Well, I'm really enjoying my stay thus far here in South Africa. The routine here at the reserve is good, not too hard, but enough to keep you busy and pooped at the end of the day. By 8:30 am we are up and ready for work (usually hahah, but not really, 9 am kicks around and we're usually still getting our asses in grear....).8:30-4pm we do work on the reserve with a one hr lunch break. Sometimes we do workshops instead of work (for example today we did one on animal behaviour).

The weather here is hot as you might imagine and the south african summer is just ending. The nights are cool and refreshing and when the days are overcast the temperature is quite tolerable. I still would call it 'hot', but the locals think its cold haha....but maybe that's juist the Canadian in me.

Last night we went camping out on the reserve. Not all of us were looking forward to not having our comfy beds at the days end, but it turned out to be a barrel of laughs and it was enjoyed by all. We made a fire, set up camp and had supper. Once it was dark we went out in the land rover in hopes of spotting the hyennas. They have taken on a somewhat mythical existance as they are never seen and only the owners Mary and Tony have ever seen them (some don't really think they're even out there). Since they are nocternal we had hopes of seeing them. And we had just delivered their cow carcasses to the vulture pit (where we leave their food). So, technically speaking it was an ideal night for hyenna spotting. In the end we didn't see them but we did see two jackels which was great as they are also rarely seen and only one of the other volunteers had seen one so far. We drove around for about 2.5 hours. Night drives on the reserve have become my favourite pasttime. Its so refreshing, adventurous and fun. We all pile into the land rover...2 in the front, and then rest in the back, on the top and/or on the hood. You can't go fast as the "roads" are bumpy. But calling them roads is a stretch and they are more like Land Rover paths.

As I mentioned already yesterday we got the meat for the hyennas and jackels. They do not kill our grazing animals since we provide them with kill. Armando (another volunteer) had gone to the place where we get the meat already and described it as "cow concentrations camp". It really was. Its just field after field packed full with cows. And you can't help but feel that they know their fate. When they are transported from pen to pen they are herded by men on horses and one dirt bike. When we were there one cow was being quite stubborn and started to ram the dirtbike (no rider on it). It wouldn't wander off like a proper chunk of meat and proceeded to charge at horse and rider. It was sad, it was like he was saying "I have a mind of my own and I'll do as I please!" Kind of like he knew what his fate was and he'd be grumpy if he felt like it. Anyways, we got our cracass (some pictures are included) and later dropped it in the reserve. When seeing all of this you ghave to have the mindset, this is africa! But on to less depressing matters.

I would be hard pressed to bring to mind a sunset back home more beautiful than any I have seen thus far here in Africa.

And Dad, thank you for putting 11 year old me in the jeep, stick shift, and teaching me to drive. The 2 trucks we use here are both stick shift. Only a couple of us came here knowing how to drive stick. It's always entertaining to sit in the back and try to get somewhere when the driver is learning how to drive stick. LOL Seriously, its a good laugh. None at my expense though!!!

I can remember thinking yesterday how lucky I was that I haven't seen any huge african spiders yet (just some daddy long leg looking ones). I am a very small fan of spiders. Well, this ended later that night when we were driving around the reserve. When we all pile into the back of the rover to drive about your butt ends up sore after not long since the terrain is so bumpy, so you usually end up standing behind the cab holding onto the roll bar. It's quite enjoyable with the cool air in your hot face and far more comfortable than getting jostled around. Keeping in mind that the fastest you can drive on these "roads" on the reserve is about 20km/hr. So anyways, we're driving around last night when we all scream 'whoa!' at the same time because a spider had built a web covering the entire road way and was sittingin the middle of it. Had we not noticed in time it would have landed right in our faces! EEEEKKKKKK!! It was gross all right. We stopped to take it down and check it out. It was big, colourful and hairy. I took some pics but the camera I have right now is poor quality so the picture doesnt do it justice., When I get my hands on the pics from the other camera's I'll upload them as well so you can see what I mean (my mom is hopefully sending me my newly fixed 8 mega pixel camera ).

Anywho, I'm off to veg. This weekend will be my 1st here and fun  think as we are spending sat and sun at a wildlife rehabilitation center helping out!!

Thank you to everyone who has left me messages. I really really love them! Keep em coming!!