BootsnAll Travel Blogs

wow!!!
its all happening here! I was bringing some of the students back from their shift during a 24hr water count, at about 1/2 past midnight when we spotted a leopard crossing the track in front of us! I pulled over next to the place we saw it, swithced off the engine and lights and pointed the spot light into the bush: lo and behold there’s a full grown wild Tuli leopard sitting about 10ft away from the Landie!!!….a Landie with no doors, no windows and no roof!!! the Leopard sat for a minute or so looking at us and then forgetting about us, basically, then wandered a few more feet away and stayed there for a while before wandering out of site into the bush!!!! AMAZING!!!! and curiously not scarey at all!
Then last Saturday we got another sighting of a leopard – a little further away but during the same transfer with the SAME people!!!..CRAZY!!! this time it was stalking along the bush just to the side of the road, we followed it along the road and then watched as it wandered backwards and forwards for a few minutes trying to figure us out I guess – got some pics of it this time, but not very good as it was too far away for the flash
Ive got to tell you – they are the most BEAUTIFUL animals!…very lithe and sleek and their coats are BEAUTIFUL

we’ve started getting Cheetah prints on the tracks here (mainly down the western ‘cutline’) so we hope to see one of them soon too!
oh, and we still regularly get charged by ellies etc

update 26th June Well, as I now get the keys to the Landie, I can drive folks around (well kind of: I get to drive the students up to meeting points with Stuart) its kind of entertaining as theres quite a few ellies around again now…we got charged the other day: firstly we got ambushed – an ellie had pushed a tree down over the road, we got out to try and move the tree but then the ellie appeared so we had to jump back in the landie and wait for it to disappear again. Then after driving another couple of hundred metres, I spotted a small ellie at the side of the road, eating a tree…it was too young to be on its own, so we hung about and waited. soon the Matriarch came thru the bush and was cutting off my escape route along the road, so as it approached I quickly drove off along the road, past it – at which point it trumpetted (so loudly that Stuart who was a good 1/4 mile away heard it) and gave chase. As we escaped we drove past teh rest of the herd which was hiding in the bushes where the young ‘un had been!!

lots of fun eh?

Ive been asked to help out at Tuli, so I’m back in Botswana again!!!

basically Charlie the co-ordinator has visa problems so in the short term, I’m working as student co-ordiantor in the camp

its nice to be back and see Stuart and Anna-lein again – nice group of students here too it seems (apart from the fact that theyre mostly giggly girls) Its interesting to see how much its changed here: much drier and less leaves etc on the bushes, but same old Tuli non the less. The ellies are just returning and theres loads of leopard prints (again) though nowts been seen (again!)

more info laterz

well my 6 weeks at GC is up – sad really

its been incredible: being so close to the animals – and is some cases grappling with them is incredible and summat I never thoughtI would do!

we spent most of our time on the outskirts and then deeper into the Kalahari – beautiful farms with sand instead of soil. catching the animals I already mentioned plus Gemsbok (Oryx) both normal and Arabian types, plus HArtebeest, Blesbok, Bontebok, Eland etc.

the guys who work for Aitjie are a lot of fun too – though a little mad (Tokman looks and talks like the russian boxer from Rocky, Lap looks like a slimmer version of one of the current Sprinbok props – and is like hyperactive, Jan is fairly normal – apart from his collection of 700 knives and Johan is just plain nuts)

Its been good for me too as I drove the bakkie around a lot of the time, helping the boys to move Boma parts a round

on my last day I managed to get a flight with Aitjie over the Kalahari Rangers safari farm (where we were catching)- he took me over a herd (?) of giraffe for photos, which was nice

I WILL post my pics soon honest, no really…well some of them – Ive managed to lose 3 CD’s of photos from Tuli and GC…..I’m just hoping that after they finish the renovations on the Church, they’ll find them again and I can collect them. Heres hoping

OK, lots to write as its been a while since I got internet access:

I left Tuli and spent a day in Johannesburg (Joburg) with a guy called Will who is also on his way to GC. We had a tour around Joburg to while away the day…and visited Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnship) which was pretty dire: imagine a corrugated shack worse than you see on most allotments in England, and you have someones home!…they all seemed pretty happy considering though

Next day and a one hour flight to Kimberley where we met Trudie….who – in the middle of a discussion on the merits of women drivers- managed to drive the car over a block of metal in the road, splitting the fuel tank !..luckily we hadnt much further to go to meet Jan who took us the 1 hour drive to Jan Kempdorp…and ‘home’for the next 6 weeks…except it aint often home as the GC team moves around the counrty a lot from farm to farm.

