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!