25.06.07 Confessions of a Reluctant Bushgirl

Good morning. I'm now at the start of my 4th week staying in the South African bush. I'm staying at a small game farm about 14km outside of the town of Hoedspruit at the foot of the North Drakensberg mountain range. Its real Boer country - a small town surrounded by game reserves, lodges and fruit farms. Its not far from the Kruger National Park. The views of the mountains are spectacular and very dramatic against the otherwise flat landscape and blue sky.

What I'm doing is not voluntary work - this was always going to be what I thought of as the self-indulgent phase of my trip. At the farm I'm learning about conservation and the bush, doing some practical work on the farm and a fair bit of riding. The farm is owned by a lady called Millie, and run by her, her daughter and 2 girls from the UK who stay here. There are only 7 "students" at the moment; some leave in a week's time and more are arriving. Accommodation is a small wood and reed hut which does v little to keep out the cold, and it is cold cold cold. This morning it was 6c. Sometimes during the day it is over 30c so the variation is hard to cope with. I certainly sleep in significantly more clothes than I wear during the day. I don't know how I'd cope if I hadn't got an extra blanket with me. I think I mentioned the cold showers before - they are still cold, but it is sometimes amazing having a hot shower and looking up and seeing the Southern Cross directly above.

Its not quite what I expected as I thought I was coming to a bigger, more commercial operation, but its quite a mellow life. I've learned a lot about the bush, animals, birds and insects and also how to fire an air rifle (I'm not as bad a shot as you would think!). On the farm there are zebra, giraffe (including one v pregnant female who is due to drop any day), kudu, wildebeest, impala, warthog, porcupines, civets and at least one honey badger (not cute - raging psycho mass killers of the African bush). There are also loads of squirrels, birds and mongooses who visit the kitchen regularly for snacks. My day usually starts with taking the horses out at 7.30. There are 8 of them, and if we just put them into the paddock it only takes 15 mins between all of us. Sometimes we'll have a lecture before brekkie or go and brush pack or dig something while its still cool. Brekkie is 9 - 10 and after we'll ride, or have a lecture or go for a bush walk. Lunch is 12 - 2 (it was until 3 until one woman complained about being bored) and then we'll either do another activity - ride, walk or work. The horses go in at about 4.30 and then we can chill. On hot water days I'll shower in the afternoon. On cold water days I'll face it at lunch times, but generally I'm completely mucky and am not that bothered as there is no point. Bed is very early as by 8pm it is just too cold to stay up and there is nowhere warm to sit as there's nothing indoors.

The riding is going fine in some ways but I'm still very nervous. I did take some photos but I forgot to bring in my camera this morning. Pictures of me in jodhpurs are not really that exciting anyway. To be honest, none of the horses are really suitable for beginners or nervous riders, which makes it hard, and the instruction is not great. Sophie - the instructer in Zim was way better. I haven't fallen off since the first day, but I think I'm so conscious of hurting my back again that sometimes I find it hard to enjoy myself.

Despite being a bit bored I'm enjoying it although I think with the benefit of experience and hindsight I would have chosen to do something different with my time. I've decided I will cancel my 3rd month here (which is due to be in September) as I think I would be really bored. The course is essentially a 4 week thing so once you've done it once that's enough. In my second month here I can spend the time the others are in lectures doing research on a topic of my choice which I'm sure I'll enjoy. I reckon I'll also spend a fair bit of time working on plans for the charity, which will be good as given the short evenings its been harder than I thought to sit down and do anything meaningful.

As always with being on a game reserve you don't see a huge amount of town life. We did go to a local game fair/auction last week. Loads of game was up for sale, but not much was sold as there is a drought. There was the usual tat for sale, some great looking handbags of indeterminate animal skin and a stall that sold nothing but biltong. The Afrikaaners have in common with the Chinese that fact that they seem to eat anything that moves. The attendees at the game farm were mostly white; some blacks were there (who weren't cleaners) but I only saw a very few kids mix. Very few. Apart from that I got a sense of an uneasy truce. Of the limited contact I've had with local people here (white), they say some things that I find fundamentally shocking, but my experience is limited and all I can take a view on is what I've seen and heard.