Basically the team catches and buys animals from farms for sale to other farms, generally

Catching is done by building a ‘funnel’of tarpaulin curtains into which the animals are herded/shepherded by Aijtie (”Aykie’) in his R22 chopper: as the animals pass through the ‘funnel’ (or Boma) curtains are pulled behind the animals driving them fuirther in adn stopping them from turning around; finally they are driven through a metal ramp into the back of one of the 3 trucks the team use.

Our job is to close the curtains behind the animals as the chopper drives them thru…depending n which curtain you are on, you can get right up close to the animals

on our first day we caught Waterbuck, Zebra and Blue Wildebeest on Ryans farm in the Kalahari – his is a beautiful farm with deer roaming in a pasture right outside our rooms !…and we had the BIGGEST steak ive EVER seen…it must have been 60mm thick and the size of a tea plate too….nice!

After that I managed to get a number of muscle injuries – apparently its age (thanks Lisa) – one of them was a groin strain I got as I climbed back out of a truck after grappling with Blesbok (putting plastic pipes over their horns to prevent injuries)

the next day was my first flight in the (or any) chopper..which was nice. We also spent soe of the day darting black wildebeest and Kudu bulls – great fun: basically a fella hangs out of the chopper and darts the animals, then we chase after the animal, in pick-up trucks (or ‘backies’ ) till it falls (literally) asleep, then you race to it, and carry it into the truck and race back to the main trucks where an antidote to the sedative is given…lots of fun careering around in the bakkies and actually touching/carrying the animals.

Also a lot of fun is catching Springbok: its done in the bomas still, but at the narrow end, nets are hung which the springbok spring (see wot I done there?) into, then we have to run in and grab the bok by their legs and keep them till they are injected with a sedative, then carry them onto the truck!…very exciting (I managed to get my hand impaled on one oif their horns after someone lost their grip n it and it made a dash for freedom – dont worry, I’ll live.

Weve also had snow!!!!!…yep in Africa!..its like REALLY cold in the mornings and evenings….thermal weather!…and there aint no heating in the house in JK either – only I could go to Africa and get cold!

So, then end of my stay at Kwa Tuli is almost here: I leave for South Africa on Monday.
Its been a great 6 weeks – lots of animals and some great people (including Trigger, I guess ;^))
the weather has dried but also got colder as winter arrives – the good news is we see herds of ellies daily now – and we get charged on a pretty regular basis too! We’re also getting the ellies in the camp at night now…which is OK so far (its unlikely they squash ourt tents…I’m told)

saw my first snake (a puff adder) yesterday …not sure how the guide knew the sexuality preference, but heyho! quite a few Wildebeest lately and more raptors too.

on the way to town today to get spare for the Landie which is broken at the mo, we saw a donkey carcass at the side of the road getting demolished by about 50 vultures…nice. then the engine on the Hi-lux just about failed too (a main bearing has picked up so its DAMNED noisy now!)…maybe the vehicles dont want me to leave???

well, this is my 2nd visit to town (3 hr drive today) so heres a bit of an update:
we are located at 22.39857 degrees South, 28.95346 degrees East. About 1km inside the Botswana/South Africa border
the camp is a permanent fixture on the banks of the Limpopo river – there are 6 ex-army tents all on 2ft thick concrete bases, then theres a concrete kitchen, concrete scullery and a thatched boma bbq (braai) area for chilling
every day except Sunday we drive around the conservation area either doing game counts or monitoring specific animals. We also spend a lot of time trying to spot leopards!
…basically, the conservation area is unfenced (unlike most game reserves) so the animals wander thru as the like and are ‘proper wild’ we see Impala, elephants (ellies) Kudu, warthogs, jackals, ostrich etc. on a daily basis as we drive around on a ‘safari LWB Landrover’
Ive had mixed pickings with photos but things are improving, pertickly as the rains have stopped now so othere are many more hers here (we have permanent water spings on the project)
Yesterday we saw a leopard (named George)..my FIRST!!! he was sitting on a koppie (rocky hill) watching us. Weve followed him and AJ and a female leopard LOADS of times, but they outsmart us each time…even when we did a night drive/sleepout to a carcass of a Kudu that AJ had just killed (nice maggots!)
its 30 degrees during the day, but down to 20 at night (its autumn/winter here) and very sunny all the time (one day I might show you my white bits). there were 10 sudents for my firt 2 weeks (mainly gap year 18 yr olds) but most have moved on now, so theres only 5 now with an average age of about 30 (from 18 to 39….Ive told everyone I’m 32)
I passed my tracker test, so I can sit in the hot seat on the bonnet of the Landie during drives, spotting the various animals (you wouldnt believe how hard it is to spot ellies at times…and a xouple of weeks ago we LOST a herd of about 30!!!! (no, it wasnt my fault!)
we get animals walking around our tents at night…whic is ….interesting – last night we had a single ellie just along from out tents – it wont be long before they are walking thru (which they have done in the past!)
We also drive to a nearby place called Lekkerpoet which has Cheetahs and Lions in it…again, LOADS of tracks but not spotted any yet
I cant begin to tell you how good Tuli is…if you have kids – send them (make sure THEY pay) or if you can afford the time, then come here!
photos at http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o36/chuggys/botswana/

