My South African Travels, Day Three

Day 3

Like I said in closing the last post, my group all woke up between 1 and 2 AM the first night at camp. I was fortunate enough to be on the later side of that. I wish I had known that everyone was awake, because I probably would have gone outside and partied with them. And by that, I mean lamented the fact that I was not still asleep.

It was a horrible feeling, watching the hours tick away and knowing that I had to get up at 4:45. I begged myself to go back to sleep, but it just did not happen. Around 3 AM I received a text from my roommate back home, letting me know that Chica, Sienna, and Ramses were all doing well. I texted with her for a little while (nevermind the $0.50/text thing), because it was nice to know that I wasn't the only one awake (even though it was only 8 PM her time).

At 4:45, I heard Rebecca get up, so I climbed out of bed as well. I then discovered that she had also been awake for the last several hours. We did the obligatory complaining about it being so early, but we gamely got ready, even did our make up, and went out to meet the group for breakfast at 5:30. We got to know another participant that came for the course separate from our group- Kim, from Denmark. He is the veterinarian at the Knuthenborg Safari Park, and he was a fun guy to hang out with.

Around 6 AM, we were loading up on the bus to head to the game park where the injured rhino had been sighted. We arrived much earlier than Cobus and Derik, so we got out of the bus at the entrance to the park (which is very restricted on who can enter) and walked around, taking pictures of things to keep ourselves entertained. We could see some zebras way down the road in the park, so I played with the zoom on my camera to see how the pictures would turn out:

Just out for a stroll.

The vets arrived, and we all climbed back into the van and set off down the road, pausing as we passed the same group of zebras:

Bonus wildebeest in the background.

We reached a meet-up point, where we met a bunch of guys, and a bunch of dogs. One of the groups of guys and dogs was led by Conrad, a super awesome James Bond-esque guy. Basically, he patrols for poachers, and he takes care of them when he finds them. His dog teams are trained for poacher hunting.

"Don't put your hands through the bars, they'll bite." Dually noted!

Basically, Conrad has the coolest job ever, and if we had poachers here in the USA, I would definitely want his job. He had two guys training under him (Vincent and Connor), one of which (Vincent) had a dog he was currently training, and the other of which (Connor) was getting two German Shepherd puppies that afternoon. Eeee! He was really excited but really sad because he had just gotten new, fluffy carpet. He knew it was not going to last long with little pups.

I don't know the name of the other guy who had dogs, but his dogs were trained to track wildlife. They were gorgeous, and we were allowed to pet/play with them.

Sup?

In fact, one group of vets got to ride in the back of the truck with them as we careened through the brush, trying not to fall on them.

After Cobus and Derik located the rhino, Rebecca, Kim, Connor, Vincent, Dr. Logan and I loaded up in the back of Conrad's truck, and everyone else loaded up into the pointer's truck, and we took off through the back country to find their coordinates. Eventually Conrad parked and said we would go on foot the rest of the way. At this point we met up with a bunch of other people who came out of nowhere, and I'm still not really sure who they were. One of them was a girl in a skirt and flip-flops who said that this was not part of the plan when she was dressing that morning.

We ended up trekking all through the bush trying to locate the darted and downed rhino. Rebecca and I freaked out the whole time about the ticks that were probably crawling all over us. Never mind the fact that the Black Mamba, one of the most venomous snakes, lives in the vicinity, and also never mind the fact that there were lions, leopards, and other predators out there. My #1 worry was ticks. I'm such a girl.

Some of what we crawled through.

We soon realized that not everybody had to disembark their vehicle to reach the rhino when we were passed by the other truck carrying the rest of our party. I think some fist-shaking was exchanged.

We finally found the rhino:

Conveniently blindfolded

She had been gored in her leg by an overly amorous male rhino (I just typed "whino" and it's probably the truth).

Ouch.

While some of our people cleaned out and packed the wound, I joined Conrad in pouring water on her (safer) back end to keep her cool:

Me: "SO COOL SO COOL!"

While I was minding my own business taking care of that end, Derik walked over to me and handed me a needle, syringe, and bottle of fluid.

Me, in a panic: "What do you want me to do with this?" ~to anybody who would listen~
Derik: "Give her an IM injection right here."
Me: "...um, ok, well I'm not a vet, and I've never given an injection in my life, so..."
Someone (my head was going fuzzy), either Derik, Conrad or Kim: "It's easy! You just have to jab the needle in because their skin is so tough, and then push the syringe really hard to get the contents in."
[Derik demonstrating how to jab the needle in]
Me: "Ok. Ok. Ok. So, just throw the needle in here [does so]..."
[chorus] "Good job! Just like that!"
Me: "...and then push the syringe in... [struggles even while using both hands and all of my body weight]"

Fortunately, they were all super patient with me and then very positive about my work. And the rhino didn't die, so I guess it was a success. Annnnd Conrad had me give another injection later, which was super kind of him.

