Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 567

Been a bit quiter since that crazy first week, mainly because me and my team (we have been split up into 3, 6 person teams) went to the mountains for 5 days, which was alot more chilled out than the reserve, its basically catching rodents for biodiversity studys and either going on hikes or going to the water hole to have a dip or chillout. I was ready to come back to base on tuesday in time for party night which was pretty crazy again before paint balling the next day and farting about in the pool. Which takes us upto today and my first research drive in a week (overdue) but it was worth waiting for as we walked with the cheetah brothers which means walking 10-15 feet behind them while their mobile. from the ... read more

After the beautiful day yesterday, the wind at night, and the rain beating against the window was a great indication of what the day was about to have in store.. well in terms of weather at least... so it poured all day, the wind just howled, and actually flooded a number of roads around the Cape, and did quite a lot of damage in the townships (but more on that in the next blog) so today, i went on a tour through the winecountry around the Eastern Cape and the Stellenbosh area, since it seems like a good idea to stay inside a van or inside a winery for most of the day, taste the cullininary pleasures the cape has to offer, and of course sample LOTS of great wines. I met once again a couple ... read more

So i made it safe and sound after a forver long flight and two days of travel i arrived in Cape Town at 9:30 p.m local time. Pouring rain and thunder and lightning proved that is was in fact winter in South Africa, and that the winds around here can howl with the best of them! But since i am on vacation, who cares about the weather , so after a cool "good night " beer at the hostel bar, i hit the pillow ready for some much needed sleep. There is nothing like waking up to brilliant sunshine, and especially if the view out the window is on Table Mountain, so without further ado, i jumped into gear and headed out to explore the city! The walk along famous Long Street, St. George's Mall down ... read more

With a group of students we went to South Afrika to learn about the bush from ranger Ed De trip was organized by Bushpackers in Hazyview (www.bushpackers.co.za), South Africa, close to the Kruger Nat. Park. Edwin is a passionate game ranger and conservationist. He gives ranger courses and at the moment he is busy with setting up a tented camp in Sabie Sands, a 65.00 ha private Big 5 Game Reserve close to Hazyview. This trip was undertaken after my graduation from the Van Hall Larenstein Institute, my name is Harold van Oorschot and i was 25 years old during this trip.This was my first contact with Africa, it was a great experience. This trip was organized by the Gecko bushpackers lodge (http://www.gecko-bushpackers.co.za/) owned by : Edwin Cruywagen and Francis Hamwyk. Edwin is the head ranger ... read more

Hello from Thoyondou in the northern Limpopo province. Our research has finished well and it seems that we ought to be able to produce some publications from the wealth of data we have collected. Now it will just take a little effort to analyze all of the data on the tail end on the home front. Currently I am visiting with the various student groups in this area from UVA seeing what their summer long projects have produced and assisting in any way possible. I personally hope to come back next summer to study traditional medicines with the University of Venda students and ideally test them using the same methods that I have used in the lab this past spring at home for my Capstone research project. Everything is quite exciting for me right now because ... read more