well, we’re travelling again

flew from Ncl to Heathrow to Joburg, SA (loooong flight) and then car up to ‘Alldays) a small town in Northern South Africa, then another car to Botswana.

we’re just inside the Botswana border in a conservation project in KWA Tuli of the Tuli Block. I’ll record the co-ordinates for it next time (I fotrgot to write them down from me GPS this time) so if yer interested you can check it out on Google Earth…or your very own satellite..if you’re particularly lucky……and rich

basically the camp has about 8 ‘students’ who travel around in a Landie driven by Charlie (a girl) or Stuart: the Project leader. we monitor and record sightings of the various animals and birds and of late, the vegetation – so that a long term study can be made of general animal behaviour  etc. and specifically of the project area. The area isnt feenced so the animals are free to roam in and out (mainly out) of it at leisure

its the end of the rainy season…… which was dry (apparently theres a 14 year cycle) most of the bigger animals have disappeared whilst theres water elsewhere – as soon as it dries again, they’ll return as we have year round water here. Ive seen elephants, baboons, zebra, wildebeest, Impala, jackals, Kudu, Steenbok, Klipspringers and various other stuff too  – pretty close up too! (they are getting accustomed to the Landie) got some photos to load up, but its a standing joke now that as soon as I raise me camera they do off!

we’ve tracked leapords a few times – on foot with Stuart leading (with a gun) but havent seen them for over a week now….actyually they havent been seen since I got here (unlucky, moi?) we think theres 3 adults, one with cubs. I was going to use my SAS training and find them – but I didnt wanna show of

and they lied: there ARE spiders here!…BIG fellas too!!!!!

we live in tents and cook our own meals in a concrete kitchen and scullery- or at least the duties are split amongst us on a daily basis (by Charlie) other duties are cleaning and recording various aspects of the game watches etc.

mostly 18/19year olds here, but us oldies are fighting back…theres 4 of us now. ….and we can drink more too (I think)

my first evening here was partly spent in the outside shower (cold….cos we hadnt lit the donkey!…eh???) under a fantastic starry sky. welcome to Botswana!

more to write when I can get on the net again….not sure how often it’ll be….photos to come too

fly out to J’burg on the 25th March for a 6 week project in the Tuli block of eastern Botswana. This will be followed by a 6 week project in the Game Capture team through northern, western and Southern South Africa

should be a hoot!

update 4th December: Interesting day:L tried to fix the Quad again: Scott had left the plug cap off when he changed the spark plug (no idea why he even changed the plug,) but ‘hey-ho’….giving it a test run and the Frenchy fella decided to help….by holding the throttle on the stop….until the drive belt exploded in our faces!…got to do a full strip down now :^(

I also found out that a couple of pics I took are gonna be used on the farm website AND for their T shirts and also for a beer they’re gonna promote!…KEWL!

then tonight Scotts brother turned up with some meat for the family – I followed him to the truck to grab the meat…he jumped in the back of the truck and started looking for the joint: BY ROLLING A BISON HEAD, A FULL SIDE OF RIBS AND A ‘CAPE’ (ITS PELT) AROUND!!!!!!!!!!! He’d been hunting and shot a fully grown bull Bison yesterday

He passed me a full front quarter – I could hardly stagger back to the house!

now THATS a joint!!!!      (shame was he’d left by the time I got back to the front door  so I didnt get any pics)                       funny old life innit?…link to The Dickson hunt site here: http://www.dicksonoutfitters.com

update 3rd December: well today I got to go horse riding…in perticklier: I went bareback riding on an american Quartehorse! – now let me explain the extent of my horse riding experience…oh, I just did!

