June News Letter

So I made it into the newsletter this month which you can read by either clicking on the link below or copy and pasting the link in your internet page. This is a great newsletter to subscribe to to see all the action going on with ALERT.

http://www.lionalert.org/documents/newsletters/Newsletter-June-11.pdf

As for me...well I'm the older one of the group except David Youldon and I are only 5 months apart and I think it's starting to hurt!! Keeping up with 20 year old is a tough job but I guess someone has to do it. We went out for cocktails and prawns on Friday night and didn't get home very early!! Up at 6:00 the next day to work though....I still have the work hard...play hard attitude!!

I decided to treat myself to a little spa time at one of the big hotels. I was able to get local pricing seeing that I am working here so 1 hour hot stone massage, 1/2 hour indian head massage and eyebrow plucking was only $80. The problem this morning when I woke up is I realized that the redness that I had around and between my eyes was not temporary....I have lost skin!!! Needless to say I am wearing a hat and glasses today to mask myself but that doesn't stop Cara from asking me to take off the hat to have a good chuckle and tell everyone to come look at it. Live and learn!!!

We also had a BBQ in India on Saturday night. Richard (general manager) actually caught 4 tiger fish right from the dock so that was added to the menu and it was delicious. In the background there were hippos keeping us entertained by making calls and popping out of the water every now and then. One actually tried to come up on shore just a few feet from us which is where we were eating but the dogs managed to scare it back into the water.

Ele research last week proved to show that we have a lot of elephants now migrating back into Zambia for the winter. At one point we nearly became trapped between a heard of 21 elephants which can be very dangerous. Luckily our driver was quick to maneuver us out of the way. One elephant gave us a clear warning to not get any closer or we would have to contend with him (see photo). One bachelor elephant that we saw decided to swim across the river. He was quite hilarious because he kept bobbing up and down and blowing water from his trunk. He seemed to be having a great time on his own.

I had a great lion walk the other day with Dendi and Damara. They are sisters about 8 months old and they are becoming quite adventurous and we are starting to see their hunting skills develop quickly. They were even so bold to stalk a adult giraffe the other day. I think we saw the giraffe laughing but we won't tell the girls. I did however have a great time with Damara because she is very inquisitive and likes to play. Some of the photos are of her by the river, playing in the water and with her sister Dendi. It's actually quite rare to see a lion with their full head in the water so it was fantastic to witness it in person.

Alright I'm off now....take are everyone...miss you all lots.

Vick

This may be offside....

By now you have already looked at the pictures in this post and probably have figured out what I am referring to in my title. I had a dramatic discovery whilst reading my Kindle the other day in the back of my room. There were all kinds of Vervet monkeys around playing and eating in the trees when one when running past me and bent over. I wish I had a camera to see the shock on my face!! Of course I ran to get a camera because I thought "my friends and family need to see this"!! I have finally discovered where the saying "blue balls" comes from....yes this may be a little offside for a topic of conversation but I said I would be honest...ha ha.

Saturday night this week we went out for supper and drinks to benefit a couple that lost their house and all their belongings in a fire. It was sad to hear that they lost everything but as Livingstone is a very tight community, within days one of the restaurants set up an evening and all the benefits went to the family to help them out. It was very touching and at the same time great to see a community come together. I'm not going to lie Karaoke was happening that night and I may have had a few performances....Jordan sorry for the phone call from us...everyone is just excited for you to arrive!!

I thought I would take the chance to introduce you to the two dogs that we live with Trevor and Simba. They are great dogs who live the life of Riley here. They just run around all day and get the affections of about 20 people everyday. Trevor is the orange haired dog and Simba is the white one. Simba's head can fit perfectly in your hands and Trevor tends to nip my bum often to let me know she's there!!(see photos)

Well after two evening out this week yesterday was a relaxing day of resting, watching SATC and a movie down at the landlords house. Where I'm living is rented grounds and the landlords live on the water near us. They are a family of 5 originally from India but have been living in Zambia for a long time. Every place has a name here so when we are at their house we say...'I'm going to India or I'm in India". They have a lovely deck on the river so yesterday we sat and watched 5 hippos come in and out of the water and even fished a little bit.

Thanks everyone for you comments...keep them coming. I get excited when I see that I have comments about the blog and also that you are enjoying the read.

Well I'm off to work again...Happy Father Day to all you dad's out there!!!!

Cheers.

I had a shower with a frog....

Yup yesterday was another new adventure. As I was in the shower which is outdoors and I had a little frog join me. Normally this probably would have sent me in a little bit of tailspin but here you just say hello and go on with your shower. The only thing that worried me was "Will there be a snake right behind him and is this his hiding place??" Luckily he just enjoyed the steam and sat quietly watching me...a bit of a perv I guess!!

Well on to some other stories....I experienced high tea on my day off on Sunday. This is held at one of the local hotels the Royal Livingstone everyday around 4:00. Basically you pay $17 for all you can eat sandwiches, quiche and desserts. And when I say desserts I mean 2 tables loaded with different types. Along with this you can choose any tea you want and sit and look at the Zambiezi river....(see photo). The hotel itself is a step back in time to the colonial era where all of the staff still dress like that. It's very cool. We then went down to the deck for my new favourite cocktail...a passion fruit martini. A few minutes in I thought I was going to need to wrestle a vervet monkey for my drink but she just wanted the fruit so I was safe. I did though at one go...."oh my God...Oh my God" and my friend Cara just laughed at me.

Yesterday we also bumped into a hippo along the riverside road while doing research. It's not common to see them out of the water during the day because of the risk of sunburn. They will usually only come out during the night to eat but we think this one had maybe been in a fight with another hippo and he was just recovering. He did send us some clear signals to get the heck away from him...(see photo).

As you can see from the photos it was also time to do the hair dying. Yes that's right...I have grey hair at such a young age...ha ha!! Maitel & Kelly thank you for the supplies....it went very well except I didn't have Kelly washing my hair afterwards.

I have added a few pics as well just to show you where I am living.

Enjoy...Cheers.

Always an adventure...

Well as per usual I always have something new to tell!! Last Sunday I was invited out to learn how to shoot riffles. Of course I said yes so off we went. We started with a 22 which now I realize is almost like a BB gun compared to some of the others!! Then the second one was a 375...I'm not going to lie that was pretty cool (see photos).

On Elephant research Friday is was a bit of a safari day as we bumped into a mother Rhino and her baby. Now these Rhinos in this park are watched 24 hours a day by armed guards because of illegal poaching. The scout knowing us allowed us to get off of our truck and take some pictures. The baby was so cute and very curious about us being there. It's a very rare thing to be able to see a while Rhino as the numbers are dramatically low.

Unfortunately it's not all beautiful as we also bumped into a young Giraffe that we had seen 2 weeks prior who had been caught in a snare. It had become so infected and because of the way it needed to walk it actually had broken it's foot and was hanging off while it used it's chin to walk on. It's so sad to see but we cannot do anything with the wild animals so we just report it to the wildlife society and nature will take it's course. One positive thing that the group that I work for does every week is snare sweeps in the park to try to find and remove as many as we can. Every snare remove is an animal saved and that's a great feeling.

Of course I cannot forget that every day I have the lions to be with. The young cubs are growing up so quickly and they are slowly becoming hunters and socializers. It's quite remarkable to witness.

I hope you enjoy the pics...see you soon.

Cheers xoxo