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Hi from Namibia again. I'm back in civilisation for the weekend (and you'll all understand what a luxury that is for me as i go on to describe the last two weeks!). I'm working on a project with EHRA (elephant human relations aid) which is basically seeking to reduce the conflict between the desert elephants and local communities whilst also providing data to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism about the elephant population in the area. The project is funded by donations and volunteers and has been running for about 4 years. So far they have built about 50 walls around water sources thus saving local communities water supplies from destruction by the eles. Base camp is located on the banks of the Ugab river about 50 km north of a very small town named Uis and about 70km south of Khorixas. It is in the heart of Damaraland and the local people are Hereros. Base camp is fantastic- it consists of about four platforms in an acacia tree on which we sleep when at camp. There's a kitchen area and a brai area as all the cooking is done on an open fire. There's even a toilet (long drop chemical one with a fantastic open view of the river bed) and a couple of cold showers. It all sounds very luxurious I hear you all say- believe me it is as you only get to stay here for a night or two at a time as you are either out on building week or on patrol week. After arriving on the Monday you then go out again on the Tuesday with just a day sack with a change of clothes and lots of wet wipes and thats about it.Then you're out until the Saturday on building week. An area has already been identified which needs a wall building and we all pitch up set up our camp nearby and get on with building a wall- simple! Well camp is the vehicle a ground sheet open fire and then sleeping in sleeping bags under the stars!! Awesome but very cold (even had frost on my sleeping bag one morning!). This bits for Mike Porter if he's reading- that shovel you gave me for a present would be very useful out here- I didn't bring it but I'm sure you get the picture when it comes to toilet facilities!! Actually it's all very civilised as whoever is on duty makes everyone tea or coffee and brings it to their sleeping bag for about 530 am as a gentle wake up for the days work ahead! The work on building week is very hard. Collecting sand from river beds and rocks from the area then mixing cement (no cement mixer so by hand!) and building the wall. A few visiting goats and donkeys come and have a look and no doubt a laugh at us working in the heat being pestered by flies! Then it's siesta time for a couple of hours and more work. We've got half way through completing our wall and by Thursday it should be done.
Building week is followed by a couple of days relaxing at camp then its out on Patrol week. this time instead of being based in one place two vehicles go out (very highly adapted and welded land cruisers like something off of Mad Max), with us on it and again our day sacks and sleeping bags and roll mats. The staff track for the elephants and we observe them and data is collected regarding their location, group size behaviour etc etc. It's fantastic and has been quite an exciting week. The first day we only saw one bull "Vortrekker" so we set up camp in the river bed- two vehicles parked parallel to each other with a tree as a barrier at one end and the fire at the other end with the intention of us all sleeping in between the natural barriers in our sleeping bags. That's all very good but a herd of elephants took exception to us that evening and charged at us. Picture the scene us all crouched in the sand in the dark with a female ele going a bit nuts the other side of the vehicle- a little bit of a scary situation. Fortunately the fact that we were all so still and silent meant that after a while the herd passed by. The next afternoon we got mock charged again and that evening we had to hide on the rocks from the eles!!Normally the elephants are a lot more relaxed apparently but for some reason they are stressed at the moment and reacting to our presence. Oh and they keep visiting base camp and wandering through when they feel like it! It's certainly a very very amazing experience.
The group of people over the last two weeks has been very diverse- german, french, irish, welsh, american and British- 11 in total. There's only three of us staying for the next two weeks (people do multiples of two weeks) but we're being joined by 12 others so we'll be quite a big group. I'm back in Swakopmund for the weekend and after not showering for 5 days it is pure heaven to have a hot shower, a bed and a toilet! I managed to fit in a bit of kayaking this moring at Walvis Bay and it was superb kayaking with seals and dolphins. The seals were very playful and nibbling on my paddle! Some people are skydiving tomorrow but after the reaction I had from the one in the UK i don't think I'll be tempted!
Well I hope that all is good for everyone in the UK and that you're all enjoying the summer :-)
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