Not to brag, but my first injection was on a rhinoceros.

They had to get the rhino turned over shortly afterwards to get to another leg that had an injury, which was a feat in itself. After a lot of huffing and puffing, they finally managed. I mostly stayed back and held a tree out of the way during the straining to get her turned over.

I'm not sure what I missed, but suddenly Cobus announced that he was waking the rhino up and we had 10 seconds to collect all of the equipment and get out of there. I grabbed the nearest box of stuff and ran for the truck... only to find out that I had run to the wrong truck. I then had to run for the other truck, which was in a different direction, and the entire time I ran I imagined I was about to get run over by a dazed and confused rhino, seeking revenge for my needle practice sessions. But, I made it and discovered that the rhino was still in the process of getting to her feet. We stayed and watched her get up, shake herself off, and walk off. It was just awesome.

We got back to our rendezvous point, where I drank ice cold water that was offered to me out of a random plastic bucket, not caring a) where it had come from or b) who had already had a drink of it. It was HOT, and I was dehydrated. I would have gotten a drink from Crocodile River at that point, wildebeest style, I was so thirsty.

As we are standing around talking about our experience, I turned around, and lo and behold, there was an elephant standing a short distance away, drinking from a small pond. We all excitedly loaded up and drove over nearby it so we could take a million pictures.

"What's all this then?"

"Seriously, have you never seen a guy drink?"

The elephant walked off, and we headed back for the road. On the way out, we were treated to the sight of baboons and impalas running through the grass.

 

 

Babies!

And some giraffes in the distance:

Upon our arrival back at home, we were greeted by one of the resident giraffes hanging out by the road.

Follow me to freedom!

Portrait of a Giraffe

Come at me, bro!

We finished the evening with lasagna and a trip to see a rescued baby giraffe currently staying at the camp's facilities, followed by some classroom time for the veterinarians.

I promise that she isn't a stuffed animal.

I'd like to think that she (the giraffe) and I shared a bonding moment at one point that week- she was really scared, and I managed to coax her to walk up to within about 2 feet of me- but it was ruined when I stuck my hand out in an attempt to touch her. COME BACK AND LET ME LOVE YOU!

Day 3 was an exciting start to our course week. I look back and cannot believe how much we packed into the week, let alone the fact that we got to start with a member of the Big Five (aka the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Other members are the lion, leopard, elephant, and Cape buffalo).

Nets, wrestling, and helicopters. There's lots more to come tomorrow- we're only getting warmed up!

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My South African travels

So, as you may have gathered from previous posts, I went to South Africa for a veterinary continuing education course. And it was awesome.

 

Can't you just hear the Lion King music?

"Why did you go on a veterinary course?" you may ask. "When did you become a veterinarian?" No worries, you did not miss a life changing decision where I decided to scrap the publishing thing and go to vet school instead. I merely went on this trip as the continuing education office's liaison, to be around in case of any problems and to be the keeper of the office credit card (the power...). I decided to make the most of the opportunity and participate as much as they would let me.

Day 1

My group consisted of 11 people including myself. There were 9 veterinarians, me, and a husband of a veterinarian who went along as our personal photographer/videographer. Three vets, Jim, Linda, and Rebecca, were from the college, and the rest, John-Ed, Pat, William, Tom, Stephen, and Sue and her husband Heath, were from around Texas and Oklahoma. We all met up in the terminal at Houston Intercontinental, which was a little difficult since most of us did not know what the others looked like. I casually walked past a group of people that seemed to be introducing themselves and, upon overhearing the word "Africa", decided to dive in and see if they were part of my group. Fortunately, they were. I was also stalking a man that was dressed all in khaki, and it turned out he was with us, too. Everyone somehow congregated together before boarding, which was a relief.

