We learnt a lot....

It's been a long month and with one day off (our last post) so much has happened. As you all know we spent the last month at Karongwe Nature Reserve completing an Ecotraining field guides course, in the northern part of South Africa, the Low-Veld as it is called. We have amassed over 1000 photos of birds, insects, mammals, plants and trees and can even identify most of them. (correction, just counted, 1980 from the past month) The mammals we can even track by their footprint (spoor) and Poo (dung, scat or feaces). The smell of Waterbuck, the roar of Lion, the call of a grey Go-away bird (which sounds like Goway, Goway). A huge amount of useless information is now in my head which will be really useful walking down Bedford Street in Belfast when we return. Jude and I both passed the course, 61% final score each although we did have different scores for the practicals, presentations and exams (4 hour final exam!). We made another lot of good friends (so many people on our travels!) and some which we will see again in the coming years. A few photos and a bit of info.

Our tent on our last day. Home for a month it was a bit of a shock after the luxury of Cape Town. Not a lot of room and they heated up well during the day to over 40 Celsius. The mosquito nets where great at night but you had to make sure not to touch the sides or the little guys would be able to stretch.

This 'Elegant Grasshopper' not the smallest of insects but one of the most colourful. Also known as an Elegant Locust the difference is only in the numbers. Locusts are swarms of Grasshoppers. Crickets on the other hand are completely different.

The aposomatic colouration is used by insects to warn off predators. It says you can see me, I'm not hiding but you don't want to eat me cause I'm poisonous.

A grey Heron and an Egyptian goose
The Grey heron is a palearctic migratory bird meaning it migrates from Europe or Asia. it is actually Europe's largest heron. The Egyptian goose is an Intra-African migratory bird meaning it migrates from within Africa... in this case Egypt hence the name

The Sickle bush, know for its compound bipinate leaves with long straight brown thorns. Also known as the Chinese lantern tree due to the flowers, it is eaten by a lot of animals. There are various local medicinal uses for the bark but we only used it for firewood and bushpacking (to encourage growth in eroded areas.)

One of the 4 lion cubs in the reserve the lion is a pure carnivore (meat eater). Although lazy they are more opportunistic in their prey. Some say the lioness will do most of the hunting unless easy prey walks past for the male to crab. This little guy will grow up to 250kg and 4 foot high at the shoulder.

The Common Impala was the most plentiful mammal in the reserve. This young male was part of a bachelor herd which hung around practising rutting (fighting) and working on chat up techniques for the mating season in April. The long horns, present only in the males are not much defence against Cheetah and leopard. Their speed and agility make it too fast for the lazy lion. If a herd is attacked they all jump up and run around to confuse the predator.

This is Savannah with her two cubs and a male impala. The cheetah is a very tall and slender cat and can run up to 60kph (that's about 37mph).

So where now? A few days in J'burg to catch up (thanks again Lee and Mona) and a bit of travel around the area. 26th February is our next 'trip' from Zambia to Nairobi before back in march for a week to see Niece or Nephew Boyd. Trip 2 starts April 1st (no joke) in Dubai but you'll hear about that later, we need to buy the tickets still !

I did say to lots of people about our website but the time to arrange everything else has taken over and to be honest we've been having too much fun. I'll try and get a lot more of our photos online somewhere, and I'll let you know when that happens.