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Where do I start, it was a great trip with a great bunch of students that had fun, worked hard and made it an exceptional experience for all! I have so many photos and memories so I thought I would share some of them.

We had our first sighting of an elephant even before we arrived:

We first went to Storm’s River Mouth Rest Camp: 

The view from the staff cabin:

At Storm’s River Mouth we did a couple of hikes, which were requested by AWE 2016…the students enjoyed the 2 hikes, me not so much!!!
The first hike started easy, 1 km to the suspension bridges…yeah my kind of hike!

We got our first sighting of a Knysna Lourie (sorry Dan…turaco) see if you can spot it.

Other critters along the way: and

And then we went UP!!!

But worse was to come…2nd hike was part of the first day of the Otter Trail, and the sign said not to attempt it if you were not fit!

At the start…     

Then it got a bit more difficult…this is a path… this is not… And this is a goat path, Andrew!!

We all survived that, actually the students, Dan and Sarah loved the hikes, me…well let’s just say next trip I am staying at the cabin and cooking supper for when they return hungry!!!

Tomorrow I will continue my views of the trip!

 

This blog is coming after we are back in Canada, however, things got a bit hectic the last day and so late but by no means last, these are David’s favourite things:

I will start this blog by saying the entire trip was full of favourite moments and to write a blog on just one moment is extremely difficult. Therefore, I will write about two of my favourite things about the trip; a big picture and a specific.

My “big picture” favourite part of the trip was that at all times we had a wealth of knowledge about South African zoology, ecology, history, and culture at our disposal in the form of Dr. Daniel Parker, Dr. Janine Gray, and Dr. Sarah Gatti-Yorke. You can imagine having locals who have studied the local ecosystems makes a trip like this immensely better providing a unique experience.

My specific favourite part of the trip I will write about was our last night drive. On this drive none of us were expecting anything spectacular but you never know when you go on a game drive. We saw common nocturnal creatures such as black backed jackals, springhares, capehares, etc. and then we came upon the lionesses. They were Amakhala’s two sub-adult females and the adult male and female were not there. They were sleeping as the big cats usually do but then something rather spectacular occurred. The lions picked up their heads and began to roar to their parents. It was quite indescribable but I will attempt to do it justice. A lion’s roar is at a low frequency so it can be heard at great distances therefore, when you are just meters away like we were, the roar rattles your ribcage and causes an almost instinctual fear even though you are in the safety of a land cruiser. The lions had three roaring events and I will never forget it. At one point one of the lions stood up and it was the first time I saw a lion on it’s feet and I was very impressed with its massive size. As we drove back to camp I looked up at the visible milky way in the clear night sky devoid of light pollution and I knew I would never forget that experience.

 

These are my favourite things, David!

 

Our final pictures at Amakhala were a sad occasion as no-one wanted to leave. Thank you very much to the staff at Woodbury Tented for making our stay so enjoyable and a ‘home-away-from-home’!

What typically makes up for most of the amazement out in the plains of Africa are the animals. They are big, fast, and just straight up gorgeous. Even if not many people would admit to this, what we’re all really hoping for while immersed in the wild are those close encounters, those “I know I was safe but I definitely stopped breathing for a good 3 minutes” type of unforgettable moments. And I, for one, am most definitely not an exception! It just so happens that today and ‘my favorite event’ are two of the same specifically because of those hair-raising moments, 2 of them to be exact!

First thing this morning, 6:45 AM, I whisper-scream for Lenka to wake up: there is FINALLY something outside our tent! After a few minutes of crawling on our tent floor we see him… a magnificent elephant, shaking trees, walking around a few meters away on the other side of the fence! The sheer size of him is mind boggling!

Skip a few hours of hard work, to approximately 9:00 PM. We are on our last night game drive, and the scenery itself is breathtaking. The Milky Way shines like i’ve never seen it before in my small 21 years of life…
Then they appear: 2 sub-adult female lions, lazily rolling around in the grass. Just when you think this day couldn’t get any better, nature proves you wrong once more and the girls start roaring out in the open. Its both impressive and emotional, if that makes any sense!

