Update

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OK, so I have been here a week now, and been seriously out of touch with everyone, sorry about that, everything is fine, just a bit hectic, but thats by no means an excuse. That mean that this will be a fairly lengthy one, so apologies again for that.
We have been doing a lot of work in the days, such as climbing a mountain on the first day - a nice gentle introduction, especially in this heat. The view from the top was amazing, but the breathlessness and heat made it less so. After we were up there for a while we could see almost the whole half of the reserve (it is split into 2 parts, with another farm between them) all the way to the mountains beyond. Up there we saw a herd of blesbok, and on the way up we saw some zebra. We stayed up there for lunch and on the way down we saw a warthog, and a herd of 15 giraffe.
In the evening we went on a drive and saw another warthog, and - what most of us came mainly to see - the white rhino male, right near the house. We were going to go further, but the spotlights went out so we went back to the house and that was day 1.
The second day was the start of the real work, vegetation survey techniques. Not particularly exciting but very interesting. Learned a lot of grass species and saw a waterbuck as well, but to quick to take a picture.
Day 3 was tracking, which as very good, although we were up at 6. We went out and saw rhino prints, impala, warthog and hartebeest tracks, and tried to follow a herd of zebra, but they realised we were there and legged it. After that we set up some camera traps to try and see some jackals, but I have not seen the footage yet, will update you when we have any results.
Day 4 we went to a nearby reserve and had a wander, saw some wildebeest and lots of impala and blesbok.
Yesterday was a lazy day, i sat outside on the front porch, read my book and my ID guide. Before I went out there was a herd of impala grazing on the front lawn, and I also saw a heron near the pond. We went out yesterday evening to the other reserve again and had a barbeque on a bonfire (completely safe in a hot dry area with lots of grass and trees) out in the open in the middle of the reserve. It was great being out with no walls of artificial light. The stars down here are incredible without light pollution, so many. During the night (pitch black away from the fire) we heard a few groups of Jackals howling at each other, very creepy, but amazing.
That brings us up to date. Again sorry I haven't been updating at all, but I think I'm more settled now and will be trying to keep on top of things more. Sorry again for the length of the entry, others will be much shorter.
Enjoy the pics. Sorry for the clairty of some, fading light and zoom don't go well.

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