python up very close which Roy insisted on picking up so that we could ahve a closer look ... I was a lot mroe than freaked out!!Got to see an ostrich farm .. not pleasant , especially when there was one lying flat out dead int eh hospital pen ... i am telling you this is a totally different world here, things seem normal, like seeing guns all day everyday that would never be normal at home!!
We went on our elephant lunar ride last Sunday and it was brilliant, you get dropped to a part ofhte park where the elephants and their handlers are waiting int eh dark and then we trekked back to camp under an lmost full moon .. lots of fun and another very unique experience!!
Heading ooff to Vic Falls on Sunday morning for 5 days with 5 of the other volunteers, we will see teh falls , visit 2 national parks in Zim, hopefully on e in Zambia, eat at a game restaurant, drink lovely drinsks, do some adventure sports and for our last night we camp on an island in teh Zambezi and sleep to the calls of hyenas apparently!!Can't wait :-) xx