I got to ride Yukon a real nice bay horse. was FAB – right until I fell off. Actually that was OK too cos there’s 2ft of snow so it didnt hurt…and the horse just looked at me and then walked off…..in disgust, I guess.

I eventually managed to do a few manouvers (on the horse) and we kinda figured each other out – yep. I was outsmarted by a horse! :^( 

 dont trust fool gauges!!!! I thought I would do a favour by going to the tip today…..got the truck started, but the engine warning light was lit, so I rang Scott just to check it would be OK to drive (the light often comes on while yer driving) he said it was but to make sure I had enough diesel for the trip…its about 20 miles or more to the tip, I told him the gauge showed 1/4 full, so that was Ok…HA!

sooooo about a mile from the tip, the engine spluttered and stopped!….I couldnt find owt wrong but there was a lot of air rushing when I took off the fuel filler cap…which started to worry me. however it started again and the engine warning lamp wasnt lit..HURRAH. ……………………..Till the engine stopped again, reet outside the tip!
I couldnt get it going and couldnt find owt wrong again but when I rocked the truck I couldnt hear any sloshing from the tank either, so I flagged down the next car (yer lucky if you get 1 car an hour there!) – an old fella (later introduced as John) stopped and as he was worried about where the truck had stopped, took me back to his place reet on the edge of Marsh Lake, to get his big truck to tow mine’. A cup of tea later and some of his hunting stories, we jumped in his truck (with his mahoosive Rottweiler ‘Star’ and returned to my truck…..with a can of diesel and a tow chain. Once we’d pulled the truck to a safe spot, I filled the tank while John turned the engine over : IT STARTED! I paid him for the diesel, shook hands and then set off back to the ranch with John following in case it happened again……it didnt

nice fella, that John

oh, and if you think “so what you ran out of fuel”: it was -22 degrees and FALLING; theres a foot of snow; I was 20 miles to the nearest town; I didnt have warm gear on; I dont have a mobile and it was just starting to get dark.  scarey!

update 25th Nov -40 when I got up this morning, and -30 for the rest of the day….it s much colder than normal for this time of year but doesnt feel THAT cold, as the humidity is 65%..just the freezing nose hair and fingers give it away! its too cold to work outside too, so Ive educated the family on the joys of HobNobs…they’re addicted, we had to buy 2 packets each of choc and plain today!…Ive also eaten too many doughnuts today…so I guess thats another hour of woodchopping tomorrow as penance (that also means I’ll have to tell Scott I broke his axe yesterday …not a bad week: broke a chainsaw, truck and axe so far! I blame the cold)

found a link to the trail riding at Spirit Lake run by the farm http://www.spiritlakeyukon.com/horsebackrides.html

check out the hosses: me faves are Kixy (plays footy!) Quincy and Yukon..but they’re all sweeties really

more laterz

update 16th Nov well been here for 4 weeks now (by thats flown over!) tiled the kitchen and sitting room fireplace with Scott – its all looking pretty  good for the Mardi Gras party this Saturday.

Its been pretty cold the last week or so…-27 is about typical during the night rising to -25 during the day a couple of days ago I drew a company logo in the snow for some photographs: the tile I was using as a pencil froze to my fingers leaving burn marks!. Today I was out for only 30 mins or so and managed to get my hand stuck to the house door handle (metal) and then when I got indoors I found my boot laces had frozen so I couldnt untie them…lorra laffs here in the Yukon

oh, and you know how in England you see sheep at the roadside?…..

Well, I’m safely in the Yukon. It’s a 2.5hr flight here from Vancouver
About 62 degrees North (about on a par with the Shetlands) and about 6 miles outside of the city of Whitehorse. Whitehorse is the ‘capital’of the Yukon with 23,000 of the provinces 33,000 population – that’s a province that’s 483 thousand square km against 243 thousand sq.km of Great Britain…i.e almost TWICE the size of GB!! Which has a population of 60 MILLION.
I’m volunteer working on the Hart2Hart farm owned and run by Scott and Jackie – with Scott’s son Matt.
So far I’ve mainly been helping to clear scrub and raise fencing around the farm for the 8 Quarter horses that they have here – but they also have another 24 (I think) horses at Spirit Lake, where they run the majority of trail rides for tourists from
I live in a trailer home on the farm and eat most meals with the family.
Other stuff Ive done so far is to fix a Quad that wouldnt start (no, not the kill switch you mackem fella) change a starter motor on a chevy car and service a 4.9l Ford truck, lately Ive been setting up a wifi network for the family/business computers (which is how I’m able to write this on a laptop in the trailer)’and setting up a home cinema style sound system for the hoos
Its starting to get cold here now – about -14 at night rising to -13 during the day ! ..forecast over the next few days is for -25 ……..which is kinda kewl (literally)
Not much wildlife so far – too late for bears and I don’t really wanna see wolves. I also haven’t had much time to sightsee around the area yet, but I should get to see plenty afore long. Whitehorse is also home of the 2007 Canada games in February so I might get to see some of that stuff too. Panorama of Whitehorse here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzIvRvr5ufg
I’m hoping I can stay here for the winter, then I can start my travels again in the Spring – buying a bike for the tour thru the States
Not much more to write at the mo, I’ll add more as it happens

