Meerkats of the Kalahari

Earthwatch Volunteer Group X
18/09/2006 - 2/10/2006

To Paul

This journal is dedicated to my
fantastic husband and friend.
Paul, I couldn’t have had the
courage to do this without your
help and support.
I hope you enjoy reading it as
much as I enjoyed writing it.

Les
xx

P.S Thanks for the flannel!

Diary Contents

Sun 17th September – Leaving the UK
Mon 18th September – Arriving at Johannesburg
Tues 19th September – Leaving for Upington and the KRR
Wed 20th September – First day meeting the Lazuli
Thurs 21st September – First session with the volunteers
Friday 22nd September – Full day of focals
Saturday 23rd September – First Pups plus the Whiskers Film Stars
Sunday 24th September – Picnic at the Border
Monday 25th September - Something a little different
Tuesday 26th September – Moomins crawling all over me
Wednesday 27th September – Vegetation Survey
Thursday 28th September – Van Zylsrus and Meerkats still
Friday 29th September – Lazuli Split and the Dance
Saturday 30th September – Rest and BBQ
Sunday 1st October – Our Last full day with Lazuli and Elvera
Monday 2nd October – The long journey home
Tuesday 3rd October – Home coming reunion

Sun 17th September – Leaving the UK

13:35. D Day finally arrived. I’m sitting at gate 51 at Gatwick in a non air-conditioned departure area. Mixed emotions having gone through saying cheerio to Paul only to have him turn round and come back when I’d just about dried my eyes out. At least is I look a tad red sitting here I can blame it on the heat. I’m excited at the thought of the trip and meeting my fellow team members, Ted, Janice and Edith and our leader Helene. The thought that it’ll take 20 hours or so before I get to Johannesburg sounds tiring, but I know some of the others are talking more like 48 so I mustn’t be a woose. It still seems odd, Paul waving me off rather than the other way round and as I set here watching a BA flight being towed out in the glorious sunshine, I still can’t really believe it. It’s taken me all these years to do something like this, maybe I’ll be hooked, maybe not, but that’s what writing this journal is about, writing a record for me to reflect back on at a later date.

Having Waved goodbye for a second time and telling Paul not to spend too much time with Sandra Bullock in my absence, I queued at the main departure area, emptied my pockets into my hand luggage and followed in line past passport control to the X-ray machine where we all had to remove our shoes to pass them through X-ray with our luggage. A sign of the times and a reminder that incidents are taken seriously and lessons are learnt. A quick but intimate frisk by the security lady then on to the air conditioned duty free area where the obligatory sucking sweets (sugar free mind) were purchased for the flight. Through check-in at gate 51 and after sitting writing this, it’s now 13:55 and they’ve just announced they’re starting to board, so I’m just going to see if I can find a drink fountain before boarding. No luck with the water top-up, but there was no need to worry, the in flight refreshments were markedly different to our Toronto flight earlier this year.

We didn’t actually take off till about 14:45 and the flight itself was only 6 ½ hours, so not as drawn out as I thought it would be. I had an aisle seat at the back so I had more room to get up and walk about. It’s the next best thing if you can’t afford first class! I had a nice young Korean chap next to me who’d been learning English in the UK staying at Islington in London. Manyeon’s English was pretty darned good though he kept apologising for getting the odd word wrong. He thanked me for talking to him and in particular for talking slowly so he could try and understand as much as possible. I don’t think anyone’s actually thanked me for talking to them, so that’s another first. We had individual screens on the seats in front, could make calls/emails for a fee, play games like card solitaire etc, listen to music on endless different music channels and had a choice of half a dozen films. After working out how to operate the whole thing, I settled in to watch the latest X-men film (‘The Last Stand’) and I didn’t even have to pay to use the headphones!

We had a bit of turbulence, but not too much and after the film ended during which we were served with drinks and nibbles, we were served up with our mail meal, having been given out a menu earlier. Yes a menu! I managed to bag the last chicken meal (Manyeon was fortunately quite happy with the fish) and it really was yummy and filling too. Served with a choice of wine, water, roll, crackers, cheese, salad with dressing and strawberry cheesecake desert, the only thing I didn’t fancy was the thin freeze-dried beef with vegetables, topped with parmesan cheese. Before we landed there was toffee ice cream, tea and we both blagged double cakes. There was no way to go hungry with Emirates. As we came into land the pilot announced it was a balmy 31C and you knew it as you walked down the steps from the plane to the waiting busses ready to take us to the main terminal.

Dubai airport, that’s something else. I’ll get pictures on the way back, palm trees, gold and lots of duty free shopping. I offered to buy Manyeon a drink which he politely accepted, as he had no Dirham currency. We checked where our gate departures were then spent the next hour walking up and down the terminal talking about the UK and where we’d travelled and his desire for his parents, whom he was travelling back to in Korea to visit, to gain their approval for him to continue training as a graphic designer, because of his passion for drawing. As we parted, we wished each other a safe journey and good fortune. I then went to find Internet access as I couldn’t get my phone to work and managed to send a mail back to Paul to let him know the first half of the trip had gone well. I brought Cedric (my camel companion for the trip in MC’s absence) and then heard the call for boarding for my next flight and made my way to gate 11 where I caught up with a tad more journal writing. The second flight was just as good with excellent service, the only downside was my accompanying seat passenger, a guy who liked his space for feet and armrests. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean as he slept. We had even more choice of films and just had to touch the screen to select and start the film whenever you wanted.


Mon 18th September – Arriving at Johannesburg

Afterwards, I managed to get a couple of hours sleep in between being dug in the side as the guy next to me kept turning in his seat. I shouldn’t complain, it wasn’t going to spoil the trip and there were no crying kids so it was ideal really. Slightly different temperatures as we came into Johannesburg at 10C, though it was bright and sunny at 10:15 as we landed and it didn’t feel that cold. Passport control was very quick, just a couple of taps on their computers and a sticker in your passport, no questions or interrogation. On to baggage claim where I was most happy to see my case had arrived ok. There was no reason why it shouldn’t have, but I hadn’t had to claim it at Dubai, so it was nice to know it had been put on my connecting flight ok. One form to fill in at customs in a slightly disorganised area/queue before handing it in to the girl standing right in front of us, who gave it a cursory look as with everyone else’s, then straight through ‘Nothing to Declare’ and into the main exit where all the hotels/taxi drivers were lined up with their placards showing names of their collectives.

Nick was standing a few back but I could clearly see the welcomed sign of the Emerald Guesthouse with my name on it. Nick was a very friendly chap who greeted me warmly as we made our way to his waiting minibus in the car park. It was a short 5-minute trip to the guesthouse and we ended up facing the queued aeroplanes just before turning into the secure establishment. This was a great little haven and remarkably quiet considering how close the airport was. I booked in and after seeing my room I managed to actually call home to Paul & MC using my mobile. Weird echoes as I spoke, like having full reverb switched on, it was great to hear Paul’s voice and know I was being missed. I then managed to bag a few free minutes on the internet behind the desk at reception, to send and receive a couple of emails before retiring to get the first decent sleep in 24 hours. It was a lot cooler when I woke about 6:30 to find it was also dark already. After some grub I sat having a drink at the reception/bar talking to the owner Nico and another guest, David. Nico told me about his attempts to buy and open a guesthouse in the UK, he even showed me the glossy brochure for a wonderful old house at Great Easton he’d been looking at. David also chatted about his recent trip to Ullswater and Cockermouth of all places. As the evening progressed, we covered South African history, Afrikaans, Religion, Game Reserves and my trip.

We only chatted for a couple of hours but it seemed ages as we talked in brief over so many subjects. It really was a warm and friendly environment and the perfect start to my stay. As I retired I said thank you (baie dankie) and Ina replied which I guessed meant it’s been a pleasure and she said in English then a great pleasure. Safe in the knowledge that they were going to knock on the door at 06:30, so I didn’t oversleep, I walked across the chilly courtyard back to my room and retired to bed to update ‘the journal’ again. I checked my phone and had a lovely message from Paul, MC and Justin Timberlake!. I tried to call back but he was obviously on the phone again to Kylie so I watched a little TV before calling it a night! I eventually got off to sleep waking at about 05:30ish and decided to get up as it was already getting light.


Tues 19th September – Leaving for Upington and the KRR

Having checked my flight schedule I found they really wanted you at check-in about an hour and a half before so I got ready and went outside about 06:10 to take a few pictures and waved to Ina at reception, who was the one who had made a note to knock on my door . I finished packing and went over for breakfast and to check it was ok to get an earlier transfer. No problem and there and then I had a couple of eggs cooked for me. What star service. The trip to the airport was short and sweet and check-in with my electronic ticket even quicker. I didn’t even have to show my passport. After leaving my bag I went to find internet services. I could have 15 minutes for R20 but ended up paying R34.50 as after a short panic with tears streaming down my face I managed to get a message sent to Paul, explaining that my phone didn’t work when I retried it and I hadn’t been able to go back on the net the previous night. I printed off the picture he’d sent through of him and MC with beaming smiles on their faces which I was going to put up in my rondavel at camp.

It wasn’t long before boarding calls and it was a quick trip through the scanners and onto a waiting bus which whisked us out to the plane about 10 minutes before take-off. I’m guessing there were no more than 30 people boarding and I managed to get a seat on my own in the single one-side, double the other side of the aisle set-up. The strange thing was just as we were queuing to go up to the steps a lady asked if I was Lesley. I think I probably did hear her the first time but was so surprised I said pardon and she repeated the question. It turned out to be Edith, one of my fellow volunteers in the Meerkat team. Her flight was late in the previous day so she’d been unable to get through to Upington to join Ted and Janice, so the airline had put her up in a hotel in Johannesburg for the night and there she was catching the same plane now. We had a single very young looking flight attendant taking car of us and even on that short trip we got served snacks and drinks. Take off was quick and steep and with the clear skies you could see the whole landscape panning out below. I took a few pictures, not knowing how they’d turn out, but trying to capture some of the oddities. The land was carved up into massive oblong fields in shades of brown and red but every do often they’d be a green field. The weird bit was seeing circles of all sizes in brilliant green dotted everywhere at random. Some with slightly different coloured segments but all perfectly round.

