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?