The morning started with breakfast at my lodge hotel & a couple of hours by the pool. The hotel was set in 2&half hours of land & rooms are in little cottage type buildings.

At 1 Sabrina from LEO came to pick me up & remove me from civilisation!

There 2 others in the car, one girl just leaving & one other had just arrived.
While waiting for 2 more we went for lunch & the supermarket to pick up supplies [wine - which is about £3 a bottle!]

During the afternoon we took the opportunity to quiz Sabrina about the project as up until today I wasn't really sure what I'd signed up for!!

So the project is called LEO - Limpopo Eco Operations (www.leoafrica.org)

They look after the Selati Game Reserve, a private reserve - 33,000 hectares between Tazeen & Phalabowra in Limpopo province of South Africa.

The reserve is owned by 13 landowners who used to farm it - but they weren't making much money from that so now they just use it as a holiday home.

Meanwhile the reserve has fences round it which means animals such as impala's can't migrate. The land can only cope with around 2000 impala but because they cant escape their numbers grow to around 3000 so the remaining 1000 are hunted & sold for their meat (to provide food and to pay for the upkeep of the reserve - and particularly the anti poaching patrols - see later)

The reserve also has 7 lions on it - their numbers also need to be monitored to maintain the balance of the ecosystem - there needs to be just enough - too many and they'd eat everything and/or interbreed, not enough & there wouldn't be a big enough gene pool either & the things they eat would get out of control! so the project undertake lion birth control but also look after them if they get injured, similarly if they escape the project round them back up again. The project collect data on the location of the lions & whether they see them eat etc twice a day - and that means twice a day I join a team of volunteers with a guide to drive round the reserve & collect the data

There are also rhinos which the project protect from poaching - not directly - I certainly won't be patrolling with a gun but we take in turns to stay up all night flashing lights across the reserve & radioing the anti poaching team to keep them awake! And due to poachers going to extreme lengths to find the rhinos if I see any I won't be posting about them

As well as lions and rhinos there are also leopards, cheethas, elephants, giraffes, zebra, impala, sables & other smaller animals.

So I guess I'll be spending the next 2 wks driving round the reserve making notes of what I see & where to feed into reports to maintain the balance of the ecosystem!

And while am here am living in a farmhouse.
It's fairly basic (tho it has wifi!) and is 8 of us in a dorm of bunk beds & another 4 in another room. Is 1 indoor shower, 1 outdoor shower, same with toilets so queuing for the bathroom will be an issue at 5am when we all get up for the morning drive!

We take it in turns to cook a set menu each day

Between morning & evening drives the time is our own, as are the evenings tho entertainment options are limited!! And due to early starts & lack of electric it's lights out & bed by 10pm.....zzzz