Further on you could see the Orange River winding its way along and large outcrops of rocks and then masses of green fields next to the river as we came into Upington itself. It was so vast, impossible to capture properly but I hoped it would be a reminder if nothing else. Edith was seated back from me so I waited after disembarking and snapped a picture as she came through the plane door. (Or as I found out later, a brilliant picture of her just disappearing behind someone already on the ground!) We walked across to the tiny terminal and Edith spotted Helene straight away, not hard though as she was sporting an Earthwatch T-shirt. We met Ted and Janice and Rob an Emily. Janice was from the US and Ted from the UK and they completed our Earthwatch team. Emily was from France and was out visiting her boyfriend Christoph and doing volunteer work and Rob was back again as a volunteer after a short break away from the project, this time as a ‘paid worker’ with a 6 month contract. We collected our baggage and hauled it up on top of the 4x4 and while Rob and Helene strapped it all down we chatted amongst ourselves and took some pics of the new ‘team’.

Then it was off to town to get some last minute provisions like beer and wine and any snacks we might like for the next two weeks. A light lunch and we were off leaving Rob and Emily to follow on in one of the other vehicles that had been being repaired. We spotted Ostrich, some with young, sheep, goats, chickens, cows and horses, the odd chipmunk crossing the road, a mongoose, a few tortoises and three other things to note. A small herd of Eland standing proudly with their magnificent antlers, amazing social weaver bird nests that looked like haystacks, clinging to acacia trees and telephone poles and then about two thirds of the journey on, after we left the tarmac roads behind and were pleasantly and comfortably riding along the gravel roads, Helene said to look out for Hyrax on a big rock on the left. We saw one at the top then as she slowed down as we passed the next big outcrop on the right, we spotted a couple at the top. We’d obviously alarmed them by slowing down though, as in the next second the whole rock appeared to come alive with what seemed like hundreds of them scurrying across the crevices like a mass of ants.

We continued on to the reserve and headed towards Rus en Vrede where we saw our new home for the next two weeks with the ground squirrels. Pretty as a picture in the setting sun, there was the farmhouse surrounded by a tall water tower, outbuildings and our ‘des res’, small pink thatched rondavels. Looking at all the tracks around the little houses, that was when you realised just how close you were to the native wildlife. After we’d unpacked, Helene came back to join us for lunch and kitted us out with our rucksacks and gave us a briefing on what we’d be doing over the next few days. Afterwards we retired to our rondavels about 21:00 in readiness for a good night’s kip and an early wake up call. We were to meet at the lounge in the main building just across from our ‘des res’ ready to set off after breakfast at 06:45. I escorted Janice back to her palace by torchlight where she found a cut little gecko wandering round the whitewashed walls inside. Unfazed, she let it crawl to the top of the walls by the thatch before we said goodnight and I trundled back to Vleilele. Each of the huts had names of flowers on the doors. Mine was a pink water lily. Edith’s (Tolbossie) was tumbleweed, Janice’s (Dubbeltjie) was a yellow vine and Ted’s (Tsamma) was a wild water melon. What a day. Time for bed, after a few moments listening to the crickets and staring up at the beautiful southern hemisphere of twinkling stars.


Wed 20th September – First day meeting the Lazuli

I woke at 01:30 and again at 03:30 when the stars seemed even more abundant. No light pollution whatsoever, the sky was pitch black, encrusted with diamonds. Without a torch you couldn’t see a thing. Unfortunately I managed to miss my phone alarm at 06:00 and woke up to find it was 06:30 and I had 15 minutes to get ready and have breakfast. You wake up quickly in that situation. I filled my water bottles, chucked everything in my rucksack and headed off to breakfast where |I managed to down a quick bowl of cereal before Helene walked in checking we were all ready to go. After a quick visit to Gannavlakte Field Station ( the other farmhouse!) where we met up with a few more guys, we went in search of the Lazuli. One of the groups from Meerkat Manor, I was so excited that is was also going to be my first group to see in the flesh. We parked the truck off the main road, negotiated our first (fortunately low) fence and trooped after Helene towards their last recorded night burrow. As we came towards the dry bank there they were all standing up in a small group taking in the early sun to warm themselves up. They’re so tiny compared to those you see in the zoos and other wildlife parks. As we all approached Helene made the greeting Haah Hmmm to reassure them and we simply walked up to them avoiding blocking their sunlight. They didn’t run away, they just gave a glance to acknowledge our presence and kept sunbathing.

We all took a few pictures as we amazed at how close we all were. It was then time to put into practice some of the identification procedure we’d learnt about the previous day. Though some of the marks had faded, most of them were still clearly visible and we started to identify them by their small black hair dye marks. Cazanna was the dominant female, so easy to recognise as she had the radio collar on. Others were noted one by one as a group check was done. Bonzo had a mark on his left thigh and middle back. Tonic had two marks on his right thigh etc.. All were present aside from two, Diana and Aretha. It was just like a school roll call. As I sat down and watched in total amazement with my rucksack in front, I had the most magical moment. One of the younger smaller ones, though I was so excited I forgot to check whom, came over and crawled onto my rucksack then up onto my arm. He stayed for what seemed like ages. I was trying to call out to the others to take a picture but without frightening him off. Then just before he climbed down Helene saw us sitting together and saw the look of delight in my face. I felt so privileged like I’d been accepted into the family.

As they warmed up and after a little grooming, they started to wander off and start foraging for food. It wasn’t long before you could see the familiar pattern of one standing guard while the others dug frantically, making tiny noises and catching all sorts of prey. Most of the time you heard them munching but didn’t see what it was but a couple of times they caught some big centipedes and it was obvious. The second time, just before we left at about 10:00, one of the guys caught one and promptly left it and one of the younger ones moved in for a snack, rolling it in the sand first to try and rub off the nasty coating. He made a real meal of it but eventually left having split it in two and no one else seemed to want it. As we walked slowly back to the truck we passed a vicious looking plant covered in spiked seed heads which we found out was suitable named the Devil’s Thorn. Ted had a moment as we climbed over the fence again when both feet got stuck with the wire firmly lodged in the grooves of his soles. Off back to camp and a talk on safety first. How to deal with snake, scorpion and spider bites, when to apply a compress bandage and when not, then details of what to do if an Ostrich has a go at you, which to cut a long story short meant if you can’t climb up anything of get behind anything, lie down on the floor. You’ll probably get trodden on but that’s less painful than being kicked.

After that we had some GPS training. These are great little gizmos used to track your position and that of the meerkats. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be fun or not, but it was. We had a play around with them for a while after and I stored a mark and gave my GPS to Ted asking him to go to A05 and he successfully navigated to the water tower a few metres away. So I felt confident that I’d taken in some of the training ok ready for the next day, which would only be more training wit the GPS in the field before we got into the real data collection where we take GPS positions every 15 minutes while walking with the meerkats as they foraged for food. Joel came over later to give us a chat on meerkat behaviour and explain in more detail the sorts of things we would be asked to monitor. He put such exuberance and animation into the chat, it just made us want to go back out into the field straight away.

There was time then for a short nap before getting ready to go over to the other farmhouse later for grub and to meet the other volunteers. I had a nice chat with Linda and Lorna and all too quickly we were setting off back to camp where I badgered Helene for a phone card and managed to call Paul before retiring. It was so great to hear his voice, I had so much to tell him, I just blurted it all out and I don’t think I gave him much chance to talk. He said he’d been watching the latest Meerkat Manor and I told him the first group we’d seen was the Lazuli and I dearly wished he was with me to experience this. I don’t know how long I talked for but I hopefully saved a few minutes to call back again in a couple of days. Edith had also finally managed to talk to Bert before he went off to a Speedway GP in Poland, so we both went off to bed very happy.


Thurs 21st September – First session with the volunteers

Day 3 arrived and it was a morning session with Edith and the Young Ones, with Rob as our volunteer researcher. This morning was going to be practice with the GPS in the field, tracking points every 15 minutes to plot the meerkat group’s movements. This was a smaller group than the Lazuli which ended up leading us across one high fence and a low one as they crossed the road from the reserve to a neighbouring farm. The morning sessions normally run for three hours from the time that they leave their burrow and start foraging, and this small group were a bit twitchy for the whole session as the wind had picked up a bit, so we were constantly reassuring them as the crisp grass crackled under out feet. The session had started with us walking to the burrow from the farmhouse and arriving before they were up. One by one they slowly emerged until all 10 were above ground, standing up but still slumping down half asleep on occasions and soaking in the early morning sun. The scales Rob had were not working properly, so he ran back to the farmhouse quickly to replace them. As he returned it looked as though they were just about to go off foraging but his return alerted them and he managed to get the weigh in done. The volunteers normally take weights first thing and then again at lunchtime at the end of the three hour foraging so that they can monitor how well the individuals are doing. Tempted by a sip of water or a morsel of egg, one by one they each hopped into the box on top of the scales and their weights were noted down. Then they were off moving at a fairly steady walking pace as we followed on remembering to take our 15 minute GPS markers and keep an eye open for any of the animal behaviours Joel had explained to us the previous day and letting Rob know if he’d not seen it, while watching elsewhere. It was enough with a group of 10, it must be really hectic with the Whiskers group of nearly 40, which hopefully we would find out later on.