If you have ever flown to Europe, you know approximately half of the suffering that was endured on the 20 hour flight. When we landed in Amsterdam, my foolish first thought was, "That flight wasn't so bad; we just have one more of those and then we're there!" On the flight to the Nederlands, I had Rebecca and Stephen to talk to, and I did not sleep at all, in spite of it being an over night flight. On the flight to Johannesburg, however, I sat next to a lady that I'm pretty sure did not speak any English, and my multiple attempts to sleep all resulted in me doing that annoying head bob where your head falls and you wake yourself up (and look around embarrassed). I will say, however, the meals (I had beef and potatoes, cheese and crackers, salad and a chocolate dessert for one meal, smoked almonds in between, a pastrami sandwich for lunch, and chicken and rice with couscous and chocolate mousse as my other dinner meal) and the free alcohol on our KLM flights were very good. We were even given fruit, rolls, muffins, and breakfast sandwiches in addition to the other food, and ice cream was served at one point as well. I highly recommend KLM for your future travel needs!

By the time we landed in Johannesburg (or Jo-burg as it is affectionately referred to by locals and frequent visitors), our group was exhausted. After exchanging our US dollars for some South African Rand, we made our way through the airport to the attached hotel, and it was at this point that I got a little nervous. It was late, there were not many people in the airport, and there were a lot of soldiers walking about. But, we made it to the hotel and checked in, and everyone was paired off to their rooms. Rebecca, Stephen and I decided we were hungry, however, so we went back into the airport to a 24 hour diner called Mugg & Bean. Pat later showed up as well. 40R (~$5) got me a slice of delicious chocolate mousse cake and a bottle of distilled water. We ate and made it back to our rooms without incident.The rooms were nice, although the two single beds were pushed together into a mega bed, which was a little funny and awkward.

I fell asleep and slept all through the South African night with no jet lag problems... bringing us to:

Day 2

Sunday morning we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. A bus operated by CityBug picked us up at noon, and we headed for our home for the next week: Ngongoni Game Farm in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, about 4 hours away (more information about our destination and the work they do can be found here). About halfway to our destination, we stopped at Alzu Petrochemicals, a gas station that had a convenience store in it and pastures of cape buffalo, zebras, antelope, a rhino, and emus behind it. We fondly called it "the zoo" since that was all we could make out of the native Afrikaner bus driver's pronunciation of "Alzu". Not feeling very adventurous about the different things on the menu inside the station, I had basically a grilled cheese sandwich, as did Rebecca. Here we encountered our first language barrier: Rebecca asked the girl behind the counter what kind of cheese came on the cheese sandwich. The dialogue followed like this:

Cashier: "You want a cheese and mayo sandwich?"
Rebecca: "No, what kind of cheese is on the cheese sandwich?"
Cashier: "Ok. One tomato and cheese sandwich."
Rebecca: "No! I just want to know what kind of cheese is on it?"
Cashier: "So you want a bacon and cheese sandwich."
Rebecca: "Just a plain cheese sandwich, please."

I'm pretty sure, from the look she was given upon receiving her sandwich, that perhaps proper sanitary practices were not followed with her food.

We loaded back up in the bus and headed for our farm. However, we had to stop for road construction, and we were allowed to get out and walk around.

My first pic in Africa!

Our stop did not take as long as expected and, shortly after, we were at the gate to our game farm. I'd like to take a moment here to relay my experience with South African drivers: they are on a mission when they drive, and that mission is to get to where they are going as quickly as possible. No matter what type of vehicle they are driving, no matter how good or bad the road is, and no matter how many screams of terror elicit from the backseat. We turned onto a dirt road before reaching Ngongoni, and it didn't matter. We flew over it, jack hammering in our seats the whole way. At one point we shot around a slower vehicle in our luggage-trailer-towing van, and someone in the back yelled "Off the road, lightweight!" It was quite an experience.

Upon entering the farm, we immediately saw a monkey sitting under a tree, and then shortly afterwards, we found a giraffe off to the side eyeballing us. We had to stop and take a million pictures, as any tourist would. Unfortunately I was still messing with the settings on my camera, so the best picture I could get was this:

"What? I'm trying to eat here!"

We continued on up the long, steep driveway, and finally the brush cleared away and we could see our accommodations. We were greeted by Jan, or Poemie, as everyone called him, who showed us to our rooms. Rebecca and I roomed together in a 2 bedroom hut with a thatched roof. It had concrete walls and a concrete floor and three beds total- a queen in Rebecca's and two twins in mine. My suitcase slept on one of them the whole time. Apparently there was a lizard living in the hut as well, since every morning I found reptile poop on my made bed.

Home away from home

Walkways to other huts and to the dining/bar area... so pretty when lit up at night!

