Well we just got back from our camping trip in Makalali  and we survived, barely ( ha ha ) OK it wasn’t as bad as i thought, but I must say I have never done something like that in my life. On our way to our destination we were amazed to spot 3 cheetah right near the fence withan impala kill. This is the first close up encounter I have had with cheetah and I did not want to leave but we had to push on. When we got to the other campus my group spent the day shooting rifles with Mark Montgomery the head of Bushwise. The gun we used which was a .375 was pretty intimidating, it didn’t matter how many times I heard it go off it made me jump every time! not to mention it was really heavy! After about 20 rounds each we left the camp with a sore shoulder and cheek and headed to Makalali reserve to camp. When I got there I couldnt believe how green, thick,  scenic and full of wildlife it was, which made me a little nervous since we were sleeping without tents in the middle of a river bed( which we were taught to stay away from) as we trampled through the bush with our massive Land Rovers full of sleeping bags, water and about 100 bags of bread and cans of beans.

our only escape from the sun

I was a little shocked to see our sleeping ground which consisted of a dried up river bed full of hot sand and rocks and thick bush surrounding us.I knew we were roughing it out in the bush for a few days but it didn’t really hit me until we actually got there, but there was no backing out now! I spent about an hour strategically thinking about where to place my sleeping bag, everyone had placed there bags against one side of the river bed which was a cliff full of massive boulders, but I figured a lot of things hide out in these rocks, which I was not ready to share a sleeping bag with, so I put my bag about 10 feet from the fire which I knew would be the safest option since the people on night-watch stayed right next to the fire and lions and hyenas were somewhat afraid of it.

I look to thrilled to be sleeping out in the open

We had a little bite to eat and headed off to bed, the first night I had my watch at 11:30 to 12:30 which wasn’t that bad, but sitting by the fire when everyone was asleep in the pitch dark was so surreal. If anything was to enter our camp we would hopefully see it with the 4 dim lit lanterns around the perimeter of our sleeping area. We were told if anything walks past one of those lanterns or into the area like lion, elephant, leopard or hyena we have to bang two pots together until everyone wakes up. As I sat there by a dying fire staring aimlessly into the night with eyes that decided to trick me a few times. I heard some interesting noises which included a leopard off in the distance headed our way, he ended up taking a route around , not through our camping area which I greatly appreciated.Nevertheless, I managed to double check to make sure I was in reaching distance of the pot and pan. One of the main things that kept running through my head for that short but o so long hour was don’t run, don’t run, don’t run. But then again the thought of standing upright while banging a pot and pan together at a lion or two seemed petrifying.

As my shift finished I woke up the next person for night watch and hit my sleeping bag which I wrapped myself  up in like a cocoon and went back to sleep. The next morning I was very delighted to find that I had all 10 fingers and toes, since hyena are well known to come in at night and snip off a finger or an ear. The next two days were spent driving around and taking walks in the reserve. As we walked through the riverbed with Sean our intstuctor up in front with a rifle and me trailing right behind him acting as his second pair of eyes, we stumbled upon 6 carcasses which on foot wasn’t very comforting! especially the semi fresh ones.The 7th carcass we came upon ( a female kudu)  was pulled under a shady bush and happend to be so fresh that there weren’t any flies on her yet! Sean quickly told us to turn around and get out of there , before whatever killed it ( most probably a leopard) comes back to start feasting or to protect its kill. Sean was pretty brave on our walk in an area he wasn’t too familiar with and I felt quite safe right behind him, until he walked around a large marula tree and yelled at the top of his lungs. As I slowly looked around the tree thinking it was a lion startled from a nap, I was surprised to see a large warthog lying helplessly on his side preparing for a final sleep. By the third day I was pretty tired and looking forward to taking a hot or even cold shower again and a using a proper bathroom instead of a thick bush far enough away from the camp site.

The riverbed we set up camp in

Just as we thought we were leaving the next day Sean and Nellie asked us how we felt about staying for a few more days, I think my mouth almost hit the ground in shock, I had just made it through 3 nights and they want to push 3 more! (NO WAY) not to mention I had just ran out of water. Luckily we didnt stay which I now regret and on the day as we headed out of Makalali, we saw a honey badger on the side of the dirt road! my very first! It was  hilarious the whole car yelled out HONEY BADGER and almost gave Mark a heart attack as he slammed on the breaks scarring the poor little guy away. Well that’s all for now , its crazy to think we only have about a month left before we go on to our work placements! I am not sure yet where I will be placed, but its looking like Mark is stationing  me at Untamed Africa to help with the research there. This will be my new home for the next 3 months.