We saw most traits, grooming, submission, scent marking, dominance assertion, digging, foraging competition and predator alarm, but no real raised guard. Though several of the group appeared to be keeping the group guarded there were no long term sentries letting out the typical ‘pip pip’ calls. As the morning heated up, we ended up on some of the dunes where the group seemed to have the most foraging success with scorpions and centipedes on the menu. At the end of the three hour session we took the final GPS mark and saved the track and used trace back to workout the distance the group had travelled. Rob did the final weigh in and in spite of half the group bolting in different directions when alerted by something last minute, he managed to get all but one weighed ok. He radioed in to Helene and as we headed back over the short fence she was there waiting on the road to give us a lift back to the main farmhouse. The others were still out with the Moomins group so we headed back to camp and had a wonderful view of three highly painted bee eaters perched on the power lines as we drove in. After she’d downloaded our GPS tracks and info, we had lunch and then time again for a break before our three o’clock training on foraging focals which Ted and I were to practice with the Moomins group in the afternoon.

It was still very hot as we left about 16:15 for the afternoon session with Cooks. It was on the reserve where their last noon location was taken, which was just as well as the ‘rust bucket’ (really that’s what it was!) was to be our mode of transport. It was a truck that had seen better days. No suspension, so it was just as well that we didn’t hit any major ruts, though it was still a very bumpy ride. The front passenger window wouldn’t shut either, so it was a case of making sure you leant in when the prickly hedges were a bit too close. It probably wasn’t that far though it was on the edge of the reserve and seemed a long way till we parked up and Cooks got the scanner out to track the radio collar, which was on the dominant male in this group. It took a while and it was 17:25 before we found them after quite a trek in the heat, (nearly 1km as we found out later from the GPS readings), then we started our foraging focals practice. We only managed to do the dominant female (Grumpy) before the group was already back at its sleeping burrows and the sun was beginning to set already. This was a larger group of 23 and they liked to spread out, so after spotting the first one, it was some time before we found all the others in the long dry grass and it wasn’t until they headed to the more open burrow that we could really see everyone.

We had the privilege of seeing half a dozen wildebeest a few hundred yards away as we were starting the search which was another first of so many on this trip. There wasn’t time to take pictures though as we were concentrating on searching for the group so I hoped I’d get an opportunity later on, though Helene later said that although there were about 50 or so on the reserve, they rarely saw them. So we watched as Cooks weighed all the group before bed and took some more pictures. This was such a lovely group and some of them were so tiny it was hard to imagine what it would be like when we eventually got to see some of the pups in other groups. This group also had a special little character of its own called Fluffernutter, affectionately known as Fluffy. He was born with a genetic disorder, which meant he actually didn’t have any claws but he’d adapted well to foraging still and was doing well in the group even though he was only the size of the litter below. As the last ones popped down into the burrow, we took our last marker then checked the GPS to locate the truck, which by now was well out of sight come 900+ metres away. Obviously out here they’re not toys but essential equipment but I did find a certain amount of fun or maybe just pure fascination in using them and finding out what they were capable of. I now knew what the Paris Dakar guys had to cope with.

It was quite late by the time we got back to the farmhouse where the other guys had already arrived and the only downside to everything was that I had a bit of a stomachache. Whether from something I’d eaten or the heat, the bumpy ride or a combination I’m not sure, but my guts were gargling like a trooper. It was too dark to shower so I just freshened up a bit before Tom (Flower’s) talk on the meerkat project, why they’d chosen meerkats for the study and why they were still here 13 years later. It was quite fascinating and entertaining at the same time. Unfortunately my stomach was giving me a bit of grief, so as we all sat down to lunch I ate a little but then excused myself politely and retired early so I could lie down and allow my stomach to settle. As it was I slept till about 02:30 from an early 21:05 bed, then slept through till 05:30 and dozed till getting up at 06:00 again which was the trend for our meerkat monitoring days.

>br> Friday 22nd September – Full day of focals

I decided to skip breakfast, as I didn’t want to risk any aggravation and when I walked into the kitchen where Ted, Janice and Helene were sitting, there was a sigh of relief from them. Apparently they’d just been discussing contingency plans if I hadn’t turned up feeling better. Ted did reassure me still by saying I looked terrible and I obligingly said cheers. LOL. We sped off to the other farmhouse and Janice and I met up again with Rob again who we were accompanying to the Young Ones at the same sleeping burrow I’d been to the previous day. It was actually quite cool still and breezy so I kept my fleece on for now as we walked over to the burrow just in time to see the first guy pop up. It may have been a coincidence but I actually think the guy came up as soon as he heard Rob calling. One by one all 10 slowly emerged and obligingly (well most except Asterix the dominant female) hopped onto the scales to be weighed. Well who can resist egg and water for breakfast! The breeze made them all a bit skittish and again it took a while before they really started to forage and we could start our monitoring.

We just managed to complete our first foraging focal on Asterix, the dominant female, when we had to abandon the session because of an alarm call. The group had spotted something in the distance, which Rob identified initially as a single meerkat up on a bank a few hundred metres away. The group slowly kept going in the same direction towards the individual, then suddenly went into their war dance. Rob spotted a few more meerkats in his binoculars and as we got closer we saw them sitting upright on the bank in front. He went ahead of the group to identify the ‘rivals’, which turned out to be Starsky, a group of 7 individuals. Numbers normally win, but these guys were much bigger than the 10 Young Ones who decided it was better to retreat. This wasn’t before we had a perfect example of an IGGY, with both groups' war dancing to within 10 metres of each other. It is most effective ass they suddenly appear to double in size, but also looks quite comical to watch, though I’m sure that’s not what any of those guys were thinking.

So then came the chase and these guys move quickly. Stopping every so often to see if the Starsky bunch were still following or not, we ended up virtually retracing our steps back to and beyond the sleeping burrow, past the farmhouse and only then another 50 metres or so did they decide the other group had stopped chasing and it was safe to forage again. Whether or not the others just gave up or it had anything to so with Aurinko the old subordinate male from the Young Ones deciding to go roaming with the Starsky bunch, we don’t know, but at least these guys could take a break again. We restarted monitoring on Lotte, the subordinate female and then managed to get data on Foxymoron, the young subordinate female and Philippe, the young subordinate male before Rob retook their lunchtime weights. We then worked out proximity to the nearest sleeping burrow (which is what they use as a starting point to look for them in the afternoon session I think) and the fact that we’d covered 1.6km while following the group, a lot of that running I might add!!. Well some of it anyway. Whether or not I was really getting suckered into it all or not I also don’t know, but I found myself really interested in checking how much weight had been gained/lost by the monitees (those we monitored!)

Part way we’d also seen a pair of Hornbills perched high on a tree. Magnificent birds with equally impressive ‘noses’! Plus I also spotted a tiny lizard just before the farmhouse with very impressive camouflage. I had to point it out to Janice even when she was staring in its direction only a meter or so away and this guy was a good 10cm long. Rob kindly made me a nice welcomed cuppa tea while we waited for the others to return. All the volunteers are so welcoming. Although this is ultimately a paying holiday for us, they really make you feel part of the group and a valuable helper. After returning to camp I got a few rays sitting on the veranda before my bum started to feel like I was sitting on hot coals, even though I was sitting on a white towel. The ground squirrels are the only thing really moving around at the moment and I still haven’t taken any pictures of them yet. They’re always here but I must make the effort at some point. It’s quite breezy and time I think for a snack and a game of cards before some more training on Drongo focals this afternoon for our second session this time back out with the Lazuli where unfortunately it sounds as though the dominant female Cazanna has just lost her litter, as her weight has suddenly dropped dramatically and she’s looking a lot thinner.

Later on we have our night drive out which I’m also excited about, so I have to see if I can use the video to film anything. I’ve got the instruction book with me, so it may be possible, I must go and check. No it’s only got low light so I won’t bother, in any case it’s probably going to be bumpy. We didn’t spot any Drongos (large blackbird sized birds with a characteristic fork in their tail) on our afternoon session. The idea with these focals was to see if any individual birds attached themselves to a meerkat group and if so, check if they’re tagged or not and note any interaction, like harassing the meerkats, stealing food etc. This was to try and identify study periods where Tom would be able to carry on future research and it was also showing that there was definite interaction but that it tailed off as the weather warmed up (around now) and there were more insect for the birds to feed on. We had a quick lunch when we returned from the afternoon session where Helene made a special refried bean vegetarian dish with kidney beans and courgettes for us non-meat eaters, then it was time to don layers of clothing for our ‘night safari’

At 21:15 the truck turned up plus about 5 or 6 volunteers and we all piled on the open topped back grabbed hold of the rails and headed off into the night. Ted, Edith and I grabbed a spot at the front, wrapped up well and Helene took position in between us with the hand held spotlight. We saw several Duiker, their eyes catching the torchlight as she scanned the area around the front and sides of the truck. The first one we were all looking at so intensely that we failed to see the overhanging tree in front of us just as we moved on. A last second warning from someone at the back and we all just managed to duck out of the way in time as the truck did a quick stop. We’d been warned about watching out for overhanging bushes and trees as most had pretty vicious thorns, but were too engrossed at our first game sighting to notice. It was silly really as we’d already seen these guys in the daytime anyway. As we carried on round the reserve we came across lots of Springbok, some Eland, endless Spring Hare which are even more comical than the meerkats. The first time I saw one I thought it was a fox running away but on closer inspection it certainly wasn’t. These strange characters have a tail like a fox, big and bushy with a black tip. They move like a small kangaroo though and are called a hare though in fact they are a rodent. How bizarre is that.