Walkway to fire pit and Sue and Heath's hut

 
After getting our stuff into our rooms, Rebecca and I, tired of being cooped up in planes and buses, decided to go for a run on the farm. If I had the ability to run out there all the time, with the mountains all around me and the possibility of coming across exotic wildlife ever present, I would run every day. It was so beautiful, and even the steepness of the slope we were running up was overlooked because of the excitement of being there. We did not see any of the resident giraffes, wildebeest, or impalas while running, which was probably for the best- I'm not sure what we would have done should one of them have decided to give chase. We did see paw prints, some of which looked pretty predatory. There was a thunderstorm rolling in in the distance over the mountains, which was just awesome to see.

We got back to our hut and cleaned up for dinner, and the people who ran the lodge, Michelle and Garan, treated us spectacularly well. They made us a traditional South African dinner called "Potjie" that was like a chicken and veggie stew- it was DELICIOUS. My only regret is that I did not eat more of it. There was also a wonderful butternut squash soup and melk tert for dessert.

We met many people at dinner- Cobus, who is a veterinarian that owns Ngongoni Game Farm and who worked with us the entire time, Derik, a veterinarian that works for Cobus and lives out at Ngongoni and who did a wonderful job teaching us as well, Michelle's adorable daughters, who were fun to hang out with, in addition to too many other people to name. I learned from talking with Poemie and Derik that baboons use part of the ranch as a pathway up and down the mountain, which, I'm not going to lie, terrified me a little. We never saw or heard them while we stayed, but how incredible!

Cobus informed us that we would be tending to an injured rhino the next morning, so we would be eating breakfast at 5:30 AM and then heading out at 6 AM. I can't say that everyone was exactly thrilled to get up so early, but since it was for a rhino, we all willingly went to bed early, excited for our new adventure. Unfortunately, every single one of us woke up between 1 and 2 AM that morning and stayed awake for the rest of the night, due to jet lag. It made it that much easier to go to bed the next night!

I'm going to end this post here, since that was already a lot for just the first two days! I don't want to leave out a single detail, however. Day 3 to come along shortly!

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Africa pics, part 2!

I've loved watching everyone from my group upload their pictures over the last week since we returned. Here are a few more faves (photo credit to Heath Culp of Poodledog Productions):

Dr. Culp, Dr. Sayre and I enjoying our trip

Dr. Sayre and I discussing giraffe blood while off-roading it

Please tell me this is my future home. Please?

Getting our game faces on to tackle some blesbok

Removing blesbok from nets to transport them to another farm

Our vets and pilot discussing how to flush out the black wildebeest

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Africa pics!

In an effort to procrastinate my homework as much as possible, I give you a few of my (so far) favorite Africa pictures! Details to follow :)

All pics taken with a Canon SX50X.

Playing vet to a baby Eland

Spraying ticks on the Eland

Baby giraffe

Rare wild dog

Cape buffalo enjoying breakfast

She was a little unsure of us

Chameleon found on the side of the road

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

This hyena knows what you did last summer

Mountain sunset

How kind of these giraffes to pose!

Getting ready to tackle some crocodiles

Goes to Africa, plays with horses

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Adventures in my future home, South Africa

No worries, by "future home" I don't mean that I'm going to up and move there tomorrow. Or ever, even. I just hope that God takes my recommendation to make heaven look like this certain little piece of South Africa that I spent some time in last week.

Eastern South Africa, near Mozambique, is incredibly beautiful. Part of it, near Johannesburg, actually reminded me a lot of south Texas (not the incredibly beautiful part), but as you move further east, you start to get into mountains, and it looks similar to Colorado. One of the game farms we worked on was situated in a valley, surrounded by mountains. There was a river, complete with a waterfall, running through it. There were hay fields and wilds and surrounding the main house was a huge grove of pine trees. It was amazingly breath taking... and the government has taken it over to subdivide it into farm plots. Tragic.

We were there to remove all of the game and relocate it to other farms before the government completely took ownership. This included impalas, zebras, black wildebeest, red hartebeest, and blesebok. There were even three domestic horses in an adjacent pasture... I'm not sure who they belonged to, but they were very interested in the goings on.

I will write more about everything we did in another post and include lots of pictures, but first I must consult my diary notes that I made each day. I just want to say that this trip was fantastic, and I am so blessed to have been able to go.

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Something we don't like to talk about...

...or think about, really: our wills. The legal kind, mind you. Not, like, the will to live. Or to not eat all of the chocolate chip cookies.

Mmmm, cookies.

With my trip to Africa less than a month away (!!!), the fate of my animals, should anything happen to me overseas, has been heavy on my mind. So, I did what any normal, not at all morbid girl would do: I sent a random email to my mom that started off with, "In the event of my death..." No, not really. But basically.