I hope you all got to imagine a little bit of my heaven, and get to experience it one day!

-Nikki

    

 

Anybody who knows me knows that I am a huge nerd and that I love learning. I can honestly say that yes, everything Nikki said was also the highlight of my trip but so was the constant learning. I loved learning something new every single day and the fact that even by our last day here, I am still seeing new plants and animals amazed me!! This trip was nowhere near a vacation and even though it was a lot of work and some days were rough, it was AMAZING!! On top of our classroom, out of classroom and field research/learning, we also got to do our own individual projects. I personally chose a topic I knew very little about, bats, because I was very curious to increase my understanding and really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more from people (such as Dan) who are very knowledgeable in this area of research. I have learned some amazing new things, broadened areas that I already had knowledge in and all the while laughing, smiling and having fun.

BEST TRIP EVER 🙂  (and that’s coming from a travel bug)

Lenka

  

*Our nice and warm 8am lectures (we even had hot water bottles some days)

Today is another day closer to the end of the trip. The entire trip has being a life changing experience. It is hard to pinpoint what my favourite moment was during this 3 weeks…..

On the day that we went for horseback riding, I admit I was physically exhausted and ready to sleep for the entire afternoon. However, when Giles offered to drive myself, Megan and Dan in the land cruiser behind the group who were horseback riding, I perked up. It sounded a lot better to me. During this drive I think I realized how well I had bonded with all of my peers. I was instantly no longer tired bouncing in the back seat while going off roading. The trails that Giles took us on were amazing, Megan and I could not stop smiling and laughing. The exhiliration of sitting in my seat and going up a hill so steep I was staring at the sky was so much fun. I am currently thinking about taking up some vehicle off-roading at home! It is bitter sweet right now, knowing that the trip is coming to an end.

Ashley

 

This entire trip is honestly the trip of a lifetime. It’s absolutely amazing  to wake up to the African sunrise and stay up till the sunset. The beautiful scenery and wilderness surrounding the camps is the most exciting thing about being here in South Africa. Coming back from lunch and seeing a giraffe outside your tent, or going to classes and seeing elephant just outside the door is an experience in and of itself. Getting sightings of the more reclusive predators like hyena, cheetah and lion are the moments of pure awe that I look forward to on game drives. I really enjoyed the opportunity to experience nature up close and personal through the various hikes, walks and trail rides on horseback. Having that opportunity to experience and learn hands on what it is to work in conservation and knowing that it’s not just looking  at cute animals all day, it’s research and passion and a lifetime of work towards the protection of these animals.

Jessica

Megan and I have been tasked with writing about the favourite aspects of our time in South Africa. I could write forever about our experiences here, so I’ll write about the favourite critters that I saw. I am a big amphibian and reptile fan. I know plenty about the species at home in Canada, so it was really exciting for me to come to a new country and learn all about the species here. Unfortunately, a lot of them are venomous and I couldn’t catch/pick up any unknown snake-likes creatures which may not have been safe. I also enjoy insects, even if most people find them yucky. South Africa has large and beautiful insects! The favourite one I have found is the millipede. These insects are slightly poisonous when they bite, but it doesn’t have a large affect on humans. Besides, the usually curl up in a ball as soon as you pick them up. I loved finding these docile insects under logs and rocks and seeing how they vary in size. In Xhosas, it’s called a, “Shengololo”. Coincidentally, this is also my favourite Xhosa word.