Further round we saw the wildebeest again, even closer up than we had during the previous day while tracking the Moomins group. It was quite chilly at times as we slowly trekked round, so every time we went up slightly over a dune there was an ‘oooh’ and ‘aaargh’ as the warmer wind hit us. Pretty soon we were just shouting for more dunes all the time, never mind the game and I think we were beginning to degenerate into trying to compete with Sally’s famous restaurant moans from ’When Harry met Sally’! After we dropped the volunteers back off at the farmhouse, Edith hopped down from the back and took the ‘cushty’ cab ride back to camp. She was frozen, even though she had several layers on and even professed to have slept in thermals that night. Finally, just as we returned to camp, Helene spotted a small cat briefly, probably a Genet. We actually hit the sack about 23:00 that night, the latest night so far, but still all managed to rise and get ready for our Saturday early morning shift.


Saturday 23rd September – First Pups plus the Whiskers Film Stars

This morning was my first time to see some pups at the Elvera group. We were accompanying Dave that morning and it wasn’t a long trek to their sleeping burrow where within a few minutes they were already surfacing into the early morning sun. Unlike the Lazuli, these guys didn’t wait long sunning themselves before starting to wander around. After three or four had surfaced the pups showed their tiny heads. These guys were only a few weeks old and had just started to come up and forage with the group. Originally three pups, one had sadly gone missing from the group, presumably having just got left behind. What was sadder later was when Edith spotted his tiny body barely a few hundred metres or so from the burrow. The two that remained seemed quite content though and boy did they make their presence known. They were so vocal, it was hard to understand how one could have been left behind, I could only assume they’d had to bolt for cover and he didn’t make it as with the constant ‘me me me’ sounds they made, you’d think they’d never go unnoticed. They were just big enough to fit in your hand and after Dave had weighed everyone except Jo Jo the dominant female who just would not oblige that day, they started to slowly wander off and start foraging for breakfast. It turns out they didn’t go that far till we left them. They headed towards a farm and several piles of cut down Mesquite twigs and branches. Unfortunately it was also the farm’s rubbish tip in more ways than one. There were numerous carcasses of antelope lying around, dried out stomachs and intestines, plus skins with just heads and lower legs attached. It stunk quite a bit, as the heat began to rise. There were also old bits of cookers, plastic shoes, aerosols, anything you could think of which looked and smelt somewhat unpleasant in the otherwise picturesque environment.

This was a real blot on the landscape, which had resulted in dilemmas for the volunteers in the past, where man’s intervention had an impact on the meerkats. What do you do if one falls into an old oil tank and can’t get out, or gets it’s leg caught in a bundle of wire, etc. The one thing it did do though, particularly among the piles of twigs, was provide a plentiful larder of food for the meerkats. There was constant munching all around from tiny ant larvae, beetles and small scorpions, to larger black centipedes and deep burrowing cape scorpions almost the size of the young pups. As the heat increased, one of the little pups just flaked out on the ground, it was amazing how they coped with it all. All too soon our foraging focals were over and it was time for Dave to weigh everyone again before we left them to find somewhere cool in the shade to rest. Last minute one of the older guys caught a huge centipede under a bush and after Habusu, the dominant male had fought for half it, there were scraps for the two tiny ones (who had yet to be named) to munch on as they sheltered in the shade under the bush. Then we were off back to camp and a welcomed rest before out afternoon instruction on entering the GPS and other focal data on the PC. In the evening it was time for the ultimate, well in terms of groups I suppose, as we were off to see the film stars, the Whiskers!. We were accompanying Mike (alias Finny) and again it was only a short walk from the farmhouse.

At last we got to see Flower and she was much thinner than on TV but a real character. So the old adage still worked, that TV piles on the pounds! She didn’t have the radio collar on at the time as Zaphoid was sporting it at least till the rest of the session as Tom joined us to catch him and take it off, so Flower could be refitted with it in readiness for the arrival of the Meerkat Manor TV crew next Thursday as they were coming out to supposedly start filming for a feature film. After a battle with the BBC, the Animal Planet crew had secured the rights to produce the feature film along the lines or ‘Marches with Penguins’ that had been so successful. The two-man crew arriving on Thursday would be invited to join us for lunch in the evenings so we hoped they would accept and we might be able to talk to them about the project. We were doing Drongo focals for the afternoon but as there were none about to start off with, we also helped to try and find the whole group with Finny as they were spread out a bit on the dune and in the long grass and weren’t easy to spot. Finally a troop of about half a dozen came scurrying up from nowhere and the group was reunited and they slowly started foraging. As it was they didn’t travel far, about 153 metres in total before they got to their sleeping burrow. As we watched them meander through the tall grass, we had to continue with our Drongo focals, a process as mentioned of monitoring these specific birds who appear to have adapted to following the meerkats and sometimes making false alarm calls, swooping down and often stealing prey the meerkats dig up.

As it was, we only saw a few birds swoop around, but there were no calls, although a couple of birds were having what appeared to be a bit of an altercation between themselves in a nearby Camel Thorn tree. One bird did swoop down, but not towards a meerkat, and caught a small mouse which it took up to a neighbouring tree for an early supper. By that time the group were fairly near their burrow, so to help Tom catch Zaphoid, Finny started to take weights a short distance away to try and distract the others. Tom had been tempting Zaphoid with scorpions hung on a fishing line, so he wasn’t too wary of his presence which appeared to work as he managed to catch him without alarming the whole group. The others, not noticing he was missing for a while, duly obliged, tempted with egg and water and were weighed before bed. The group started to huddle, hug and groom each other at the burrow entrance and we stepped back a way so Tom could release a collarless Zaphoid straight back near a burrow entrance so the still slightly dozey fellow could retire straight to bed. It all worked perfectly and after everyone was noted as down, the final GPS marker was taken again and we started to walk back to the farmhouse in the now dusk environment. A good job I’d remembered my torch, just to avoid any nasty 'bitey' things on the way home!! I had seen Whiskers and felt very privileged. The only thing that could top that would be to catch them on a morning session as they rose, which I hoped might be on next week’s rota, but if not then at least I had seen them now.

When we got back to camp, Edith and I continued playing cards for a while after lunch, then Helene rigged up the projector to her laptop so we could watch the first series of Meerkat Manor. She hadn’t seen it before herself, nor had the others, so we all sat down to watch the first couple of episodes. After a couple of fine cans of Windehock larger and a long day, the heat took it’s toll on us all and we retired gracefully, leaving Janice to watch a tad longer, or as we found out later, to embark on a marathon and watch the lot. After checking the lights from my rondavel a few times, I noticed the sitting room lights at the main farmhouse go out and nipped over about 23:00 to give Paul a call on the phone and managed to have a really good 30 minutes chat. I dearly wished he could be with me to see the stars, the Milky Way and of course the stunning African landscapes and the meerkats themselves. Having heard a few things flying about, not like the bat we’d had inside the previous day though where I’d impressed Helene by switching the lights out and enticing it out of the house with a torchlight, and what sounded like a piece of computer equipment giving a major hiccup, but which I guess was one of the giant fat bodied ‘sausage’ moths that came out at night to bump into everything bouncing around behind the equipment and the wall, I said goodnight to Paul and retired to bed safe in the knowledge that we could all have a lie in the following morning.


Sunday 24th September – Picnic at the Border

The next day, Sunday, was free time and although we didn’t have to get up early, the conditioning was starting to set in already and I woke up at 07:30 so decided to go for a walk up the road for a while before the heat started to rise too much. As it was I think it was Joel I saw a few yards from the camp, with a meerkat group, one of which was just in front of me on the left side of the road as I passed saying good morning. To Joel that is. Nothing else was about, save a few birds in the air and some guinea fowl running across the road. It was fascinating to look at all the tracks in the sand though. Some for the birds, of all sizes, numerous antelope, lizards and geckos, some more than likely from the barking geckos that came out at night, which we could always here but never spot and at least one set of cat footprints that might have been from a local polecat or the spotted genet we thought we’d seen a couple of nights back. It was self evident from the abundance of the tracks, just how much wildlife was about. As I got back to camp the Hornbill was back in the palm bush outside the washroom window. The same one probably that Helene had snapped on her camera really close up the previous day as he gorged unknowingly on the bud/seeds or whatever at the centre of the bush.


For the rest of the morning, we got our washing done and I caught up with my journal while sitting on the veranda with the others, until we all felt a fine spray mist, which we discovered was from the water tower overflow being caught by the winds. Edith and I played some more cards then made up a packed lunch for our trip out to the Botswana border for a picnic where Helene chose the shade of a large Camel thorn tree adorned with two large social weaver bird nests in front of a view of dunes and huge rock escarpments in the distance, as our setting. Ted handed me one of the closed seed pods from the tree, which made an excellent rattle and I kept as a souvenir to bring back to the UK. It was nice to be able to just sit and chat for a while in slightly different surroundings. We had to be back by 14:00 so Helene could go and see some of the local farmers to sort out agreements for access to their land by the shortly to arrive film crew. As we arrived back, Ted explained the rules for Crib after which we both thought it was a bit unfair to Edith to play, so we continued our challenge of ‘Lay down rummy’ and Ted joined us as we sat on the back porch in the sun playing till lunch, watching the ground squirrels as they ran past with the odd apple they’d nicked from the kitchen. We watched the sunset and the upside down moon, then retired inside, had lunch and a deciding game before retiring slightly earlier that the previous night in readiness for out 07:30 start and instruction on the BioDiversity and Insect study we would be doing the following day.


