Pictures!

Found Sabella!!!

Last night I saw a huge Baboon spider, and it was quite terrifying, especially since its in my room! Anyways, today was a great day! Woke up at 7 to start a long days search for Sabella the cheetah. We have been trying to track her using our telemetry for 2 weeks now, and haven’t had any luck finding her. Once we woke up, Alwyn had already received a call saying that Sabella is just by the main lodge, and that she had just killed a nice sized male Kudu. Once we got there, she had already left to get a drink of water somewhere, so we tracked her down. She had only eaten the rear end of the Kudu, so we knew she would be back. We finally found her just relaxing underneath a Shepard tree. We let her be for a few hours, and drove up to Kandoa Mountain to try and find the buffalo, but they were nowhere to be found. We drove back to our housing area, had some lunch, and then went to find Sabella again. We found her in a similar spot as last time, but while we were there, she walked about 6 feet away from us. It’s so amazing how habituated she is with people. She didn’t even flinch while I kept clicking pictures away at her. She walked back to her kill, and Alwyn was videoing some ranger next to Sabella, because he’s doing some Sabella diary to post their website since she is pregnant. Sabella wasn’t happy at all with how close they were getting… I’ll post the picture. They have about 8 or so cheetah on the property, and Sabella is the only one with a tracking collar on. The reason for the collar is so we can record what she eats, how much she eats, and are able to usually locate her quickly. They can then use this data to establish how many cheetahs are capable of living on the property, so that antelope species can still exist in healthy numbers. Anyways, it’s a lovely night here so I’m going to fetch some firewood for another braai!

Land Rehab Pics

Samara Land Rehab Day

Just got a couple of more volunteers at the program. They are two 17-year-old Alabama boys. They tend to only talk to themselves, but I’m working on getting them out of their shells. Today we did some land rehab, trying to make the water, that makes such terrible erosion down the hill sides, flow into areas that have shrubbery and rocks that will help seep up the water. We did this by tying two reeds together, and making a wall structure that will hopefully collect sediment/seeds, and push the water to a vegetated area. Alwyn, Drew and Michael worked on building a dame further down the gully, while I was given the privilege of planning and constructing the “reed” project! I had the two Alabama newbie’s, and two women that picked up small rocks to fill in gaps. After a few grueling hours of making these reed blockages, and making them work nicely with each other, the project was complete… at least in the small section I was assigned to do. Then a news reporter from Port Elizabeth came to check out the work we are doing. He interviewed Alwyn his dame project, and me about my “reed” project! He thought I was joking when I told him my name was Reed. I gave him my idea as to how this project is theoretically supposed to work, told him a bit about my background, he took a couple pictures, and that was that! Now I’m about to go on a little night drive, and hopefully find a caracal, genet, porcipine, and another aardvark! I can’t get enough of those things…

More Jeffreys Bay Pics

Back at Samara

Just got back from Jeffreys Bay! Had a great 3 day trip to the South East strip. Although the surf was only good for one of the days, Alwyn and I enjoyed our time hiking around the beach looking in tidal pools, walking through the town, and doing some fishing off the beach.

Jeffreys Bay Weekend Trip

Went to Jeffreys Bay for the weekend with Alywn, which is close to Port Elizabeth. Great waves for surfing, and did a little fishing as well. We were supposed to go back to Samara today, but Alwyn's car clutch in his car broke, so he's going to have it looked at tomorrow, because everything is closed down today. Camped out at night, and cruised around the town during the day. Tough lose for the USA soccer team. Everyone was cheering for Ghana which was annoying, but at least we got through the first stage! I'll post pictures once I get back to Samara, which should be tomorrow.

Day 10 Soccer Pics

Samara Day 11

Today was a very different, but fun day. Some of the England soccer coaches from different leagues came to Samara to have an all day soccer camp for 50 African kids that live in towns nearby. It was fun talking to them about England’s team in the World Cup, because they have been to all of their games, and have field access. Some of the coaches were from Arsenal, Everton, and other smaller teams that I have never heard of. They did drills with the kids in the morning, and then after lunch they had a World Cup tournament. I was playing around with this little boy named Ramario, who was the smallest out there, but one of the best. He was the man! I’ll put up a couple pictures of him. Tonight we are thinking about doing a night walk, because it’s almost a full moon. It’s so bright out when the moon is full, so that will be fun. I really want to see a leopard while I’m here, so hopefully tonight is the night!

Day 10 Pics

Samara Day 10

Well what can you say… Nothing beats USA winning in the final few minutes while everyone I sat with was cheering for Algeria! I was so depressed the entire game, while USA tried to score endless times… I swear the refs have something against America. Anywho… Today we drove up on the top of the mountain and tried to find Sabella, but still no luck… It’s crazy… There are 8 cheetahs on the property, and I’ve only seen Sabella once, the first day I came here. While we were on top of Kondoa mountain, we saw lots of black wildebeest, blesbok, and cape mountain zebra. The male wildebeest are very territorial, so they make these funny noises that sound like a diesel truck getting started… it’s comical. Once we got back to the housing quarters, we all sat down getting ready for the USA match, and of course there was an England fan who had to ask me to switch back and forth to the England match while I was preying for a USA goal. Anyways, I am super pumped that USA has moved to the 2nd round… it gives me entertainment in the World Cup! I’m going to try and get to a USA game now! Go USA!

