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Hey! I am back from my last conservation project with the American Conservation Experience and it certainly has been an experience! I went to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and for the first few days was based at Lake Mojave (mo-ha-vee). The project partner got us lost on the first day so we had to wait whilst the supervisors and him went to find a suitable backroad to get 3 vans and 2 trailers down. That was interesting and wasted half a possible day of working, so was not that bad in the end!
I have been to the lake before but this was a different section and in my opinion much more picturesque. We were camping right next to the lake and it was an absolute scorcher on arrival. The heat literally hit us as soon as we stepped out of the van. I saw 4 rattlesnakes on the first day so it was fair to say we had neighbours when camping!
There were 3 crews so it was pretty crowded and by the end of the week we were all eating each others food and scrounging for whatever we could find which was pretty funny. The lake was really beautiful and I went in once for a bit of a dip and to clean myself. We had no facilities... no showers I am used to as I have never had that on projects.. but this time no toliets.. so we were pooping and peeing in the great outdoors - real camping lol. I left my headtorch behind :/ so needed to share with everyone as it was pitch black at night and you don't really want to be stepping on a rattlesnake, do you?
The work we did this time was very monotonous and made me question what I could be doing with my life at this moment in time which would be more constructive. The answer being ANYTHING. All I did for 10 hours a day was bash bushes with tennis/badminton rackets to collect seeds into a bucket. That is it. Nothing else for 8 days lol. For the first few days we collected Brittle Bush seeds (unsure of latin name but will look it up). They were sparse in some areas which made it more annoying to find and eventually we had to hand pick them which took forever. When it was windy it was very disheartening as half the seeds went everywhere but the bucket in which they were meant to lol.
We had to pack up camp half way through project and move to a different location to collect different seeds. We said farewell to rattlesnake paradise and moved an hour elsewhere. We were led to the middle of nowhere, just small bushes, gravel and a few hills to keep us company. Lots of lizards with long tails but nothing too scary. The seeds I collected for the rest of project were called Ambrosia and smelt to me like popcorn lol. These were easier to collect and we all collected loads. They were prickly seeds which was irritating as they would get caught on the outside of my sock and folds in my trousers which would cause me to say 'oww' several times a day. Some people collected a lighter seed that a friend described 'lighter than a moth's eyeball' lol. This was from the Cheese Bush. I didn't collect this seed but it sounds pretty annoying when it was windy.
One night we had a gale force wind storm attacking our tents. I went to bed at 9 and didn't get to sleep until gone midnight :( However that is all part of the camping experience, getting the poles to bend so far down they whack you in the face and feel like you are going to blow away every few minutes. My zips on my tent were dodgy so I had to use a safety pin and tape to try and hold it together... as you can imagine it didnt work so my rain cover was flapping about all night. The weather was hot enough though so I didnt need to sleep in loads of layersa like previous projects!
Tuesday was the best day by far as we hiked 5.6 miles round trip to the Arizona Hot Springs. It was so relaxing in my bathing suit just lounging with some cool people just chilling out after a hard week's work. The hike up and down the rocks was hard to me as I was scared of slipping (I did on the way down and landed in a pool of water and hurt my arm lol.. but that's me all over :P) It was a good calorie burner though haha.
Crew dinner was at Big Foot Barbecue and it was really hard to say goodbye to my friends :( So so hard... me and MJ had a few tears between us. I am going to miss everyone so so much :(
Overall, my favourite project was PCT because of the work, but all the projects allowed me to meet some fantastic people. I am really going to miss everyone so much and have made some great friends. I am off to LA tomorrow night on an overnight train.. 11 hours and 18 minutes of pure book and word search fun! Anyways.. I will get to uploading pictures as soon as I can. Hopefully should have computer connection at the hostel. If not.. farewell until the next computer!
Take care everyone!!!
Big hug to my family, friends and wonderful Michael x x x x :)
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