Monday 25th September - Something a little different

Monday morning we had a tiny bit more of a lie in till we all met up at 07:30 ready for our instruction on Bio Diversity study. Edith and I paired up again and we all headed out to the Northern part of the reserve, past the big dune where we were going out to for sunset. We had to track in a straight line for about 900 metres though we later stretched this by an extra 500 metres as we were enjoying ourselves so much. Within an arms length, we then had to note any burrows or certain trees and birds nests. Our two groups were actually walking approx. 100 metres apart in parallel lines but even with small dunes it wasn’t long before we lost sight of each other. Helene kept in touch by radio, so if we weren’t sure of anything we could call her and she’d come and confirm things for us. Just as we started our walk we came across a huge termite mound. It was intact but it didn’t look as though it was active. A few steps later and we disturbed a big bird, identified by Helene as a Northern Black Korhan which flew off. Then a short walk later and Helene came up to us with a small Kalahari Tent Tortoise she’d found. This was only about 5” long and it was a male, which you could tell as he had a shallow indentation in his underside shell. He also had a small V shape on the top of his shell above his head, which was another identification mark for that species. This really was a cute little fellow, very obliging with the pictures.

We saw a number of burrows further on and found a porcupine spine by one. Another massive hole looked like it might have been made by an Aardvark as it had a distinguishing tail imprint in the sand at the entrance. We saw a number of broken termite moulds, but none looked active at all. Our only Camel Thorn tree on our track had a couple of large communal spider’s nests and another nest that looked like it might be that of a robin. It certainly wasn’t a Social Weaver of a Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver’s nest. Further on, we caught sight of some Gemsbok, but it wasn’t until the end of our extra 500 metres track that we noticed them again. I saw something moving on the dune about 200 metres in front of us. I thought it was a bird on a rock but then noticed the horns on another one and realised it was the ears twitching on a Gemsbok. Then the two whose horns I’d noticed, got up and they were massive. Although we were down wind we were so close they’d heard us and decided to wander over the top of the dune out of sight. As we’d finished tracking we radioed Helene to ask if it was alright to nip up the dune to see if we could see them and she joined us as we quietly crept up. It wasn’t a massive dune, but I went down further the other side so when we got to the top it seemed like we were really high up, looking down on a vast landscape. We saw the Gemsbok and several small groups of Springbok before making our way back to the truck, which was 1.5km away by now.

It was easy to see how you could get lost in this terrain, after all it was only when we got to within about 100 metres of the truck that it was visible. On the way back, we saw a couple of large 3” black beetles, or rather their shells and for me what was the biggest grasshopper I’ve ever seen, again over 3” long. As it jumped, it almost looked like it was flying out of our way. We also picked up a few brightly coloured feathers that a Lilac Breasted Roller bird had left behind. There was no other sign of the bird, so we thought positively and assumed it hadn’t come to an untimely end like the beetles. Time up, we headed back to camp spotting a few more springbok on the was then to out absolute delight the Gattica meerkat group were right outside the main house as we arrived, with a couple of tiny pups. Having continued with my trend of pressing the wrong buttons on the camera I managed to switch it off again instead of taking a picture just as they were all running towards me. Ted got some good pics though and Edith got a great one as one of them decided to lay down in the shade of her shadow. She also got some good ones of them heading towards me, so as with lots of others, we agreed again that we’d swap/send copies to each other when e got back home.

After dropping out stuff off I grabbed my video camera and had a quick look to see if they were still about and managed to get a few pictures before they disappeared from view again. Later that afternoon, the Yellow Mongoose came back into camp only a short while after a Cape Cobra was spotted by Kat, one of the group doing research on the Babbler birds. The snake was a bright yellow/gold colour, just over a meter or so long and not something you wanted to get bitten by. Helene grabbed a rake in case we needed to entice it away and while Ted went to get his camera (ever the wildlife photographer!!), we watched closely s it decided to escape to a hole just by the birdbath. There was nothing we could do but hope that it scurried away later, leaving the ground squirrels, meerkats, the mongoose and us all alone. We vowed later to double check under our beds before lights out and also vowed to be ever more vigilant around camp. After burying a small lizard that had appeared to get squashed in one of the rondavel doors, we took a short break before meeting up t 16:00 for our insect watch. We had two sites to visit where we had to bury ½ a plastic bottle level in the ground, add a small amount of soapy water and then hang tempting bait on a piece of wire across the top. Helene very kindly obliged after showing us how it was done, by doing the bait for all the traps as we buried them. Well there was no sense in us all getting our hands dirty after all. LOL .

The other part to the survey was to swing a huge net left to right clipping the grass and avoiding the thorny shrubs as we walked the transect from trap to trap. At the end we scribed the insects found in each net, which she had identified. It was a short session in time to get back, pack up a few snacks and some Amarula before we headed up to the big dune to watch the sunset. We just missed the sunset, but it was still quite magical as we huddled together on top of this dune with some of the other volunteers to watch the last rays of the sun go down and the stars and the upside down moon come out again. I asked Ted to pinch me, it all seemed like a dream to think I was on the other side of the world listening to the ‘astronomers’ tell us how to work out exactly where a southerly direction was based on the position of the Southern Cross constellation, something I’d never seen, having never been in the southern hemisphere before. I think I’d finally managed to work out what had been upsetting my stomach for the last two days so when we returned to camp I settled on a simple salad again for lunch. Totally unrelated, (it was missing when I packed, but I hadn’t noticed !), I managed to get a missing button sewn on my jeans with the courtesy of Ted’s Cunard sewing kit and after a brief but friendly wrangle over whose turn it was to do the dishes, Edith and I both retired early to get as much sleep as possible before the early 06:15 departure the next day.


Tuesday 26th September – Moomins crawling all over me

Back with the meerkats again, I was starting the day on foraging focals with Janice and our volunteer Lorna at the Moomins group while Ted and Edith were off for their first glimpse of the Whiskers group. As we found out lunchtime, Ted and Edith’s visit was somewhat different from standard. Helene joined them as the three new pups had just started to come above ground, so that morning they wanted to get blood samples and DNA samples from their tales and also measure them and get their identity chips put in. Standard procedure for all new pups being monitored, it meant that both had a chance to carry a tiny pup from the heated hot water bottle environment of the truck (something which Edith really appreciated as she feels the cold very easily), back to the safe haven of the burrow and the babysitters awaiting them. They try and do this by always leaving a pup with the babysitters and distracting them as they take and return one, otherwise if no pups are there they will automatically start following the rest of the group and start foraging. It meant that Ted and Edith had the extra fun of trying to locate each other in the field as one or the other had to follow the main group as they went off foraging over the dunes, while the other helped Rob and Helene with the pups. I’m so glad these guys had that experience especially as Edith didn’t even get to see any meerkats in the afternoon as by the time Cooks had found the Moomins group on her session, they were already in their sleeping burrow.

My trip with the Moomins in the morning with Lorna was quite entertaining also. We had several alerts from high flying white breasted eagles and vultures. These little guys as mentioned before, have amazing long distance vision. What’s just a dot in the sky to us, is instantly recognisable to them and there was quite often a sentry on watch while the others foraged. In spite of the alerts, our foraging focals went very smoothly so by the time we’d finished, Lorna still had another hour and a bit to go before the three hours session was up. This was also partly because of the delay in all of them leaving the burrow. The time normally starts when > 50% of the group leaves to start foraging, but with the remarking she was doing with hair dye while taking weights, it meant that she didn’t start the clock till she’d finished, by which time we’d already been able to start on our focals as most of the group was foraging intensely. She said it was fine if we wanted to finish, but as she still had time to stay out and monitor the group, we chose to stay with her rather than heading back to the farmhouse. It was here again that we heard the story about one of the previous Earthwatch volunteers who’d secretly boiled an egg and fed it to Fluffernutter, the tiny clawless runt of the previous litter. Needless to say, the volunteer had been reprimanded when it was discovered the little meerkat had put a surprising 20grms in weight in one session. That aside, Fluffernutter’s success story was a pleasant thing to think about aside the other harsh realities that go on with the day to day survival of the groups.

As it turned out, one of the Gattica pups that we’d seen at camp only the day before had been separated from it’s group somehow and had been seen at a burrow on it’s own near camp. Also one of the Zappa pups, apparently just christened, had become separated from it’s group, possibly while trying to follow the wild males from the group as they separated off, and it had managed to walk over a kilometre before unfortunately finding itself in Elvera territory where Suzi had the misfortune of finding it, having been killed by the competing group. It was a harsh reality of life and a side to the meerkats fortunately not seen too often It was reassuring then to see the very friendly Moomins group all together at lunchtime weigh in after all their morning scares from up high. As Lorna tried to get them all weighed again, it was a slightly easier task that first thing in the morning when also renewing their dye marks. (The process uses normal hair dye, but only the best ‘because they’re worth it’ ! and yes I did ask if they used conditioner. LOL) I lay down to try and get a nice close photo of a couple of the group flaked out under a bush which I then noticed was close to a burrow entrance. After only a few moments I felt one of the guys crawl onto my leg, then right up onto my hat. They weigh less than a 1 kilogram but trust me, that’s still quite a weight when you’re laid down resting on your arm for several minutes. Then another crawled on my leg and I didn’t want to scare them so I just laid there, mindful of any passing scorpions!! The others were still mingling around but another panic from the sentry on my head and they all rushed to the bolthole next to me and fortunately for me, Janice got a nice photo of them all with my backside as a background!

