Namibia

Day 1 - After arriving at camp on the truck, "Kong," we settled into our tents the girls all bundling into one and the two lads taking one each. Dinner at the Octopus (the main tent) was closely followed by a number of beers and ice breakers for us all to get to know each other before heading to bed.

Day 2 - The morning bought a slower start as we went through how the camp operates, the safety briefing and the itinerary. Then we went for what Red defined as a "light" hike; this was not accurate at all! Half way up a vertical rock face, sweating and unable to breathe we realised our differences with his definition. However, we powered through making it to the top where the views were breathtaking and for sure worth the trek.

Day 3 - Today's task was to destroy some invasive tree species. We all loaded onto Kong and drove to where a few trees had already been cut down to stumps. We hacked the branches into smaller pieces for kindling with saws, axes, and machetes, then set the base of the stumps alight.

Day 4 + 5 - Today we did our first walking transect, which is when we cover a certain area of the conservancy and record data on animal sighting, dung, and tracks in an app called CyberTracking. We walked about 8 kilometres and collected lots of data on kudu, eland, oryx, zebra, and others.

Day 6 + 7 - Camera traps - we all piled into the truck to check some baited camera traps. Most of what we found was mischievous mongooses. Then we drove to three different water holes and set up new camera traps.

Day 8 - Today we started constructing a water hole for the animals. We dug a hole, shovel-mixed a batch of cement, and laid flat rocks in the bottom.

Day 9 - Today was an interesting day to say the least. We prepared fresh cow heads and hooves for leopard bait. Each of us took turns stabbing thought the hooves in order to thread a wire through and hang them from a tree. The first time was terrifying but by the third head we were a little more used to it. That evening we all enjoyed very thorough showers. Dinner was hamburgers, which we all found ironic and mildly disturbing, but delicious nonetheless.

Day 10 - Peak day. Our task for today was to climb five peaks and spend an hour on top of each recording all the wildlife we could see. We woke up at 6am and were at the top of our first mountain by 8:15. The first two peaks were the hardest and also unsuccessful in terms of finding game, but again the views were worth it. The last three peaks were more fruitful and we finished up and got back to camp, completely drained, by 6pm. Dinner never tasted so good and it was early to bed for all of us.

Our third week was started off with an epic day of invasive tree removal, which was thoroughly enjoyed and pegged as one of our favourite days of the trip. Saturday was a slightly different activity of fence removal and was not a popular one within the group, leaving us all with a hatred for wire. On the third day we packed up and headed across the border for our four day rafting trip on the Orange River.

On Monday, after a quick safety chat from Coby - our guide - and 30 mins of drilling into Imi S that there were no crocodiles and hippos, the rafting began. We were quick to discover that despite Ivo and Ralphs strong bromance they were not the perfect rafting pair. Base camp for the night was on the Namibian side of the river and after our chicken stir fry Coby began to ‘impress’ us with his ‘amazing’ jokes... and his rather questionable games, leading to the majority of the group going to bed at 7pm.

Day 2 on the Orange River started off with a change in the rafting teams where Ralph was paired with Imi S instead of Ivo. However, tensions in the group soon fizzled out after one of the best sundowners of the trip so far and an evening around the fire, involving some more games, which Imi G, as hard as she tried, was not so good at when being partnered up with Ivo and Magnus.

Determined to boost moral on day 3 Ralph spontaneously whipped out the Sponge-bob Squarepants theme tune and continued this throughout the trip. One of the most beautiful moments of the trip was when ‘megaraft’ was formed. All the rafts United and we’d never felt closer as a team.

With Red never running out of energy, a hike to a gorge along the river was at the top of his list for an afternoon activity. With a few reluctant groans the whole group joined him after being promised it would “probably” be about an hour’s hike. It was an incredible sight to see though and definitely worth the advanced level rock climbing trek.

Getting back to camp with homemade burgers and chips by Raul was certainly a good end to a good week.