Last week I went to the Khami reptile park for my advanced snake handling course and man was I nervous! Don’t get me wrong I don’t have a problem with snakes, actually I wrapped a boa constrictor around my neck for a class presentation on facing your fear in college, so this was a piece of cake , or so I thought. The only thing that made me nervous was thinking of handling the 5 most venomous snakes here in Africa. Surprisingly I was one of the only people on the course that did the snake handling, but after spending a day there I see why. It is a big risk! But hey, when are you ever going to be able to say I pulled a 4 meter black mamba out of a tree?

Gaboon Viper, not to easy to handle

When we arrived at the park we were greeted by our instructor and went over safety and rules followed by a practice round with a large piece of rope which was suppose to be a snake. The way this course went was we would get called out on the radio to come and collect the snake from someone’s house or garden and when we arrived on the scene where the trainers had strategically hidden the snakes we had to find it (hoping we weren’t going to step on it) and capture it. The first snake was one of the slowest snakes in Africa called the Puff Adder, but as slow as it moved it is the fastest striking snake and is responsible for 90% of bites in South Africa! Now this snake is cytotoxic so if you were to get bit, it would attack your skin tissue and spread so fast you could lose a limb if not treated, let’s just say the bites are nasty! So I was very very cautious when approaching this snake.

The truth about these snake bites!

We were given a long silver hook in which we used to wrap underneath the middle of the body, pick up and carefully place the snake into the plastic box. The boxes we used were designed to be tricky and hard to use with no handles, so when you bent down to place the lid on you had to make sure your fingers were nowhere near the edges of the box (this was the part I despised the most) Next we had to chase a spitting cobra across the yard with nothing but goggles and a stick, and when we caught up to it, we had to grab it by its tail and place it in a box. After this I walked into the house we were practicing in and one of the trainers who was acting like the customer, told me he saw a 3 meter hooded cobra in his house and it had disappeared into one of the large clay pots in the corner of the room. When I went to remove a straw hat placed on top of the pot I got shouted at, because the snake was in this pot and he could strike my hand through the hat, which I did not even think of! So I removed the hat with the clamping stick and carefully and painfully slow leaned my head over the top scared to death to look down at what I might see. When I got a good look I then realized what the hell am I doing here? This bad boy was huge! How could we go from such a small snake to the mother load? I mean couldn’t we have built it up a little? Plus no one showed me how to remove a snake from a 3 foot deep pot. I stuck my stick down in the pot and heard a hiss followed by a strike at the stick. Every inch of me was shaking; this was the most aggressive snake they had. I finally managed to get a good grip close to the head and slowly pulled it out. The snake was so heavy I couldn’t even hold the stick up properly and my arm was about to fall off! At this point I totally panicked and didn’t know what to do except yell out “I can’t do this! Please take it away!” But no one was in a position to help me so I had to proceed. I placed the snake down on the ground and without thinking released the clamp around its neck. Just then it whipped its head around hissed and shot its hood out while rising off the ground trying to make itself look even larger than it already was! The instructor kept yelling “get it get it before it escapes”! So after what seems 5 minutes of thinking of dropping the stick and running towards the door, I finally managed to get it behind its neck again. I thought the job was done and I would just have to place it into box until I heard him say “now grab its tail!” I looked at him like he was crazy, but at this point I was in such shock that it didn’t even matter anymore. So I grabbed its tail, placed it into the box and took a seat before I fell over. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, we moved outside and watched as our instructor brought over two more mystery boxes.