They eventually disembarked and we left them all resting, to return to camp for lunch, followed by a quick game of cards, where we were joined by a lovely big stripy mouse that was scurrying outside on the veranda, before hiding in a chink in the whitewashed wall. Then there was just enough time for another quick 40 winks before the afternoon session starting later at an earlier time at 15:45. We’d left slightly earlier than normal to check the insect traps set out the day before where aside from a few bugs we found several of the traps disturbed and unfortunately for it, a really rather cute long eared mouse. We also saw a weeping Camel Thorn tree where bright red sap was oozing from the bark. It was so vivid, it looked like blood, almost as red as the Red Breasted Shrike, which coincidentally also has a rarer relative with a bright yellow front that a few of the volunteers had seen before. As we headed back we drove past a particular dead tree stump that looked like a lizard and after commenting on it, we found out from Helene that it was Denver the Dinosaur, hence the Denver GPS point we’d kept seeing and wondering about. When we reached the farmhouse, Ted and I met up with Dave again before going out to the Elvera group. It was hard to imagine these guys attacking the Zappa pup when you saw how gentle and caring they were with their own two pups, but that’s life.

As we watched them forage while continuing our Drongo watch, we learnt another couple of strange things. First off, if you collect enough Camel Thorn seed pods, you can actually make a nice porridge from their white contents. Also, as we confirmed it was a Solifuge that one on the helpers had caught and passed to a pup, I mentioned to Dave what Lorna had said earlier about one of the Frisky group digging up a spider which had promptly jumped on the meerkat’s head for safety. Apparently this is a known defence mechanism the spiders adopt to avoid getting eaten. As Dave weighed the group later before bed, I got to lift out one of the pups by the tail base, from the scales tray. He was so tiny, it was almost unreal. These tiny pups disperse so much energy with their constant chirping it’s a saving grace they get helpers to feed them till they can forage successfully on their own. The sun was setting as we got our lift back to camp where Finny & Suzi joined us for lunch, which was a pleasant surprise and we all sat down to enjoy fresh chicken fajitas and a good laugh before turning in for bed and a welcomed slightly later 08:00 start the following morning, 1 ¾ hours extra sleep on that morning’s 06:15 start!.


Wednesday 27th September – Vegetation Survey

Wednesday morning we went out to do a vegetation survey at a couple of sites. Not quite the same as the pretty cactus garden at camp, or as colourful. This was a simple enough task though, it entailed sticking a spike on the ground at random intervals a foot step away while zig zagging back and forth in a 10 metre by 20 metre rectangle and recording if the cane hit nothing or hit roots of a plant, in which case we had to identify it. Fortunately we were looking in an area where there were only a few varying types of vegetation, so it wasn’t that hard. Between the two sites, we saw several small herds of Springbok again, grazing in the warm sunshine, also one of the Eland (possible Ernie on his own) in the distance, two Hartebeest again and one Wildebeest that had attached itself to another herd of Springbok. We passed Denver again on the way back (the fallen tree stump that looks like a dinosuar), then back to camp for a rest gain before the evening trip out again with Dave but to the Commandos group this time. This was a group of 25 who had five young pups that had just started foraging for themselves, but were still also begging and suckling at times. They were noticeably bigger that the Elvira pups and one little guy in particular, just named Wilson, was a real digger and his success could be seen by his evening weight. So we had five little pups chirping 'me me me me' all the time as they foraged among the tall grass. It actually made it slightly easier to follow the group as the only other indication was the occasional sight of rustling grass.

We’d had to climb the ‘Fence of Doom’ to get to them and as the sun began to set and Dave got his scales out, we had a slight panic as about 5 of the group crossed the road and we thought they might be heading for another sleeping burrow. As it was the dominant female was still on our side and the others came back so we only had to climb the fence once more after they’d all gone down. It was quite comical to watch as after all the pups had gone down the burrow first, the rest of the group appeared to each being doing their dutiful share of the housework as they followed each other one by one, digging out the sand to clean up the burrow entrance. Like a little train of scurrying cleaners tidying up before bed. Dave radioed Helene for a lift after he saw her going past on the road and as she reversed up the road, I climbed back over the Fence of Doom so she could see us. She said the TV crew had arrived safely and we said we’d waved as they passed us earlier. Ted had climbed back over the fence, then Dave had to stay back for a while as a couple of the group had popped up from the burrow again. The idea is that you only leave the group when you’re sure they’ve bedded down for the night, so you know where to start looking for them again the next morning, so we left him and went to pick up the others from the Lazuli group, who’d gone to a new sleeping burrow. We headed back to camp after dropping Sar back at the farmhouse and picking Dave up on the way.

Having finished out latest game of cards we were then joined by Cooks and Sar for lunch where we enjoyed more traditional food and a scrumptious Cape Brandy Pudding, full of nuts and dates and lots of brandy, with fresh cream. No wonder this Earthwatch trip is nicknamed Girthwatch!! After listening to Helene’s tales of ghosts at the camp and burglers where she used to live, we packed off to bed again ready for a 05:00 start, well 05:30 maybe, all looking forward to out trip to Van Zylsrus the next day.


Thursday 28th September – Van Zylsrus and Meerkats still

It was a shame the school was closed, but we’d all decided a trip into Can Zylsrus would still be nice fitted around extra meerkat sessions, so see a bit of something different from our area. So, bright and early, we were off again with Cooks, this time to the Lazuli and their new burrow they’d slept at the previous night. We had one big fence to climb then a short walk to the burrow. Most of the entrances were on the shadowed side, so it took a while for them all to appear and warm up before half the group started foraging while the others were still having their weights done. Even though we were on a shortened session as Cooks had other babysitting checks to do later that morning, we still managed to get all our focals done, in spite of one interruption where we had to climb back over the fence again. It was interesting to note the success rate compared to the Elvera and Commandos who we’d seen in softer dune areas. These guys were foraging in the river bed where the ground was noticeably harder. By the time lunch weights came around, it appeared as though the group had made a definite split as there weren’t that many visible. I managed to get the odd photo and a bit of film of a few of them characteristically flaked out in the shade. It was then time to finish and we walked back to the farmhouse, which was now quite close by, disturbing a pile of red/brown mice on the way, who scattered in different directions. It wasn’t the only thing we’d seen that morning as part way through our focals, we’d disturbed a small Duiker, that neither Edith, Cooks nor I had seen in the long grass.

Helene turned up with the others, then it was a quick pitstop at camp before heading out to Van Zylsrus, where after a quick tour of the town we stopped and had a look in the pristine, modern, newly built church and took some pictures before stocking up on any essentials at the general store and returning back to camp, passing through the same herd of cows being driven up the road on the way out. That’s after Helene parked the truck across the road so we could get a picture of the town sign, just as the only police car for miles around chose to drive past, casting rather a discerning look in her direction. It was quite a shock to see the difference in housing, between the neat brick houses and contrastingly the noticeable corrugated iron roofed dwellings up on the hill on the other side of the river bed. It wasn’t like a total segregation of people, who mixed on a work level but less on a social level, but it was blatantly obvious how the areas wealth was distributed. In reality, no different to areas in large towns/cities throughout the world, it was just more obvious from the smaller scale town where it was clearly visible in one view. Back at camp, catch up on washing and a slice of fresh crusty bread was just enough to keep us going after the Magnum ice cream in town. It had been quite an insight to see the people hanging around with apparently nothing to do, some asking for money (as Helene translated to us). It was quite sad to note that there was such a problem with alcoholism and foetal alcoholism and knowing that any money given over would be spent straight away in the nearby liquor store.

Time for a quick ½ hour rest before off out again, this time back to Commandos again and their five little pups and hopefully time for a few more pics. Can anyone ever have enough shots of meerkats, I think not. This time we were out with Suz and the first thing we had to tackle was the infamous Fence of Doom again. This was so named because it was a tall wire fence but the fence posts weren’t one continuous length, but two overlapping posts tied together, so when you got half way up, the fence would inevitable start tilting precariously. We had been dropped off right next to a rare sturdy solid post that was the full height, braced and solid, the only problem was that it was all of that at an angle. In fact the whole fence at this point was not very vertical, it leaned away, so as you went over the top it was easy to be left hanging there, but we all made it across safely and Janice was very grateful for having borrowed Ted’s gloves. It didn’t take too long to find the group, but in the long grass it soon became apparent that half were missing. Well three pups, three adults and an adolescent actually. While the others kept tabs and monitored those that were foraging, I went up on to the dune nearby, full of confidence and for the pups sake, really hoping that I’d spot them. Then as I scanned the ground along the fence line through my binoculars, there they were, seven meerkats down at the sleeping burrow already. The only trouble was that the group we were with alerted when they saw the others as they didn’t recognise them and the seven decided to cross the road, so by the time our group was at the burrow, the others weren’t in sight and they didn’t come back.

Apparently if groups split while foraging, they quite often reunite with a mini, but ‘friendly styled iggy’ when they recognise each other. But this was not to be and it could quite be that the adults had gone off roving and the pups accidentally tagged along. We could only hope that they reunited soon. We had one last moment of drama as we climbed back over that darned Fence of Doom again, when Janice had just got over the top and lost her footing. Fortunately both Suz and I had already climbed over and were watching, and managed to reach out quickly, catch and support her and help her get her footing again before she continued to climb down. One hairy moment indeed, I hate to think what injury she might have sustained if she’d fallen. Having caught our breath and all breathed a sigh of relief, we packed off back to camp. That evening we had the pleasure of Sam, Dave and Linda’s company for lunch, where Helene came up trumps again and served up a really delicious and thick home made vegetable soup. Another recipe that I’d have to get from her before leaving. The only problem with Thursday on reflection is that when we got back from Van Zylsrus, |I felt so dusty I had a shower before lunch and then did some washing, so by then I thought it’s not worth getting just an hour’s snooze and I felt awake, so didn’t bother. What a big mistake.