Back to amphibians and reptiles! I only found one frog on this whole trip. It was a river frog that I found in a pond during one of our hikes in Storms River Rest Camp. It is currently winter here (even though it ranges from 10-30 degrees) so most are in hibernation. You even have to work hard to find any reptiles. Most of the reptiles I did find were skinks such as the striped, cape, and variegated skinks. It’s hard to take a photo of these guys because they are super speedy. Another common reptile that I found were geckos!!! I have never interacted with geckos before and I discovered that this species is pretty cute. I found lots of spotted geckos who have large heads and eyes, short bodies, and fat tails. They’re not as fast as skinks, so I have photos aplenty. They also squeak in protest whenever I try to pick them up before they scamper away.
I also had the amazing opportunity to see some snakes. The first one I only saw a glimpse of. I was flipping over rocks and something with a snakelike tail slithered into its hole when it was exposed. It may have also been a legless skink (which resembles a snake) except for the fact that it was pretty thick and had a greenish colour. Perhaps it was a spotted bush snake, but they don’t usually burrow underground. Any suggestions from fellow herpetologist (someone who studies amphibians and reptiles) would be great! The second snake I saw was found embedded in the wall/roof on the side of the main lodge. This was a venomous but shy snake called a boomslang. They rarely bite, but in any case, we were safe because it was just looking for a comfy place to hibernate. The third snake we saw was one I was really hoping to see while in South Africa. The puff adder!! This snake has beautiful markings and has a wide head. It is also venomous, so we kept a good distance from it. Dr. Parker found it on a path about to chow on a large vlei rat. He ran back to the lodge to get the rest of us to see this.

I’m so happy to have seen this snake.

Tomorrow, we get the treat of having a herpetologist give us a lecture! I believe she is even bringing some species to show us. I’m very excited to add more to my list of findings and learn even more about the species here. Hope everyone enjoyed! Maddie :)

Maddie did a wonderful job explaining her favourite parts about the trip. Although we have experienced a lot, I personally cannot pinpoint one specific part of the trip that I can classify as my favourite. Therefore I’m going to talk about this experience as a whole. For me, this opportunity has opened my eyes by showing me how everything on this beautiful planet is connected in some way. It has showed me the importance of every individual living thing that exist, and the impacts that one missing individual has on not only its surrounding ecosystems, but the earth itself. The rhino is a perfect example of that. I learned that as humans, we all need to take a step back and realize how precious our wildlife are, and how important it is to appreciate them. And the group that I have traveled to South Africa with have realized that, making a strong connection between all of us. I can honestly say that I have gained amazing memories from traveling here, but I also like to think that this has opened my doors of opportunities in the future. I’m sad that this trip is coming to and end, but it’s just the start of our friendships.

Megan

We were  able to sleep in last night as we only had to be at breakfast at a ‘late’ 7am rather than 6.45am. We then had a nice breakfast of scrambled egg, beans, sausage, bacon and toast, and we had plenty of time to eat it as we only had to leave at 9.15am. We all used this time to work on our journals and projects, we always appreciate time to catch up with our work.

At 9.15am we went to the Sidbury Cricket Club for the ‘Coaching for Conservation’ 8km run/walk, through the ‘safe’ part of Amakhala Game Reserve. Unfortunately smoke was clouding the area from the Port Elizabeth wildfires which blew into the area, about 150km away. This cast a bit of a grim mood on everyone as we were smelling burnt homes, schools and hospitals. All the same we geared up for the run and made our way to the start line. The course was quite nice but it had a nasty hill in the beginning but by km 4 the downhill portion started and it got much easier. The views were stunning and it made for a great run and the AWE times ranged from 52 mins – 1 hour 40 mins, people walked and people ran but we all enjoyed the race. We then had boerewors rolls for lunch which is a beef sausage in South Africa. The sausages were wonderful! After that we headed back to the Woodbury Tented Camp to shower and work on journals, projects etc.

  

At 3.30pm we all piled into the minivan to go visit Grahamstown about 45 mins east of Amakhala. Once we got there we did a driving tour of Rhodes University where Prof. Dan Parker is a faculty member. They have a very historic campus as many of their buildings are old British military facilities which were used in many battles in the Frontier Wars during the Colonial era. We then went to supper at the ‘Rat and Parrot’ which was Dan’s former employer and a favorite with Rhodes University students. They are a great restaurant that specializes in steaks and pizza. Some were brave enough to try bacon and banana pizza, which according to brave souls like Maddie is quite good! We all headed back to camp for an early sleep and end to a calm day in South Africa!

