Snakes, Sables, Malaria and Orange Truffle Baileys!

Once again this is being posted much later than planned. The rains have caused signal to vanish and solar power to drain so not much time for being online recently!

At the entrance sign for Kasanka

December has come around so quickly! It’s difficult to believe that it’s December when it’s so hot here; every time I go to record the date I have to stop and think about it.

Having a picnic lunch at the checkpoint

The "Chinese Road" outside Kasanka

The month started out with a shopping trip down to Lusaka to stock up on supplies as we were getting low and the Project Director Anna is arriving around the 12^th for a visit. It coincides nicely with Christmas as well as Liz leaving and me taking over as Camp Manager. I must say the night buses aren’t my favourite way to travel, but when there’s really no alternative, what else can you do?!

Kids from a local village

Liz and I with rabbits at the village

When we got back to Kasanka, we stayed in Mulaushi (the Conservation Centre) as we conducted interviews on the 4^th December for The Sarah Darlene Hogle Scholarship Fund under which the project supports a girl through her upper secondary education. While we were there we decided to visit Jesse (a Peace Corps volunteer) at his village and spend the night. We had a picnic at the Park’s gate and then hitched the 10km to the village. It was so lovely to get to experience Zambian village life. The kids followed us around and showed us the new rabbits and bee hive, which are both part of Jesse’s projects here. They brought us a bowl of musuku (fruit that grow wild here) to eat and we had fun taking photos with them. Jesse’s life is so basic that it makes camp life seem like luxury! So apparently you can survive with even less than what we do! We cooked rice and potatoes for dinner and followed the sun to bed as we always do here.

Myself with the kids (all dressed up for us!)

We headed back to Mulaushi to teach the girls on the 5^th and Liz gave the all presents as it was her last lesson. We stayed the night at Wasa which was incredibly busy! We got to meet entomologists who had been working in the Park for the last few days taking insect samples. They were self-described “species-hunters” who conduct expeditions to different parts of Africa searching for new insects. So that kind of job really does still exist!! I must admit I think both Liz and I were a little jealous, even though entomology is definitely not one of my interests! They are pretty confident they will have found new species here in Kasanka so I’ve decided to keep my eye out for the next year! Even better- they gave us some Terry’s Chocolate Orange which was amazing. They also brought us down to their light trap which was set up by the lake to show us how they catch the insects.

Later in the evening, Jesse arrived at the lodge with a crew from Malaria No More (an NGO founded by Ashton Kutcher apparently!). They are travelling Zambia filming stories of people who have survived malaria because they got treatment on time. As one of the little girls I met at Jesse’s village survived it, they had been filming at his village (just after Liz and I left to teach, argh!) and had come to Kasanka to see the bats. We got to speak to them for a while too which was great. Later still, Alex arrived in holding his arm in the air saying he’d just been bitten by a snake! He had tried to pick it up (!!!) and it bit him. Cue the next hour of worrying and phone calls and snake books and discussing what to do. Luckily, it turned out there was a retired doctor staying at Wasa that night. He had a look and said he had experienced many snake bites while working in Zambia and he felt the risk of death from driving at night in Zambia was higher than the risk of death from the bite (really says a lot about the night buses…!). So all in all, it was an unbelievably busy and dramatic night at the normally peaceful Wasa. (By the way, Alex is fine! Well fine health-wise anyway, I can’t say the same for the appearance of his finger though!)

Stunning chameleon

Back to camp and back to work after almost a full week away. One of the days we “ran into” an elephant out in the forest. Luckily Liz was looking further ahead than the usual metre or so that we scan (for baboons tracks and also holes/rocks/branches, anything that will trip us up- which happens more frequently than I care to admit). It didn’t appear to notice us, although I have no doubt it knew we were there, so we turned and slowly walked away. We also came across two chameleons fighting one afternoon which resulted in 30 minutes of Aileen and Liz taking photos and watching them (and Marley our scout staying well back as locals don’t like chameleons and are in fact scared of them). This was so great to see as I’d never even seen a chameleon in the wild, never mind two fighting!

Scout Marley with some huge mushrooms!

There are still flowers popping up everywhere; it’s so beautiful to see the succession of different species in the same area, gradually different flowers replace each other as the weeks creep by. The plain has now started to change from green to a sea of yellow or white depending on which part you’re at. The vegetation is so dynamic, even in a matter of 24 hours it can change now that it’s mushroom season. I’ve seen some of the largest mushrooms I’ve ever seen here. Some of them are edible and they’re really delicious! The baboons agree too.

Carpet of yellow flowers in Chinyangali Plain

Around the 10^th I started to feel unwell- just very lethargic and dizzy. I continued to work as much as I could but by the 13^th when I started to gets aches all over, Liz made the call for me to start malaria treatment. The fact that I’m already taking anti-malarial medication means that it makes the case milder and suppressing the symptoms somewhat. The fact that I was still disproving after 4 days meant there really wasn’t much else it could be. I was sceptical as even though I know had the headaches and aches, I hadn’t experienced any fevers which, in my mind, were the main symptom. In fact I’d experienced the opposite; chills, I was completely unable to stay warm. Still, I’d imagined malaria to come at you like death! Not relatively mildly like this. Sure enough though within 12 hours of starting treatment, I felt vastly better! The exhaustion stayed with me for about a week but I was able to work again. And I got to join the Malaria Club here as everyone has had it, whether talking medication for it or not. Strangely, my symptoms started 9 days after first arriving in Lusaka so it seems I’m yet another person to get malaria there (including Liz and Anna) despite so many guide books saying Lusaka is malaria free?!? So be warned!