Friday 29th September – Lazuli Split and the Dance

I got up in the morning ok this time, for a session with Bec with the Young Ones, but it was a lot warmer that morning and it wasn’t long before I was feeling the effects of lack of sleep and I felt like a quiet zombie walking around. I remember apologising to Bec for not being very talkative as I felt quite rude, knowing that with the other guys I’d been out with, I was always asking questions when we were not doing our focals. I think some of the meerkats were also feeling the heat though as they were nipping into the shade more frequently for a quick ‘splat’ on the ground to cool down. This was the group that Ted and Edith had been with the previous day where Bungle had used up one of his nine lives (I know they’re not real cats before anyone comments) in a very close encounter with a car. It appears that all of the group had crossed the road, plus Ted and Edith and only Bungle was left in the road. Finny also crossed over hoping that this little guy would move as he’d seen a car coming. Unfortunately the car didn’t even slow down for Finny, let alone Bungle and Edith closed her eyes while Ted watched in horror as the car drove right over the top of the tiny bundle. It looked as though the turbulence under the car then blew the little fella out the side and although stunned for a while, he ran off to catch the others up and when they did the weights later it looked as though he’d had a very lucky escape indeed as there were no obvious injuries.

So I was looking out for him especially on Friday morning and happily reported back to the others that we’d left him very happily munching on a large furry caterpillar he’d found in a hollowed out tree. One very lucky little meerkat, it was sad to learn that the Commandos group still hadn’t reunited when Ted and Edith left them that morning, we just had to keep hoping they were ok as it had seemed to be a bad week for the pups in the groups. That afternoon I made sure I just slept and by the time we were heading out to the Lazuli in the late afternoon with Tom and his parents (Mary and Paul) who were visiting, I at least felt a little more with it. It was nice going out with Tom as we learnt a bit more about what the newly arrived film crew were doing and how Yousarian may quite possible have gone roving and joined another group. Shakespear, although missing may not have had such a fateful ending as portrayed in Meerkat Manor and Carlos was actually a composite of three different males. This group also had a split at some point as we could only find half the group when checking part way through our session. As Tom scouted round away from the group while talking with his parents, I made sure that I kept an eye on the group left so we didn’t loose them also. As Tom returned he asked if I’d done anything like this before and I said no, where upon he complimented me on how I was doing. As Ted said when I told him about it later, it’s common sense really to just follow the group, which I know, but Tom’s comments had meant a lot to me and made me feel valued which is something that doesn’t happen very often, so I welcomed it.

Fortunately, as the group we were with headed for their sleeping burrow, they saw the others there already in the distance, so once again I got to see the comical ‘war dance’, though a lot less intense with less noise and as the two groups got close at their sleeping burrow. They recognized each other and their scent and after a lot of submission and recognition they happily groomed while Tom managed to get the weights of those that had been missing before they all retired, having pre-empted such a possible scenario and weighed most of the others already on the way back to the burrow. A quick dash back to camp after a failed fuel stop and an even quicker 5 minute shower, then we were all spruced up ready to head back out to Van Zylsrus and the dance. We tried hard not to giggle again as we stopped on the way to pick up John and Gary, the two guys out filming the third series of Meerkat Manor. To explain quickly, we were thinking back to the call Helene had over the radio as we were heading back to camp, where the first request was to go to channel 2 for privacy, whereupon there was a request for a towel as it appeared one of them was stuck in the bath without one. Helene wasn’t sure if this was a wind up or not and it was just one of those funny moments when we all started giggling in the car at the same time as it obviously wasn’t quite as private a call as maybe intended. When she realised they didn’t have a bath in their house and she was the only one with a bath the giggling just erupted further and she shushed us all as she tried to compose herself and reply. It probably doesn’t sound that funny now, but at the time our sides were splitting.

The journey passed quite quickly while we listened as they answered our continuous barrage of inquisitive questions about what they were doing. They were out here for six months in shifts, for 13 hours of film and already after just one day, they reckoned they had enough for a half-hour composite. Not that that success could be in any way guaranteed every day. When we got to Van Zylsrus, it was slightly odd still, to see only white people at the dance. As mentioned already there is still a lot of segregation socially, even though they mix for work. As we pulled up a couple of benches to sit at a table outside with our drinks while waiting for all the volunteers to arrive, we watched this delightful little Praying Mantis as he jiggled from side to side seemingly in time with the beat of the music coming from inside the hall. As the others arrived, we all piled into the hall brought our tickets and after a quick raffle, where Gary won a bottle of Vodka, and a prayer in Africaans, the lunch buffet was ready after which we were entertained by the dancing of the locals. This was a particular style of dance I’ve never seen before and may never again, a combination of cleaning windows meets come dancing is probably how I’ll remember it, that and the name ‘ Saki Saki’ that someone mentioned.

Christoph danced with his girlfriend Emily who’d arrived on the plane to Upington with us the previous week and later collared Edith for a quick shifty round the floor. Linda appeared to dance with everyone and you could see she knew the steps, while the others made up their own thing. Dave joked about having words with her and told us about some weird algorithm about taking names and working out compatibility where most came out at a low percentage, but Dave and Linda as names came out at a whopping 85% compatible. Maybe love was in the air. LOL! Joel professed to not being able to dance, but had no problems dancing with Helene and everyone just had a good time, a laugh and it was a shame we couldn’t stay till the end but I don’t think we left much ahead of the others as Helene drove us back. A car full of slightly tipsy people, we were still with it enough to appreciate the Cape Fox we saw on the way home. We dropped Gary and John off and proceeded to camp where Ted, Edith and I had a quick ‘faulty’ game of rummy as we polished off the bottle of unfinished wine we’d brought back with us. It was after 02:00 before we hit the sack, but I still managed to wake up at 05:30 due to my phone alarm still being set and this faint beep beep noise coming from the metal chest in the rondavel.


Saturday 30th September – Rest and BBQ

I couldn’t get back to sleep, so went over to the kitchen and made a cup of tea, dozed for a bit, then went for an hours walk up the road before retiring for breakfast and catching up with my journal while sitting in the sun. The rest of the day I spent catching up on sleep, looking at everyone’s photos and taking copies, though I had to be a bit conservative as Ted’s were all 5M pics, so quite large and I only had a 64Mg card. I made sure I had copies of the one with the Moomins group sitting on/around me though. I charged up my phone and camcorder on which I’d got about 30 mins of tape left, which I was going to finish off on Sunday on my last day out with Edith to the Lazuli again in the morning with Joel and the Elvera group in the afternoon with Sar, our last session with the group with two pups and no work. It was nice to be able to just chill out again in the bright sunshine, playing cards with my new friends but it felt strange not being out with the meerkats, so it was especially nice when I went back to my rondavel at one point and found a small group, possibly Gattica or Starsky who were often around camp, flaked out asleep in the shade the thatched roof.

The yellow mongoose was later obliging in posing for pictures and at one point I just sat down on the step while no one else was around and had several wonderful minutes gazing into his mesmerising eyes as he sat just a few feet away. After another short siesta, it was time to help prepare the food for the BBQ later. Ted and Janice piled in to do the potato salad we’d been asked to make before we had a chance, so Edith and I sorted out the salad. Tina’s husband came over to start the fire and before long Helene was starting to cook as we sat on the veranda keeping her company, chatting and drinking as the sun started to set. I had a nice chat with Tom who arrived a bit later with his parents and ferried the cooked meat to the hot oven for Helene as the next batch went on. The food was all cooked, the rest of the volunteers had arrived and we all queued to load our plates up with the scrumptious food that had been prepared. Most of the group sat round the fire while I kept Edith company in the sitting room where there was a bit more light to see. Afterwards we had the icing on the cake, well Helene’s home made ice cream (another recipe I would definitely be trying out back home), in between helping out with the washing up. It was so scrummy, the ice cream, not the washing up, most of which had already been done by Lorna bless her.

Afterwards we joined everyone round the campfire watching who was going to fall asleep first. I can’t remember who it was, but it seemed like that was the cue and Joel stood up ready as one of the chauffeurs, to start leading all the volunteers home. We sat for while longer with one of the babbler watchers. It turns out they have a similar monitoring system in place. They have a call which the groups recognise so they can go out into the field and find them and stay close without the birds being alarmed. I guess the only big difference is they have to run a lot quicker if the birds fly off to another tree. Finally it was time to call it a night after giving Paul a final call and using up my call time. I’d decided all the packing could wait till tomorrow, caught up with the diary entries and hit the sack, excited about seeing the meerkats again and happy that we’d be doing so on our last day rather than it being a rest day.


Sunday 1st October – Our Last full day with Lazuli and Elvera

Well, all too quickly and our last day is here. Unfortunately it didn’t go quite as hoped. I work about 04:15 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I put the lights on and did puzzles till the alarm went off at 05:30 as normal. This was having called Paul the previous night after everyone had gone to bed after the Braie at about midnight, so not a lot of sleep. I’d seen clouds in the sky as I’d looked up for the moon before shutting up and they were still there in the morning, plus more. Off to the farmhouse for one last morning session with the Lazuli, but this time with Joel. After the weigh in and a short forage we had another group split again so ended up following a group of just 9 or the 21. While Joel looked to see where the others had gone, he saw a Jackal disappearing that we’d apparently disturbed and the Meerkats hadn’t even seen in spite of the fact that one was on sentry. It may have been a lucky escape for someone as if we hadn’t disturbed it, it might have taken one for breakfast. Aside from a small herd of Springbok and the original group of Ostrich we’d seen at the start of our walk, which again I managed to miss taking a picture of, the only other difference to the session was finding some small Ostrich feathers and getting caught in a sprinkling of rain.