well I took the plunge and went whale watching again: this time from Victoria with Ocean Explorations….400hp zodiac again.
Was hoping to see some Orcas, however there werent any in the area on the day – which was disapppointing, however I saw some Humpback whales and got some nice photos (most of which are now on the ‘kodakgallery’ site) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0aTtVY3lIU

had a beer with a couple of folks from the hostel last night – at the ‘sticky wicket’ pub in Victoria: was K, but had to queue at the bar….which was odd
This morning (14th Oct) I took the train back to Nanaimo to get a seaplane flight over to Vancouver, however for the first time since March, the planes were fogged in….typical!
so, it looks like another night in Nanaimo.

curiously, it was cheaper to get the 2.5hr train up here and pay for the flight than it was just to get the flight direct to Vancouver from Victoria………….course having the Student Union Card helped ;^)
<mental note for you prospective travellers out there: buy a NUS card off ebay for 4 quid…it’ll save you a fortune!>
Typically, the sea planes wer all fogged in at Nanaimo, so I had to spend another night there (so I had 2 hostels booked…thats another 9 quid Ive overpaid ;^) ) got up this morning and got the first flight back – EXCELLENT trip on the plane – I got to sit next to the pilot (theres only 3 seats and the others were taken) take off & landing were VERY smooth but the plane is soooo noisy – and of course I had a bad head again (out with another german last night) So Ive landed in Whistler now and will stay here tilll Thursday when I get my flight from Vancouver up to the Yukon
more pics later

BUNGEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I drove over to Nanaimo bungee centre just for a look see (in my rented 4l Frodo Explorer SUV) but once I got there I decided to do the jump anyway!
its Canadas oldest licensed bungee place and they have their own purpose built iron bridge arcing over a gorge with a river flowing underneath…its 150ft above the water this time of year (not much water) standing at the edge was a bit…scarey, but I knew there was no going back, so a count of 3 from the fella there and I was off….as soon as you leave the bridge, the rush of air and feeling of speed and freedom is INCREDIBLE!!!! he got the length just right, making me just duck into the water below.
what a great way to start the day! oh, and I met ‘Dave’ (schoolteacher) who although living in Victoria for a whole lot of years, originally hails from Chester- le-street (or thereabouts)..some coincidence, eh?
…dont worry: Ive got it on a CD video, so I can bore you all senseless with it
or try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvIOrk912VI

then I drove across the island to Tofino….fab drive thru the mountains.
Tofino “Whalers on the Point” hostel is real nice too….though its a bit full of kewl folks (surfers)..oh, and Sam and Sinaed (english and irish resp. though former is living in Calgary now and latter is ‘prolly’ gonna be in Calgary with Sam)
night out at the Sands bar with those two folks plus a couple of german fellas – guess wot?….yep, drunk again

Saturday = whale watching. we (me and Sam) went out on “Jamies Whale Watching” and saw grey whales and some sea lions and more bald eagles. the boat was a 400hp zodiac….which was a LOT of fun…well, truth be known I had a lot of fun…Sam meantime spent most of the time hiding at the back of the boat with red eyes and green face.these folks just aint Geordies are they ;^)

the whales were a bit distant, but I think I got some canny shots – well see (its just a nice feeling seeing whales!!!) Ill post when I get the chance

went for a drive to Ecluelet on sunday: its supposed to be anice picturesque place…but it was closed ;^) …….it aint the greatest of places. Then I drove back to Long Beach (no, not California) and walked a few km splodging thru the surf…looking about as unkewl as you can in front of a load of hip surfers. Never mind…I enjoyed it
This morning I left Tofino to go back to Nanaimo – stopped at a place called Cathedral Cove: its a forest with the most humongous Douglas fFirs and Red Cedar trees…some of them are 240ft tall!!!…it slike a rain forest in there with lichen and moss hanging from EVERYWHERE and a real atmospheric place to walk thru