This comes to you compliments of David!!!

Last night, we went to the Sidbury Cricket Club to meet a few of the locals in the area. Sadly, we didn’t really get to meet any new locals except for our guides but we still had an amazing time! This did cause for a bit of tired faces sitting around the breakfast table but we did get to see an AMAZING red sunrise so that made up for being so tired.

After breakfast we made our way to the classroom and the wind was so crazy I thought we were going to get blown away! Thankfully, we didn’t but we all got a nice face and mouth full of dirt. Giles Gush, the owner here, taught us how to do a game count. When the wind calmed down a bit, we went out to do our own game count! (This just means that we need to record all the animals that we see within a certain area) My group saw lots of different animals including 2 beautiful male elephants playing around with each other and 43 impala all together with a gemsbok right smack in the middle!! After the count, Jessica did some observational work for her project and within 2 minutes of us stopping, Maddie and I had passed out for a much-needed snooze!! Thankfully she had lots of observational work to do, so we got a nice 40-minute nap outside on the Land Cruiser (one of the best naps I have ever taken, and I nap a lot).

After lunch we all went horseback riding except for Dan, Megan and Ashley who Giles took out for a game drive behind us. Janine had tea and cookies back at the house with Jenn (And yes, she did feed the horses ginger snaps). Jessica got to ride a zebra!! Kidding, but her horse had painted like a zebra for a school group and it didn’t wash out!! It was a really fun experience and we got to see giraffes, but we weren’t able to go close on the horses. Dan, Megan, Ashley and Giles however, did get to go up close to them!! Hopefully next time we all will!!

  

Tonight for dinner, Giles and his family joined us and we got to pick their brains a bit and learn how to open up a game reserve. We learned lots of interesting information and everyone decided that if we win the lottery, we would be calling Giles!  Tomorrow we get to do a 8km ‘Fun’ run!

Thanks for reading our blog, Lenka.

 

We were all ready for breakfast at 7:00 this morning, like little solider ants, waiting for the cereal, fruits, and toast (with Marmite for Janine… gross!). We all had a great night’s sleep last night now that the winds settled down a bit, the temperature was however quite uncalled for: a brisk -3 degrees Celsius! Sarah, who had taken a shower the night before, had black ice on her bathroom floor!! It sure made for a brisk walk to the Amakhala Conservation Centre for our 8:00 lecture.

Today’s lecture was by Professor Adrian Craig, an ornithologist that just recently retired from over 35 years of teaching at Rhodes University, but who still took the time to come share his passion and knowledge with us. His lecture was followed by a “hands-on lab” during which we helped him put up bird mist-netting and clap traps to catch different types of birds. Once caught, a little ID ring was put on them, and data such as sex, age, and wing length were all taken. In a short amount of time we managed to catch and record data on a familiar chat, 2 greater double-collard sunbirds, a malachite sunbird, and a bar-throated apalis! Since research is, most often then not, a continual waiting game we filled our time with a friendly 4-VS-4 improvised soccer game that really got us working up a sweat!

 

 

At 1:00 we stopped for lunch and had an amaaazing butternut squash soup with the usual homemade bread that no one can get enough of! One pot of soup, 1 ½ loafs of bread, and 1 cup of butter later we were all quite satisfied and ready to charge head on with our next learning experience! After lunch we were all separated into little groups: Maddie, Lenka, David, and myself went for a drive with Jason and Dan to get some data for our projects; Jessica, Ashley, and Janine went on their own drive with Simone to collect some behavioural data for Jessica’s project (and they got to see giraffes and lions! So jealous!) . In the mean time, Megan and Sarah stayed at the camp to keep analysing some of the faecal samples (yayy poop!) from Warthog and Elephant. This brought us all the way to 5:30, just in time to take a quick shower and relax a bit before supper: we are lucky enough to have a South-African braai (a BBQ) on the fire pit, which is quite exciting for us!