It looked at one point when the sun came out, that we would actually get clear skies after the beautiful early morning radiant red sun rise, but then as we made our way back to camp, it clouded over again and the winds picked up. Having entered our last lot of data sheets, I headed over to start packing. If the rain came again then we wouldn’t be going out again as meerkats simply go underground when it’s wet and in any case the rota on the board was for Saturday originally. Saturday and Sunday had been swapped because of the dance Friday night, so Sunday would now be a new rota which Tom was only now sorting out. So alas, it looked like we wouldn’t get to see Elvera as we’d originally thought. It was a shame as I’d saved some video to use up, but you just can’t control the weather. We’d just have to wait patiently and see what happened. For now then it was a case of starting to tidy up and pack and catch up on a bit more lost sleep, which would actually be easier at least as it wasn’t so stiflingly hot like the day before. After a rejuvenating three hour snooze, I woke to find the sun shining. There was still quite a breeze and some cloud about but it looked much better odds for a trip out.

Over to the main house, Edith and I were delighted when Helene said there were sessions with Elvera and Moomins. We said we’d like to go to Elvera as the others had gone there in the morning already and in any case, it was the session originally up on the board. As we arrived at the farmhouse, we had the lovely surprise that Dave was our volunteer for the afternoon. Having then found the group in record time and after a minor panic when it looked like they might try and cross the road, the group settled down to foraging close to their sleeping burrow, so both Edith and I spent the next hour or so taking photo opportunities, especially with the two pups. We chatted to Dave and relaxed in what was warm sunshine by now. We both helped a little with the weights before watching the groups antics as they sat by the burrow. Choclatine in particular, looking so tired as the pups snuggled round her. We couldn’t have had a more perfect last session and it was topped by a beautiful sunset with a brilliant sun going down leading into a glorious glow of red and purple with the trees silhouetting on the landscape. Dave took a picture of Edith and I against the sunset as it started and after the last little meerkat had gone down we had an idyllic walk back to the farmhouse, stopping every so often to re-admire the changing colours of the sky and noticing a perfect view of a herd of Springbok in the distance.

As we arrived back, the others were already there ahead of us having had another session where Cooks hadn’t had any luck finding the Moomins group, possibly due to a faulty cable for the monitor aerial. We didn’t let on that we’d just had the perfect afternoon, but let Helene know later as we helped with the lunch. I found the 101 Chat Up Lines book in my case as I’d started to pack, having missed taking it over with the other books to the farmhouse the previous week, so I gave it to Helene so she could have a laugh later. John and Gary came over again for lunch and we gave Helene the bottle of Whiskey brought at Van Zylsrus as a small thankyou token for everything she’d done for us. We played cards again after lunch while we finished off Edith’s wine and I managed finally to copy across the photos to the CD Helene had already cut for us with all the Earthwatch details and recipes on. Back to finishing packing and writing small notes on the pictures I was going to take to Van Zylsrus school and a final update of my journal before lights out at 01:10 ready for a 05:00 am alarm call in the morning. Well I guess I can sleep on the plane home anyway.


Monday 2nd October – The long journey home

My last 5 am rise for a while hopefully, unless I’m now conditioned already. By 05:30 we all had our bags in the kitchen and after Ted and Janice had taken them out to the car, I passed them up to Helene with my case so she could start tying them down on the roof rack. At ten to six we were ready to head off to the farmhouse to pick up Finny who was starting his two-week holiday from Upington. A quick goodbye to Tom and a wave to Cooks and Joel and we were off. One last look at the KRR sign by the gate as we left the reserve. They’d had to replace the more obvious sign as they’d started to have ‘tourists’ turn up at the farmhouse and demand to be taken to see the meerkats. It wasn’t long before we were back t the Hyrax rocks again though there were a few less sunning themselves this time as it was still quite early. Everyone started counting Duiker to pass the time but I seem to recall we stopped at about 7. Unfortunately there were a couple of Bat Eared Foxes lying in the road that we assumed had been hit by something, so sad to see. Next we were spotting the best social weaver’s nest on a telegraph pole for Ted to get a picture. Then of all things we saw a camel just off the road and a bit further down another one, which Helene slowed right down for as he was on the road, so I snapped a quick picture through the back window.

Finally we hit the tarmac road and pretty soon we were back into civilisation as we arrived in Upington, past huge life size metal Ostrich sculptures and the giant black metal bull, then on into town to drop Ted and Janice off first, back at their B&B they were staying at that night. I hoped up on the roof of the car to start undoing the rope from the other end to help Helene get the luggage off the top. We said our goodbyes and posed for a group shot with Helene which Finny kindly took, then we had a minor panic as there was a problem with the battery and the car wouldn’t restart. The owner of the guesthouse kindly made us all coffee as we waited for the garage to come out and jumpstart the car, then we had another quick goodbye to Ted, Janice and Finny before we left for the airport where Helene left the car running while she saw us off. It was quite sad as we had big hugs goodbye and said farewell to Helene. She’d been the best hostess, cook, storyteller, instructor, chauffeur and a real friend over the last two weeks and both Edith and I would really miss her, almost as much as the meerkats!!!. Just joking, at least we hoped she’d be able to get a few 'lie ins' before going on holiday and a well deserved rest later that week, assuming that the car got her home of course. Thank goodness we hadn’t switched the engine off on the photo opportunities on the journey or we may not have made it out at all.

We caught up with Tom’s parents, Paul and Mary, on the flight back to Johannesburg and after picking up our baggage after a slightly turbulent trip, Edith and I got some lunch, wondered round the Duty Free for a while, purchasing essentials like Amarula, then brought a pack of cards and played for an hour before saying chow for now and I went off to find a phone and the net, to try and contact Paul. Edith had done her best to try and get me into her posh lounge, but alas they’d have nothing of it as she needed to have a gold card rather than mere silver to be able to invite peasants in!! LOL. So we’d set ourselves a time to say goodbye so she could go off and have a shower, then sip champagne and eat yummy cakes. It’s daft to have business class and not take advantage of the perks, so after numerous jokes we’d parted, then both turned round for a last wave. I managed to find the usual slow, rubbish Internet service available and sent Paul an email and also Bert (Edith’s husband) who replied straight away warning me that Edith was a card shark. A bit late, as she’d just beaten me yet again. I wondered around duty free a while longer, picking up a couple of nice T-shirts and other small souvenirs to take back, then all too quick, I was joining the long boarding queue for the busses out to our waiting plane, having repacked my newly brought duty free into one bag.


Tuesday 3rd October – Home coming reunion

The flight to Dubai was hot and I didn’t get much sleep stuck at the window on a set of three seats. The first thing I did when we arrived was to get my next flight seat changed for an aisle seat near to the back where there were only two seats together. I wondered around Dubai airport and got a few pictures to try and capture the ‘wealth’ of the area that appeared echoed in the glittering gold décor and huge palm trees. I brought a small pack of proper dates to use in my Cape Brandy pudding I’d try out at home and a small enamelled leaf dish to put on the side to remind me of my visits. Finally, just before boarding I queued for the free internet access in the foyer and managed to send another mail to tell Paul I was about to start on my last leg of the journey home. The only problem with this was you needed to be taller really to be able to see the keyboard properly and I was on tiptoe, plus it was obviously a popular service as some of the letters had worn off the keyboard. A good job I remembered my ‘asdfg’ and ‘qwerty’. (Ironically it doesn’t note the latter as a spelling error in word!) I’m not going to complain though, it was free.

After a short wait in the departure lounge, I was looking forward to bit more space on this flight. As it was though, this huge guy ended up next to me, taking all the arm space, but fortunately the flight was quite empty and I managed to move across the aisle where there were three seats spare. A lot cooler this trip, it was the first time I’d used the blanket they provide and having missed the tail end of the Da Vinci Code film on the flight to Dubai when they’d had to reset everything, I managed to watch all of The Devil Wears Prada before getting a few more hours sleep. A couple of hours before we landed and they served lunch, Red Thai Chicken Curry this time. Yummy. I vowed that if I went to Africa again I’d choose the same airline, they really did know how to look after you. Time to put my diary away again, I was really excited now to see Paul again, my adventure trip coming to a close but one that I’d never ever forget. I’d forged new friendships and done so many different things for the first time, I felt like I was brimming with confidence and that life would never be quite the same.

I watched the view on screen from the undercarriage camera as we came in to touch down and my heart missed a beat for that split second, tinged with a sigh that it was all over, relief that we had landed ok and excitement that I was only minutes from seeing Paul again. It’s like most journeys, you love going away but when you’re nearly home, you always want to speed up the last bit, so as soon as everyone was up and the lockers overhead were opened, I was up, standing in line with my bags. I couldn’t wait to tell Paul all about my trip - the people and meeting my new adopted big sister Edith - the places, the scenery and the big dune – the journey, Dubai airport, the flight, the camels - the meerkats - the time I walked back to my rondavel one day to find a small group of meerkats flaked out in the shade of the thatched roof - seeing the Lazuli for the first time - seeing the tiny pups…… I knew I’d have to pace myself. It was very quick through passport check and onto the waiting area for baggage retrieval where it asked people to wait till their flight was shown. Most ignored this and went down stairs straight away but I waited and as soon as the number of the carousel was shown I went straight down to find everyone congregated like a flock of sheep in the wrong place so I managed to get a spot right next to the pickup point before they all flooded across. I didn’t have to wait long for my bag and then it was straight through customs and out to the waiting queues of relatives.

I looked for Paul and just as I was thinking maybe he’d got held up in traffic he cheekily appeared from his hiding place behind a huge column with a beaming welcoming smile on his face. We just hugged and kissed for ages before moving downstairs for a refreshing drink and a bite to eat. I tried not to babble everything out too quickly, there was time enough in the car and at home, I just had so much to say. As we got up to the car he opened the boot to put my case in and there was MC sitting proudly with a little plaque, ‘You’ve seen the rest now meet the best’ I was home again.

    Written by

            Lesley Hands