Little did I know I would have to run and jump on top of this snake

He opened one of the boxes and pulled out a Python larger than me! The only thing that crossed my mind at that stage was that the stick we have been using isn’t big enough for that! Our instructor had a towel in his hand and explained that in order to catch this python we would have to chase it down, throw the towel over its head, get on top of it, look for its head moving under the towel, place our hands down on top of the head, then slide a hand underneath the towel, grab it right behind its jaw and carry it with both hands to the box. Now the whole time he is explaining this, I am laughing because I thought he was just messing with us, but it wasn’t until after the first person went, did I realize he wasn’t kidding! This was the hardest thing I have ever had to do , not chasing it down, not throwing the towel over its head, but guessing where his head was without looking underneath the towel was just place suicide. Although the python is non venomous its teeth can tear straight through your hand with one bite which I was not ready to try. Eventually I got it into the box and just when I thought the adventure was over he pulled out a very large rock monitor (a prehistoric lizard)  placed it on the ground and gave it a little kick and within a second it was gone for us to chase across the yard like maniacs , jump on top of without getting bit or clawed to pieces and choke behind the head to return to the box. A couple of people got bloody knees from this capture, but I managed to get out in one piece.

Little did I know I would be pulling this 4 m Black Mamba out of a tree with my hands!

Last but not least it was Black Mamba time which nothing can prepare you for. We weren’t allowed to pull it out of the box because of how fast it was but the instructor took it out and placed it up into a tree where it became at home and coiled itself all throughout the branches making our job harder. This mamba was so thick and so long it was unreal (about 4 meters long) when it was my turn to get it out my hands were so sweaty with nerves I had trouble grasping the clamp. Not for one moment did I take my eyes off its head and one by one grabbed a section of its body with the stick then pulled the rest out with its tail and over and over again, (like untangling a box full of shoelaces) until I got it unraveled. Never before did I imagine I would be holding a black mamba which can kill 5 grown men with one bite in less than 15 minutes in my hand! So to end my story I did pass and have my first and last snake handling certificate!

In the past week I have had two great sightings that I will always remember! First off on Sunday we decided to jump into the car and head to Manyeleti a neighboring game reserve. Our guide Sean worked there for some years and said it was his preference over Kruger because there aren’t as many annoying tourist around to ruin a good sighting, so we went for a day trip! when we got there we were disappointed in the lack of animals we saw, just a few birds, impala, kudu, zebra and wildebeest. After 3 hours we decided to get out of there and hit Kruger for the rest of the day to see some action. Just as we were headed out I spotted the most beautiful leopard and without even processing it completely i yelled stop, stop, stop , stop , stop no one knew what I was yelling on  about, all I could manage to do was point back behind us on the left. I couldn’t believe I had actually finally spotted a leopard , which is extremely hard to do because the are so rare and elusive( not to mention those coat patterns blending in perfectly. We stopped the car and turned off the engine so we wouldn’t disturb it. The leopard stopped dead in its tracks and just starred at us for what seemed like seconds. we managed to get a few good shots before it continued on its journey. Just when the leopard had stepped on a grassy patch two little black birds flew out from the patch and startled the leopard ( which was a juvenille act) so much that it started to run towards the direction of our car. I decided to take no chances and rolled up my window as quickly as possible! The leopard is one of the most dangerous cats to come into contact with ( a couple days ago 2 people were killed by one leopard in Kruger) the leopard is also the only cat that you can not make direct eye contact with when confronted with!! She  ran behind our car and into the bush where she quickly disappeared. I was amazed by how quickly her spots blended into the dead grasses! We were all really excited and didn’twant to just drive away especially since we knew she was just right next to us, but we had to go because we no longer had a visual. I was so thrilled to have spotted this , since I always nag on about spotting a leopard! since that day I spotted a total of 8 in the whole year! Since that first leopard spot I didnt really have anymore challenges as far as spotting went, so focused on caracal and aardvark lol

Another amazing sighting was a few days ago, when we went to the waterhole behind the college and witnessed around a thousand Cape buffalo crossing over the hill and into our direction to get some water from our burrow pit! it was amazing ! Never before have I seen such a large amount of any animal before in my life! you could literally feel the ground shaking! within minutes they covered the whole land and it became impossible to count them. they walked with a steady pace until the water was visible. They started to run to the water to get a chance to drink. The family of hippos that were in the water were not happy with this and let the buffalo know this by mock charging them in the water which was something ive  also never seen before either. The buffalo got so close to the hippo at one point that it forced the hippo to lunge out of water and take a snip at the Buffalo’s side. It was so intense and overwhelming. We were in a safe distance for most of the time, until the end when they had finished drinking. They came up in our direction from both sides and within minutes surrounded us! The thing that makes buffalo so dangerous is how unpredictable they are and at any minute could lose their composure and charge, leading all the others to do the same, but luckily there was no hostility and I gazed in awe as they walked within feet of our two vehicles before  headeding  off into the bush!