Samara Day 9

Today I woke up to cloudy skies, and it was like that all day. I decided to go into the closest town (30km away) Graff-Reinet to get some sweat pants and a sweat shirt to relax in at night, as well as some hot sauce to put on everything I eat here. The food choices aren’t favorable for me, but I manage to get by with some green pepper, cheese, and hot sauce sandwiches… and the Kudu patties aren’t too bad either. I gave some homeless man in Graff-Reinet 8 rand (which is like 1 American dollar), and it made his day, and mine as well! The town is small, but seemed nice and friendly. Once we got back to Samara, we had to fix a tire that popped from one of those crazy thorns that are everywhere here. After that, Alwyn and I went on a mammal survey drive, since everyone else wanted to relax in the dry house, and we saw a large group of meercats, some mongoose, eland, kudu, vervet monkeys, baboon, and some batted ear fox (which are rare to see, so I hear). I’m about to watch the South Africa soccer game versus France, so I have to put on my jersey and support them for 90 minutes. I’m more excited about the later game when Greece takes on Argentina. I hope my Grekas can make it a game!

Samara Day 7 Pics!

Michael, the USA hater, is on the top... He's grown on me though.. Just a funny pic

Day 8 Samara

Today one of the rangers wanted us to brush-pack a water hole, because the edges of the water hole were way over grazed. We had to cut down a lot of prickly pear trees (see thorn pic) and pack them around the edge of the water hole, so that no animals can come to this water hole, and force them to graze elsewhere. The thorns on these trees are ridiculously big, and cut the hell out of my arms. It was a long and tedious process, but the job got completed. After that we came back to our living area and watched a bit of the World Cup soccer while we had some lunch. The food options are different from American food, that’s for sure. They have this meat called “Ass” meat, which I guess stands for assortment meat, which doesn’t particularly appeal to me. Instead, I made a pepper and cheese sandwich, put it on this sandwich toaster, added a bit of hot sauce, and had a lovely lunch. They call a toasted sandwich a “snackwich.” I’ve also learned a little bit of Afrikan, a language spoken by almost all Africans. I know I’m butchering the spelling, but I know that “Buy-a-donkey” means thank you very much, and “Laquir” means awesome, sweet, or cool! I’m still learning… We just got back from a nice sundown drive. Saw another aardvark, and lots of baboon that were barking at us to claim their territory. Now we are about to have another braai (cookout) and enjoy this lovely evening. Until tomorrow!

Our Living Quarters & Hangout Room

Samara Day 7

Today was a very very long day! We woke up at 6:30, had breakfast at 7, and left our sector of the preserve at 7:30. Our goal of the day was to track down Sabella on top of Kandoa Mountain located within the Samara’s property. The mountain was ~1400 meters, and it was quite a steep hike. Once we reached the top it was a spectacular view! The top of the mountain is a terrain completely different from anywhere on the property. It’s a grassland that continues on for miles. I saw my first black wildebeest which was awesome, and I saw a heard of nearly 30 of them. We also saw some Gemsbok, Mountain zebra, and steenbok. Our search for Sabella was a long one. We looked all through out the valley for her, and got a good signal on her at one point, but we never got a visual on her. Alwyn thinks she may be on the cliff side of the mountain, waiting patiently to stalk her next prey. I still think she’s giving birth to her cubs now, but no one else agrees… We ended up getting back our housing quarters at 4:30, and our 10+ mile walk has left my feet looking like science project. This is definitely good training for Mt. Kilimanjaro. Also, one of our new volunteers, a man by the name of Michael, has been knocking Americans for the last day, and I’ve held my ground. He hopes the USA World Cup team doesn’t make it to the next round, because Obama said he would come to South Africa to watch the 2nd round if we got past the first round. He claims this would be a serious security issue for the South African police, which it probably would, but now I’m pulling for our Americans even more! GO USA!

Samara Day 6

Weekends are supposedly our off time to do whatever we want; however, we just got a new group of volunteers in, so Alwyn wanted to show them around the property, and show them the different projects we are working on. We looked for Sabella the cheetah again, and couldn't find her. A ranger on the property said he picked up a signal when he directed his tracker towards the mountain, so we are going to hike up there tomorrow and see if we can't track her down. I just got back from a little night drive and we saw a huge male rhino and its young calf, as well as another aardvark! I love the aardvark now, they're just like a HUGE rat or something. They are so skittish, so I had to slowly creep up on it to get a decent picture. We also saw a cool zebra skull today, which Alwyn brought back to put in his miniature garden. Like always, another amazing sunset. I think I'll just take a sunset picture every night and just make an album of them at the end!

Samara Day 5

Today we woke up at 7:30 (1:30am at home) and began to look for the cheetah named Sabella. She is a cheetah that was brought in by the Samara program because she was treated poorly at another previous reserve. They put a collar on her so she can now be tracked, to study her predation habits, foraging range, and mating habits. Unfortunately we couldn’t find her today. Alwyn thinks she either went down in the valley or the south side, and that’s why we couldn’t pick up a signal on her (Drew in the picture). We are going to look down in the southern part of the property tomorrow. Sabella seems to be pregnant as well, and the gestation period is only a few months, so hopefully I came just at the right time and will be able to observe her cubs. Apparently Sabella went up in the mountains last time she gave birth, so perhaps she is there now! After we gave up on the cheetah hunt, we went on a long walk through out the property. We saw an aardvark, which are the coolest and strangest looking things that I may have ever seen, but of course my camera was in my backpack, and once I pulled it out it went back into its burrow. We also saw a HUGE male Kudu that was not phased by our presence, even when we were less than 5 meters from him. Weather is amazing now, with not cloud in the sky. It is supposed to be like this for at least a week! Excited for our braai and star watching tonight. The stars are amazing here!

Alwyn and Hayley