A little over 3 years ago, I did the same thing, after a girl I was boarding with wrecked and died driving home from the barn. I sent instructions to my mother on who she could farm out my animals to, should something happen to me. At the time, I had a much more varied collection of species than I do now, and a lot of the list went like this: "See if so-and-so wants ___. If not, try so-and-so. If they're a no too, then do this." The snakes and lizards were actually the easiest to determine who they went to. The horse and the cat were the hardest.

A lot has changed since then, so I decided I needed to make an updated list that covered my newer additions- namely, a Corgi and a Paint horse.

In the event that something did happen to me, I'm sure my family would keep Romeo and Ramses. That being said, I know they would not keep the horses, as none of them are horse people, and I am pretty sure they would not be interested in the little Duracell battery that is Fiona.

But I'm so cute!

I knew immediately who I would want Chica to go to- I have some friends that I met while boarding that now have their own land, and honestly, I don't think anyone would appreciate and love her more than they would. The wife is always praising Chica and constantly teasing me about letting Chica go to her real home. They have other horses, a cow, and various other livestock. They are very nice people and treat their animals very well. In fact, in talking them up so much, I feel like I should just drive over and deliver Chica to them now.

"A place where I can just frolic and eat? Sign me up!"

If they didn't want or could not take her, then I have several friends that I know would give Chica a wonderful place to live out her golden years. I told my mom that I want her to stay "in the family"- that is, in the horse family. Especially now that she's older and has navicular. She does not deserve to end up neglected in a field somewhere.

Sienna could be sold, as that was always the plan with her. I gave my mom a short list of her abilities and the kind of person she would be wonderful for. With a name like Too Shy To Unzip, I'm sure she has a bright future ahead of her.

Not amused.

 That leaves Fiona. I do not know what would happen to my little Corgi, and that makes me truly sad. I have a couple of friends that might take her, but the list is short- and a home for her might have to be found outside the realm of people we know if my parents decided to not keep her. I was sure to include in my email that if someone took her, they could only have her on the agreement that she never went to a shelter- if that happened, I would haunt them as long as they lived. Like, poltergeist, throw stuff across the room haunt them. I am bonded to all of my animals in different ways, but Fiona is the first dog I've had that was MY dog. She snuggles with me at night, she prefers me to other people, and I cannot leave the room without her bolting after me like she's missing out on something. Meanwhile, Romeo puts himself to bed in the other room around 8:00 PM. I know he's my boy and he would defend me to the end, but there's something about a dog whose main drive in life is to be with you every second that she can. I think she (followed by Ramses) would have the hardest time adjusting to new people/life without me. The three days I was in New Orleans last year that she stayed with my parents were apparently rough for all involved- and then I came home, and she crawled into my lap and fell asleep- the first time she had actually relaxed the entire time she had been there, according to my parents.

"Should I be concerned?"

This is a sad subject, and I have definitely teared up, wondering what would happen to my babies if something happened to me. I don't know why I felt the need to write a post about it, other than to remind everyone- we don't know how long we're here for. Those of us that have animals especially need to be cognizant of what will happen to them if something happens to us- I've seen so many cases where a dog/cat/horse's owner died, and the animal ended up neglected, on the streets, or in the shelter, because no one knew what to do with it.

Also, I'm a controlling person, and perhaps this is just an attempt to extend my influence beyond the grave. I don't know. I do know that it is about an hour from quittin' time and I'm going to go home and hug all of my pets for a long time.

We may all be doofy, but it works.

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10 Things I Hate About Chica

10. I hate that my generally wonderful mare bucked me off yesterday.

9. I hate that she did it because two other horses ran up behind her, inciting her to bolt, with me hanging on for dear life.

8. I hate that when I asked her to whoa, she responded by bucking me off.

7. I hate that one day I can sit there and talk about how wonderful and trustworthy my mare is, only to have her dump my butt the next day- for the first time in years.

6. I hate that after she bucked me off, she and her compadres all galloped to the front of the pasture, leaving me to stumble my way back by myself- having to pause at least once because I was seriously hurting- while they watched.

5. I hate that when I went to longe Chica, hoping to prove a point by making her run and run, she turned back into her kind self, happily walking, trotting, and cantering on my voice command.

4. I hate that when I got on her after longing her, looking for a fight, she did everything I asked perfectly, forcing me to swallow my anger.

3. I hate that I have to acknowledge that part of this was my fault, as I should not have been riding bridleless, probably. Even though I do it with her all the time.

2. I hate what episodes such as this one turn me into,

1. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate her, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

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