 These past few weeks have been very hectic and non stop! I haven’t had a chance to write on my blog since my trip to Mozambique! So for all who haven’t heard, my trip was awful!! I mean don’t get me wrong the beaches were beautiful , but i would have much preferred just looking at postcards then actually going there! To start things off we had a late start and ended up getting lost a few times and driving on the worse road in Africa! It was nothing but potholes and dips for 4 hours! when it got dark we didn’t have a clue where we were going anymore and it seemed like a scene from a horror movie, we just kept driving down this endless dirt road and every now and then would pass a person walking along the side with a machete for protection. We were so lost we ended up driving through a couple of villages that were anything but safe! lets just say there was no warm welcome and they wanted us to leave, we couldn’t even stop for more than a few seconds or we would get mobbed for all the luggage in the bed of the truck!

 The dirt path we were on suddenly turned to sand and after about 20 minutes we were wandering if we were driving on the actual beach? the very next thing i knew we got stuck in the deepest sand you could imagine! in disbelief we all got out of the truck and worked for the next hour to get the truck out , using everything we could think of, literally laying down digging out the sand with coffee mugs and propping little sticks underneath the tires, but no luck . I did not  want to just give in and admit we weren’t going anywhere like everyone else so i was very persistent to try again and again , but by this point everyone was getting pretty tired.

I have never been in a situation where there was nothing at all to be done except just sit and wait. The problem was that we hadn’t seen any sign of life for the last 3 hours of driving, so a chance that someone would come along and pull us out was slim to none. To make matters worse we had to sit in the car with all the windows rolled up because it was too dangerous to just sit outside next to the car and the mozzies were starting to bite like crazy. It was literally so dark where we were you couldn’t see your hand out in front of your face! By some miracle one of the guys cell phone picked up a small signal and we called the most random numbers we could find in a travel brochure until someone picked up ( mind you it was already 1am) Luckily someone picked up and said they would send a tractor our way and it would get to us in 3 hours. Ruling the fact out that we weren’t going to get mugged in the middle of the night or attacked and cut up to pieces , i could finally start to breath and relax.

The heat and long day started to catch up to us and everyone fell asleep in the car or more like passed out because there was absolutely no air ! around 4am we heard the sounds of a tractor pulling up in the distance and just when we thought we were hallucinating we wiped off the humidity on the front window and saw a tractor light pulling up! I felt like i had been trapped on an island for days and i had just seen a plane fly overhead! I was so relieved i jumped out the car, jumped up and down and waved my arms in the air, as if they hadn’t seen us already. Two local African men hoped off the tractor and without even greeting us tied up a massive rope to the truck and connected it to the tractor. The only problem was , they were very drunk and had been out drinking all night before they got our call, so it made me a little uneasy, but who cares ! we were safe! they pulled us for 3 hours through nothing but sand, and it made us wonder A) how do people get to the beaches through a sand road and B) why didn’t anyone tell us we needed a 4*4 truck to get to our destination? when we finally got within minutes to the small town the tractor battery had died ! at this point it was morning and all we wanted to do was find a nice warm bed and collapse! the two men thought they knew how to fix a battery and were shocking themselves one by one trying to fix it , we tried to explain to them that we would drive them to town to get help , but their English wasn’t very good, so after another hour of sitting around thinking of a solution they finally gave in and one of them came with us , while the other stayed behind with the tractor.