The game count we did in the Wild West sector on Sunday was much more successful than the Gemsbok study at the start of last week as we saw Gemsbok, Springbok and Red hearted beast. When we got back to camp, everyone, except Katie and I, decided to have a volleyball game; Max, Minty, Jonty, Will Gray and Dre on one team, Hamish, Hayden, Welles, Beth and Red on the other. As the game was finishing, a Horologist, named Francois, from Nankuse arrived to teach us about the native snakes and lizards, with three of the students from the research project. After introductions, the sun had just set, so we all set out on a night walk around camp, looking for snakes and lizards. Will Gray found a Cape Coral shield cobra almost immediately, then one of the volunteers from Nankuse found a shovelled nosed snake and others found two geckos.

The next morning while it was still cold, we all set out to the planes behind camp to see if we could find any snakes or lizards. After a few near misses, we came back for lunch empty-handed. That afternoon, we headed up different mountains around camp, hopeful we would find snakes or lizards. Just as everyone was about to give up, Will Gray yelled that Hamish had found a snake, so we all went running to the other side of the mountain to get a look at it. By the time we got around the side of the mountain, Hamish had realized that it wasn’t a snake after all; only a lizard that Francois identified as a flat lizard.

The next morning, we went to check the traps then headed into the mountains, and up El Donio, looking for snakes and lizards. As we drove around, we saw a lot of game – Springbok, Eli, Rock Hyrax and Klipspringer – but spotted no snakes or lizards. After our climb up El Donio, and we ate lunch at the bottom of the mountains, we headed into the forest section, where we had found two horned adders before. We only found one snake on that hunt, but unfortunately lost it in some rocks, so we headed back to camp and started cooking the braai.

The next morning, we headed back to the Whale Back sector to continue taking down the old boundary fencing. It was a very hot day, so at one we stopped working and had a snack in the minimal shade the truck had, then carried on for an hour until it was too hot to carry on, so we headed back to camp. After we ate lunch, everyone sat in the octopus in a vegetated state due to the heat being almost unbearable. One by one, we headed for a cold shower, which turned out to be a very warm one as the sun had warmed the water in the tank to the point of it being a hot shower!

This week started very exciting for us, because we’ve got the chance to be part of a “game capture”. For that we had to drive to the “Oas Stables”, where a very lovely guy called Mantie and his wife Pennie welcomed us. The phrase “My friend”, which Mantie used a lot, is still stuck in our heads today. It was an unbelievable experience for all of us to get so close to the wild animals like the Springboks. Another highlight was the last evening at Mantie’s. We’ve been in a real building for the first time since our arrival, which gave all of us a happy feeling, and the boys could play pool! It was a wonderful time over there.

On our way back we made it to the library, were we could finally get in touch with our loved ones back home, so this weekend was full of highlights.

The next exciting thing we’ve did was tracking for animals. For that we had to get up very early and drove with Red and Fisho to a waterpoint where Fisho led us on a track through the mountains and we could actually see some wild mountain zebras on top of one mountain. During one rest we decided to find Willie’s Rusk, a homage to our loved Rusks without which we (especially Will) couldn’t survive out here.

During our second week we also installed some Camera Traps to get to know the wildlife a bit better in the area we live in. It was a very exciting week and we look forward to what I’m sure will be similarly incredible weeks to come here in Namibia.

Arriving at camp, a little later than planned, we were surprised at how nice the tents were and after a quick dinner and a tour of camp we went to sleep. Over the next couple of days we set up camera traps in different areas of the farm to try and catch some footage of some animals. We were lucky enough to spot an Black eagle’s nest so put up a camera trap close to the nest whilst on the look out for the parent eagles who were swooping above us. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be able to send you some pictures of baby eagles!

Another highlight of the week was creating a vulture restaurant which involved dragging the carcass of a hartebeest out onto an open plain. We were all very excited for this. The weather has been a bit colder than expected and it has rained for the first time in three years, which Andrea and Ed have said is very lucky for the area and great for the wildlife.

We’ve had a jam packed week, including art activities with Andrea’s friend Tash from Cape Town as well as visiting the local primary school. The children were so cute and very excited to see us and we had a lovely afternoon playing sport, drawing and playing games. They were particularly interested in touching our hair, especially Monty’s hairy legs.

On Tuesday we visited the Fish River Canyon which is about 4 hours drive away and so set off at 5am with our hot water bottles and sleeping bags in the car. The views of the Canyon were incredible and on the drive there we saw zebra, ostrich and an aardwolf.