After Chobe, some of us crossed into Zimbabwe to experience a lion walk. This was incredible. The African Lion Environmental Research Trust raises lions from cubs, teaches them how to hunt, and then releases them into a large area (10,000 acres) where these lions will form prides and raise their own cubs. These new cubs, who do not see or come into contact with humans, will then be relocated in areas in Africa. Why are they doing this? In the last 20 years 80 percent of Africa's lions have disappeared. And the situation is just getting worse. As part of raising the cubs, between 4 months (younger than this they just like to bite in play) and 18 months (older than this they become too strong when they play and can seriously hurt a person), the ... read more

Well, we crossed over to Zambia after visiting the Falls and met up with the truck and the rest of the group. We would be in Livingstone for two days, and then the group would separate. Some would be continuing with the truck (called "Norris" for "Truck Norris") up to Nairobi, others would be ending their trip in Livingstone, and a few (including me) would be heading back down to Jo'burg joining a new truck. Our time in Zambia was very cool. I spent it rafting down the Zambezi. The rafting season had only opened up six days before, so I was really lucky to be able to do this, which was something I really wanted to do, but didn't think I'd be able to. Not much to tell, except that it was awesome. Class 3, ... read more

So, I’ve been in Cape Town now for nine days, and have only got the first week at BV blogged. Clearly, I need to write a little less. The rest of the five weeks followed a similar pattern - diving in the morning, workshops in the afternoon, teaching English to the Malagasy EcoGuides (although I didn’t do much of that), and learning Malagasy as well. Generally, afternoons had some kind of maintenance, chores or other duties, but some time to relax too. What I’ll do instead of giving such a detailed week by week description is just talk about the highlights in each week. That way, I should be caught up before leaving Cape Town. Anyways, most of you are just looking at the pics ;-)). April 9 - 15 In the second week, the highlights ... read more

April 23 - 29 Well, this week would be great and sad all at the same time. First off, the weather started to go sideways a bit. Strong winds for three consecutive days caused dives to be cancelled, and then whole extra days off because the viz was so poor. Not great - only so many days to pass my fish test, and time was running out. Also this week there was an exorcism in the village. It seems that a young woman was possessed by an ancestor (she was speaking in tongues, including English, although she didn’t speak English normally) and the vols and staff were invited to participate. It seems participation involved drinking lots, playing the drums and dancing. I’m not sure, but it seemed to be more of a village party than ... read more

May 8 - 15 Well, the rest of this week (or rather, the last four days as we left BV on the 12th) was also science. Dives during the day, and data entry on the computer at night. And we got everything we needed to do for the expedition done, with a day to spare! I was feeling better for most of this week, but then, on the last day of diving, I was ill again. I dove, but upchucked at the end. Ick. It was a shame too - the dive was fantastic, at a site that doesn't get dove usually because it's too fragile. Well, a bittersweet ending to the diving, but the job got done, and that's the main thing. The other highlight this week was the "Condom Play." As part of ... read more