Saturday, March 5, 2011

Uneventful Wednesday

Today was pretty low-key, mainly due to the fact that it felt like it was a million degrees outside. In the morning, we went out into the reserve to cut down a patch of alien blackwattle trees. This invasive species of tree takes up an abnormal amount of water every day, serving to kill the plant life around it from thirst. It is also a very hard wood (the reason for its introduction to South Africa) and thus the bigger trees can be used in construction efforts around camp.


During the late morning, we went on a splendidly hot game drive. We saw the majority of the plains game but nothing else that was particularly interesting. After lunch, while the majority of the people (mostly the girls) stayed on the porch and napped or watched TV, the boys and a few girls went into the predator encampment to weed around the cheetah fence. It was miserably hot, but since we were willing to work when no one else would, Moses - one of the game coordinators and people in charge of us volunteers - told us he would take us on an early-morning drive the next day. It would by far make up for the heat of Wednesday afternoon.



Later we went inside with the cubs, as usual after our afternoon work is done, and took some photos with them. I would take off my hat and shake it in the grass to attract the tigers attention, then move it around while they prowled around it. Right when they'd get ready to lunge, I'll pull the hat up and they'd have to jump to grab it. More than once, though, they were able to rip the hat clear out of my hands - strong little guys!


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