missing africa already although BC very nice, been here 2 nights / days, mind can't differentiate between the two yet - jet lag - don't know how the jet set cope glad i'm a simple african farmer. being in the first world - albeit briefly - a strange experience, everyone in a hurry, to do what? there's always noise, silence is a noise if you have experienced it.
looking forward to sunday we're off exploring to vancouver island and then on a tramp steamer round the coast.
mislaid my briefcase on the trolley in the car park on arrival full of everything vital, cash, tickets, camera, passport, driving license, new swarovski binos etc. within 1 hour RCMP had found a suspicious briefcase and returned it intact, now that wouldn't happen in africa!! thankyou Canada and the mounties could have been a bleak holiday.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
rhino sisters OUT!
Last Saturday was the big day, up as the sky reddened in the east. Carefully we opened the boma, the sisters huffed and puffed, mock charging us as we carefully removed the poles. Makes the adrenaline rush to have 4000 pounds of rhino 6 inches away from your head, relying on it to shy away from the flimsy barrier. They didn't rush out to freedom. After an hour of peering suspiciously through the gap they were tempted out by their stomachs, lucerne just outside. First, big sister strode out confused to be surrounded by space and freedom then little sister joined her. The small one seemed to give the big one confidence and with a quick snatched mouthful of lucerne they took off west in a cloud of dust.
3 hours later we followed to see where they had gone, they ran for about a mile then slowed to a leisurely gait feeding as they explored their new home they seemed calm so we left them, Sunday I looked again, they had drunk water at Seribe so my main worry satisfied, the Kalahari very dry at this time of year. Should be OK now, hoping they'll return soon to the house tempted by the lucerne.
Sorry about the photo quality - first time my camera has stuffed up!
Weather warmed up a bit last few days after some chilly days, Vicky and I are off to Vancouver for a month to see Ada, will be novel to be part of the First World again, not looking forward to the flight though.
Monday, July 16, 2007
president's day
long weekend in botswana
this means we're busy - just because we're 700 kms from civilisation don't assume we're lonely - we see more people than most.
came across a herd of 300+ eland yesterday, beautiful sight, unfortunately there were 9 big blue bulls skulking at the back of the herd and i spooked them, one ducked under the fence, amazing as they weight 800+ kgs and stand 2m at the shoulder, he went under the fence where wires 100mm apart and only broke one wire, seems impossible - houdini style. pity for him as there are only cattle that side so will be lonely. usually they try and come back so i expect to see him ambling on the outside of fence for a week or two. once kobus, the neighbour, finds him he will be biltong before you can say jack robinson.
the rhino sisters are still in the boma near the house, getting quite tame and have settled down to their diet of lucerne and seem to enjoy it. they're quite tidy and do all their business in one dung heap which is getting quite big now, not to mention smelly! i'm going to let them out on wednesday so will try the dung in the veggie patch, watch this space for giant carrots!
caught another cheetah last week, a young male - very pretty, the cheetah ladies came and took him away, we'll see how long until he's back.
i'm trying to create a ben richards wildlife trust, in memory of my son ben, with the aim of doing something meaningful for conservation, i'm trying to persuade the cheetah people to establish a proper reasearch facility on the property and also interested in doing something with black rhino. first step is to formulate proper terms of reference for the trust - it's essential that it is seen to be transparent and beyond suspicion and not just a commercial benefit for kanana. to do this we need a board of eminient and respected people - i'm working on this. any ideas?
this means we're busy - just because we're 700 kms from civilisation don't assume we're lonely - we see more people than most.
came across a herd of 300+ eland yesterday, beautiful sight, unfortunately there were 9 big blue bulls skulking at the back of the herd and i spooked them, one ducked under the fence, amazing as they weight 800+ kgs and stand 2m at the shoulder, he went under the fence where wires 100mm apart and only broke one wire, seems impossible - houdini style. pity for him as there are only cattle that side so will be lonely. usually they try and come back so i expect to see him ambling on the outside of fence for a week or two. once kobus, the neighbour, finds him he will be biltong before you can say jack robinson.
the rhino sisters are still in the boma near the house, getting quite tame and have settled down to their diet of lucerne and seem to enjoy it. they're quite tidy and do all their business in one dung heap which is getting quite big now, not to mention smelly! i'm going to let them out on wednesday so will try the dung in the veggie patch, watch this space for giant carrots!
caught another cheetah last week, a young male - very pretty, the cheetah ladies came and took him away, we'll see how long until he's back.
i'm trying to create a ben richards wildlife trust, in memory of my son ben, with the aim of doing something meaningful for conservation, i'm trying to persuade the cheetah people to establish a proper reasearch facility on the property and also interested in doing something with black rhino. first step is to formulate proper terms of reference for the trust - it's essential that it is seen to be transparent and beyond suspicion and not just a commercial benefit for kanana. to do this we need a board of eminient and respected people - i'm working on this. any ideas?
Friday, July 6, 2007
catching rhino
Some one read my blog!! Cheated really, but who cares - thanks Ada!
Had an exciting weekend 2 weeks ago, my mate -Larry "the vet" Patterson- caught and moved two young female rhino from Edo's camp to Kanana. Larry at 61 stalked the beasts armed with no more than a dart gun and from 10 metres darted them, then waited very quietly until the two ton rhino succembed to the drugs around 8 minutes. The larger managed to stand on my toe as we were shoving it into the crate, and it's true they weigh 4 x 500 kgs = 2 tons. The "girls" are sisters aged 6 and 4 and we now have 7, 5 females 1 lucky bull and a baby. The sisters are now in a boma next to our house, we want to habituate them hoping they will think of this as home and drink in our waterhole. We'll wait and see.
Been very cold recently, unfortunatley our thermometer broken so temp measured by thickness of ice on birdbath. Seems to me that weather more normal than recent years so hoping for good rain when time comes round.
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