Quite often at night we get "visitors" at the camp - of the 4-legged variety. Sometimes they seem to be incredibly close and this morning a kudu was only 1 metre away. About 2 mornings ago I got very excited when I saw what looked like interesting new hoof prints between my hut and the little hut has that has the loo & shower in it. I ran to get one of the others to see if she could identify the tracks. Kate looked a bit puzzled and then told me that they were prints of the back bits of my trainers. How embarrassing! Never mind. We really do get proper visitors though, and quite often the giraffe are v close to camp.

I've been reading loads of the trashy novels that there are in the bookshelf at camp (no, not Dan Brown, I'm not that desparate. Yet.) I re-read Born Free having had time with lions, which was an interesting perspective. I've also become slightly addicted to a crossword puzzle book I bought in Malelane when Jaco and Maria took me shopping before bringing me to Hoedspruit. Kate is also now addicted but most other people are keeping their distance, and only chipping in every now and then. We find that a couple of drinks helps the process, and they are so obscure that we are cheating constantly but we have done about 45 of them in 2 weeks. There are only another 70 odd to go so we are looking for another book as we both have a further 5 weeks at the project. I've got a sudoku book which I'm going to look at as well. I think I'm turning into a geek.

My other confession of the morning is my status as an RLV. This stands for (oh, I'm so glad I'm far away while I'm saying this) Recently Lapsed Vegetarian. I suppose to be honest, its not that recent anymore as I first faltered in Zim but its taken me this long to get together the courage to own up. As you would expect from a good Jewish girl (ha!) my downfall was bacon. Since then I've eaten chicken (ok), ham (ok), turkey (spat it out - horrible), lamb (ditto) and a frankfurter (revolting concept but tasted ok). I keep thinking of my big sis who's going to kill me for all those years of making separate dinners for me. I don't think I'm ever going to be a raging carnivore, or eat red meat, or eat anything shrink-wrapped from a supermarket, but I suspect my downfall is complete. So, sorry sis, but I still don't want turkey for Xmas dinner, but maybe I won't be so much hard work!

Yesterday we went to a reptile park, which although small is apparently quite famous. I did hold a couple of snakes. The first was tiny and I coped OK. We saw some black mambas being fed live mice and fed a lizard, a chameleon and a big fat iguana, which I thought was v cute. I then also held a scorpion (the non-dangerous variety), and a spider. Yes, a spider. A big, brown, hairy, live, babboon spider. There is a picture to prove this but its on someone else's camera and she forgot hers too, so you'll have to wait for that treat. It took me a good few attempts before I managed to hold it and I only lasted about 30 seconds or so, but hey. After that we got the chance to hold a large-ish rock python but by that time I was slightly freaked and couldn't cope with this one as it was quite wriggly. I suppose its all about pushing boundaries!

That's about if for this morning. I could confess to missing home comforts as well at the moment, but then you'd think I'm a complete wooss (sp?) so I won't say anymore. I definitely cope better with being too hot than too cold.

I will try very hard to remember to bring the camera next week.

18.06.07 Apology

Sorry, I've run out of time to do a proper update this week. All is well. I promise I'll do it next week.

11.06.07 Update from South Africa

This is just a quickie to let you know I've arrived at the South Africa project safe and well. The remainder of my time in Mozambique was spent with Jaco and Maria and then they were so incredibly kind as to drive me down to Hoedspruit (the town near where my project is) via 3 days in Kruger park. Amazing people.

The new project is not quite what I expected - its a small farm with 9 horses and some land with kudu, impala, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, a porcupine, loads of mad birds and various other creatures that visit from neighbouring reserves. I'm learning loads about the bush and I've ridden 3 or 4 times so far and even with that I'm sure I'm a bit better. I've only come off once, and honestly it was only a gentle slide off. Its riding - its bound to happen! The other unexpected thing is how unbelievably cold it is. It gets down to about 5c at night and by 8.30pm it is just too cold to do anything other than go to bed! It does get up to 30c ish during the day but I'm struggling to cope with the cold. Oh, and there are cold showers apart from Monday Wednesday and Friday. On the cold days washing is on a need to know basis only as it is just unbearable! Thankfully my hair is long enough to plait. Do you want a pic of me in pigtails - it is very funny! And why is it that the grey hairs are the ones that escape most? Anyway, enough of that nonsense - you can tell the cold has got to my brain.

I will update more next week - I get into town on Monday mornings so plan your emails for then. Thank you all for this week's bunch - it is lovely to hear from people. And thanks for your comments and support for my fundraising effort for the Mozambique orphans, especially to Liz McRobb, who is just being awesome.