Overall another great day in South Africa, and can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!
Nikki!

**Pictures don’t want to load right now…..stay tuned.

It was a very windy start to our day, the majority of us were worried our tents would blow down during the night as it was quite blustery! Those who were checking rodent live traps this morning were up at 6:00am and the rest of us lazy ones got up for 6:45am. After a quick breakfast of cereal, yoghurt and toast, we all headed up to the classroom to set up our stations for the day. Children from local schools were coming to Amakhala for World Environment Day which happened to also be World Oceans Day. It was a wonderful time and the children were all excited running around, jumping on our backs, laughing and giggling. We taught the children about ocean animals and how to keep the oceans clean. Afterwards the children had their hands painted blue to place a handprint on the water reservoir as a promise to keep our oceans clean, save the animals and pass the word on. We then played games and danced around with the children., some of them were chasing Megan around and shouting: “Mama” and “Baby”. Mama is a sign of respect to an older female person. It was really adorable, but they loved us too!! As a thank you, Amakhala provided spectacular calendars to each of us and these were given to us by the children. Soon after that we waved good-bye to our new friends as they drove back to school.

    

After lunch we had a couple of lectures by Dr. William Fowlds on “a day in the life of a wildlife veterinarian” and another on Rhino conservation and anti-poaching. It was very eye-opening to see how much of a problem rhino poaching is just for the sake of the horn!!  After 2012 over 3500 rhinos were poached, it is not just rhinos being poached but other wild animals such as lions and tigers for their bones, and elephants for their tusks. When these animals are all gone, where will it stop? It is not enough to just protect the animals and try to stop the poachers, we should be showing the consumers of the products what they are doing to the animals. There are a lot of videos online about this topic and if you are interested in saving a rhino’s life watch these videos, get educated, become aware and get involved!!! Lets save these magnificent animals from extinction!!!

We ended the day with a lovely meal provided to us by the staff at Amakhala and shortly after we were heading off to bed for an early night.

Good night everyone, Jessica! Stay safe and healthy.

This morning our entire group looked like zombies when we woke up due to the fact that the wind was blowing so hard last night that our tents were shaking. We were up for six to checks he sherman traps to see if there were any rodents in them. We caught two different species of rodents, a veil rat and multimammate mouse. After checking the rodents, we released them, and headed up for breakfast. During breakfast, I decided to take a nap at the table, but not long after moved to the couch in the common area where Ashley and I took a team nap. After the little bit of rest that we got, we went for a lecture.

The lecture this morning was on the impacts that elephants had and have on the vegetation over 10 years. It was given by Gareth, who does his research on the vegetation of different game reserves in South Africa.  After the lecture, David, Janine, Jessica, and I went on a drive throughout the reserve with Simone to collect some data for our projects. This experience was a bit tougher than I thought it was going to be, as collecting poop is a time dependent activity, due to the fact that shortly after it hit the ground, it bakes. So finding fresh stuff was difficult. While Maddie and Lenka were searching for herps (not what you might think), amphibians and reptiles; Ashley and Nikki had checked the Sherman traps. Everyone got a start on their projects’ making it a very productive morning, and eagerly waited for lunch, and then got back to our research.

After lunch, David, Ashley, Nikki and I were on “poop patrol” and went back out to the reserves to collect samples. Practice makes perfect because this time, poop was dropping and we went running when Simone deemed it was safe. We saw an elephant who thought she was separated from the parade, because she was on the other side of the river. She was running and calling for them and had to cross the river to be reunited. It was an great opportunity to experience elephant socialization. Lenka, Maddy and Jess collected information for their research projects. We then all got together to discuss tomorrow, which will be very exciting so you’ll have to stayed tuned to hear more about it!

Megan!