Just as we were driving to town , we got stuck about 3 more times and had a routine by then to jump out and start pushing the back and jump up and down on the end of the truck while turlough put the petal to the floorboard. Just when we thought the sand was shallow again, we got stuck and the drunk African who was helping us yelled at turlough to get out of the car so he can show him how to drive through sand! without hesitation he jumped in the car reversed about 50 feet and gunned it with all of us standing in the middle of the path. I knew when i saw those headlights coming that he wasn’t going to slow down or stop for anyone so i looked around for a place to jump out of the way, but on each side there was a steep sandy slope! I jumped up and literally grabbed onto a small patch of grass that was sticking out of the sand and was praying i didn’t slip or i would have been hit! When he passed us i noticed one of the guys Ben wasn’t around and when i looked ahead i saw him running full speed from the car with nothing but socks on in the sand , It looked like a scene out of speed or something, at this point we forgot the fact that we were almost ran over and fell to the ground laughing at this hilarious sight. The guy just kept driving with our truck and we pretty much figured with all the luck we had that night, he was going to just drive off and steal it, but he stopped in the distance ahead , after he had cleared most of the tough sandy areas. He then told us to hop onto the bed of the truck for the remainder of the drive and he gunned it again , going so fast that a couple of times he almost threw us out of the truck! at one point i was compeltely thrown into the air , with not one inch of my body touching the truck, when we got to our destination the man said ” Daniela , Daniela are you ok? and I yelled “of course I’m not ok ! you almost killed me!” he casually said he was sorry and laughed. We paid him 700 rand for the help and checked into a beautiful resort with the most friendly and understanding Portuguese man i have ever met, who owned the place. We were a little concerned with how much it would be to stay at a place as nice as that, but he kindly said “lets not talk about prices tonight, you guys have had a rough night”so we didn’t argue and passed out the second we got into the room. The next morning he had sent us complimentary breakfast and let us off with a fair price.

We hit the beach ASAP and it was absolutely gorgeous and gave me the first sigh of relief after a long night. Just as we were laying on the beach and enjoying rest and relaxation, we heard two familiar voices approaching us , and when i looked up i saw the two men who had helped us the night before. Apparently we got a call earlier that morning from their boss accusing us of not paying the men , which was a lie! I was so outraged when i saw these men i asked them about the payment, and they acted like they didn’t know what i was talking about, giving them a very unfriendly welcome, they left within minutes. Later that day the electricity was out throughout the whole town for the next 2 days, and no one had any bank machines, or credit machines at all! so we were dirt poor and pretty much had to scrape by with what we had. When it came time to leave, i was more than happy! We decided since we knew we had to go back on the sand path to be prepared, so we asked a couple of local south African boys who were there on vacation to drive behind us with their truck and help pull us out every time we got stuck. They weren’t really interested but did it anyways , after they had helped us and followed us out of town for about 2 hours we thanked them with beer, rum, and a little bit of cash and headed to our next destination Maputo ( the capital of Mozambique) When we arrived it was enormous! and dirty ! and overpopulated! we found our little Backpackers Inn luckily and to my surprise it was a hostel! Never have i stayed in a room with 10 other people who were complete strangers of both sexes! man talk about uncomfortable! the thought of waking up next to someone you know nothing about put me out of my element, but i didn’t have much of a choice, so i became open minded and decided to bear it.

We went out and walked around the town and within minutes got stopped by the police who patrol the streets and act as parasites, waiting for the next tourists to come along to harass them for anything they have! They would ask for your passport and find the stupidest reason why it was wrong, and say there is only one way to fix it , go to jail or pay money, so the easiest thing to do is to give them money and leave! the next 2 days in Maputo we got stopped at least 4 more times, by the police and it was starting to make me very upset, I couldn’t help but to open my mouth and start talking back to them, but my mates who were with me, basically told me to shut up or ill be going to jail. To make a long story short we got back through the border with no problems , i should have paid attention to the sign at the Mozambique border that read beer, prawns, and beaches because that was the only and i mean only good thing about that place! We  took the path through Kruger to get back home! never have i been so thrilled to see the gates back into the wildlife!

Hello to all , just wanted to let you know that after another grueling semester here in South Africa, it is time to kick back lay on the beach all day and have no worries! (well for the most part) Me and the lads are headed to Mozambique for 7 days and I am very excited, but honestly i don’t know what is more exciting , stopping at a huge mall on the way or hitting the world famous beaches? one thing is for sure we were all warned about the abundance of land mines there( we even heard one go off the other day from our classroom!) hopefully it was just an animal that stepped on it not a human, apart from that as long as we stay to used pathways we should be fine! The other half of the group going to Mozambique is doing a 5 day diving school , so that should be very exciting for them, I don’t think I’m ready to go swimming with the sharks just quite yet, lol. I wont be on the computer for the next week, so ill have lots to post when i get back! wish me luck