KBP ladies- Anna, Liz and I

Anna arrived at camp (with my replacement iPhone, yay!!) right as I started my treatment for malaria. I felt terrible being in bed when my boss arrived, but she knows only too well what malaria is like! It was so great to meet her and have all three of us “baboon ladies” together. There few things in life nicer than getting to spend time doing what you love with like-minded people who understand your joy in all of it, rather than thinking you’re a little crazy!

We travelled to Mulaushi to meet with Leah, the girl we chose to award the scholarship to. Anna was very happy with the decision, and it falls on me now to organise everything for her over the next year. The girls from the club all arrived as well to say hi to Anna and bye one last time to Liz.

With the Science Club girls

With Leah the scholarship recipient 

Desmond and Victor

And so with the arrival of Anna began the mass exodus of people, who have become great friends, from Kasanka, starting with Liz. On her final day of research while we were walking back to camp, we saw a side-striped jackal (Canis adustus) which is another new species for me! We had a sundowner (a drink at sunset) at the bats one last time to say bye to Liz and it was lovely to have (almost) everyone together one last time. And with that, she left for home- I’m really going to miss her! After Liz left, I also had to say bye to Alex who’s off for more adventures elsewhere. Then it was the Shrike researchers, Monique and Jorrit, who left much earlier than they were supposed to and I only found out the day before that they were leaving. Then our camp attendant Desmond left, he’s off to study in Lusaka so I’m very happy for him. And finally I had to say bye to Anna on the 30^th! Even the bats have left me at this stage as the migration comes to an end. So new year, new start! I’m going to miss everyone so much, but I’ve made such great new friends!

Liz's goodbye drinks at the bats

Cash, Clover and Nona

Cash

Before Anna left though, I got to spend time with her in the field which was really good. She’s very confident with the baboons and they are just so relaxed around her. I really hope will be able to be as confident with them as she is! I think I will, as I’m not afraid of them and I know they aren’t going to randomly try to maul me. But if I make a mistake, they will let me know it, and that’s ok. They have come so close with Anna around, it’s amazing to see. They literally walk towards us, as opposed to usually moving away from us. I had both Godiva and Roseanne come within a few metres of me, and also two of the adult males, Muma and Mr. Cookies, passed within maybe 5 metres of me. It was surreal to think they are completely wild animals and I found myself standing there grinning like a fool about it all! I still love seeming them when they encounter other people, especially staff on bikes, as they alarm call and run and generally get very disturbed and yet they are so calm around us. It reminds me of how that’s the reaction we should be receiving, but we don’t. Truly habituated animals are not meant to interact with the observer in any way, either positive or negative, they are just meant to ignore you, and this is definitely the case with the troop (well, the adults anyway, the infants and juveniles are still usually intrigued by us and love to practice threatening us!) Sometimes I worry that they haven’t seen me and are going to get startled when they pass so near, but they always glance around and make no indication of seeing me, instead they seem to look straight through me- exactly what you want with habituated animals!

Short Tail and Leppard grooming

Snake!

We saw what we think was a vine snake one of the days. We heard a noise that just sounded like another branch falling to the ground near us, but Marley said “snake”. I have no idea how he could hear from the noise that it was a snake and not a branch, but sure enough when we looked there was a snake. And not only a snake, but a snake eating a frog! Unfortunately my reactions were delayed due to experiencing both fright and wonder at once, so I didn’t manage to get a photo of him with two frog legs sticking out his mouth, but I did manage a photo once he was done. In other animal sighting news- we saw Sable antelope! We were following the baboons in one of the plains, and – Anna tells it well – apparently I said “Ummm, there’s something big and black running towards us form the forest…!” and sure enough two huge male Sables appeared out from the forest and into the plain. They mustn’t have smelt us and they certainly didn’t see us even though we were standing smack bang in the middle of the plain! Anna and I were so excited because we’ve both never seen them before and they are rare antelope. In 3 years of wanting to see them here, Anna never has, despite even going on drives specifically to try and find them! I definitely think me finding a 4 leaf clover only hours before had something to do with it…luck of the Irish and what not, diddly ay!

Sable antelope

Goodies form home!

Tracking zebra on Christmas

And then all of a sudden it was Christmas Eve and I was facing into my first Christmas away from my family. We decorated camp and watched Christmas movies and drank mulled wine, but the warm weather just seemed so unnatural for the time of year (and this coming from someone who has still spent more than half of her life living in Australia!). On Christmas Day I got to open a parcel my parents had sent over for me with Anna. Chocolates, tea, batteries, a sun hat, books and…a Kindle Fire! I was so surprised and I’m absolutely addicted to it, reading at every spare moment I have. We then were collected to go to Wasa for dinner and on the way decided to check for the zebra. So off we went walking through the Park in our dresses (I actually remembered my camera this time!) and sure enough we found them. Such a lovely way to spend Christmas! It was then off to the lodge for an amazing dinner (including gammon and a turkey!) with everyone while overlooking Wasa Lake. We had a brilliant night; I could think of worse ways to spend Christmas! At one point Anna produced a bottle of Orange Truffle flavoured Baileys she’d brought from the duty free in Heathrow which tasted exactly like liquid Terry’s Chocolate Orange. It was really a lovely last “hurrah” for me before almost everyone leaves the Park and I take over at Kinda Camp officially as Camp Manager.

Pyjama lilies on Christmas

The Kinda Camp Christmas tree!

Christmas dinner at Wasa Lodge

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!