Evil twigs

On Monday, we went out to NG32 to sample from a couple of collared buffalo. The first, Pandora, was in the area south of Stanley's. It rained a lot as we were about to leave camp, but we set out after it eased off. We got through Daunara gate without problems and started sampling. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which we were able to get around - there were not too many nasty muddy patches and the mopane was relatively open off road. We sampled 14 sites in that area, although Pandora had moved across very wet areas and we were unable to reach her, although we did find a beautiful moth. We camped in some lovely open mopane and listened to a lion roaring as he moved northwards throughout the night.

The next morning we sampled a couple more points, then headed back out through the gate towards Morutshe gate to sample from that area. We sampled a further 7 sites there, but again were unable to reach the buffalo that had decided to escape to the muddy floodplains. After one point, we were driving through mopane when one evil twig whipped me right in the eye. I was in quite a lot of pain and made my assistant drive us back to the road because I could not open the eye. We stopped for lunch to see if it would improve, and I was just deciding to drive to Maun to get it checked out when suddenly a relatively large piece of bark fell out of my eye and I could see again! We happily headed off to finish sampling and managed to get everything done by 5 pm. By that time a serious looking storm was building, so we decided to abandon camping and drive back to HQ. By the time we got to Shorobe, however, the sky was black and filled with lightning in all directions. Not wanting to drive back through a storm in the dark, I decided to take refuge in Maun and head out in the morning.

We will be heading out to try and find some accessible buffalo tomorrow, including one that seems to be heading to Mababe!