Day 1 on camp

Natasha got up at 6:30 as she and the others who were already here had to get up early and work on the observation shelter. Opened my eyes and thought it must be midday, the sun was up and it was already quite hot. I got up at about 8 and had a shower, which by the way is like one of the best inventions EVER and we definitely take it for granted.
All us new volunteers had a tour of the camp with Dave and a couple of lectures about animal ID. He also explain how camp duties work. Just had lunch and now chilling in my room (as it's about 37° in the shade). Think I shall spend the afternoon in the pool.

 

 

8:30 pm we left for our first night drive, looking for nocturnal animals from bush babies to different types of cats to hyenas. It was one of the most relaxing, almost liberating things I have ever done. Perfect temperature with a slight chill when driving fast but after a super hot day it's pretty awesome. The sky is completely clear with soooooooo many stars and a really bright full moon. We actually drove for 3 hours but it didn't seem that long as you've got to keep your eyes peeled at all time in case you spot any eye shine (reflexion off of some animals eyes, we have a huge spot light). We saw quite a few bush babies hopping from branch to branch like huge fury frogs, a wild cat, 2 civets, about 50 pairs of crocodile eyes at the waterhole (luckily we were quite far away), Mozambican night jars (and other birds but I can't remember all the names yet), lots of impala and other types of antelope and my first elephant ( to be fair it was so dark I could only see the outline but it was still there). Got back to camp and fell asleep almost straight away.