monday july 26

it's still me -- Colin is doing something with a field guide and a notebook. Today was laundry, shopping, etc. day, plus back to kirstenbosch for some sampling of specimens there, which I did not witness, because I went and had tea in the tea shop, then read my nook.

tomorrow early a.m. we are heading to the hills, literally. I am not looking forward to this. Although it has been cold here, we've had electricity, light, good plumbing and a kitchen (and an electric tea pot to heat up the water for the hot water bottles each night), none of which we will have in Anysberg. Plus I suspect that it is going to be really REALLY cold up in the mts. Plus once the ipod and nook run down, I may not be able to solarcharge them to use them - plus we think it is going to be pretty wet, and I'm not likely to be using them in the pouring rain (while I stand and do nothing) anyway. I hope that Colin appreciates this.... (Plus, there are leopards, which I hope will keep their distance more than the baboons have.) Anyway, we will be back in Capetown on Aug. 1, and will try to check in then before we leave for AZ on Aug. 2. Think good thoughts towards us!

Jessica

p.s. Colin says he would like it known that the hyrax yesterday charged him, but it really didn't charge so much as decide suddenly that it wanted to be standing where Colin was, which caused it to move rapidly in that direction. Easily sidestepped, in any case. Very cute, even with its fairly ratty (buggy) fur.

more Sunday photos

we also saw a bunch more ostriches, but we've stopped taking photos of them....

sunday, july 25

This is Jessica again; Colin is working on analyzing some data he collected today.

Today the team worked all day down on the cape again -- technically, this is part of Table Mt. National Park, and the team has a permit, but since they are working in two groups, we keep getting stopped by officials, without our permit, leading to lengthy discussions. Apparently, Carl told Colin, who was working on his knees in the brush, to "stay down," so that his appearance would not cause questions -- I missed this interchange.

Mostly what I did today was stood and listened to the ipod, since there was a dearth of rocks at today's sites on which to sit, and the brush was thick, deep and full of busy ant hills. At the first site, a small but attractive frog was caught, but my photo of it is not as attractive as the frog was, so I'll wait for Colin's photo, which is better. Then we lunched at the shore (rocky) of the actual Cape of GH -- on Friday, we were at the cape point; if you look at a good map of Africa, you will see that they are slightly different places, though I think the point extends slightly more south than the cape does. I took a group shot (see photo) and we also saw a lovely hyrax, which is related to an elephant, though looks much more like a woodchuck or marmet. We also saw several eland (which we also saw on Friday), but I've not been able to get a good photo, as they are always far off.

I was trying to take a photo of an orchid when we suddenly left our second work site in a hurry because another large troop (swarm) of baboons was trekking up the path. They stopped traffic coming up from the cape entirely, with one of them lounging in the road on his back. Several of the adults were carrying small babies. (see photo) Then we went to a couple of other sites, which were pretty (along the Indian Ocean), but it would take too long to post photos of everything.

On the way home, we went the "long way" round along the Atlantic, vs. the Indian Ocean. It was very cliffy and swervy and I closed my eyes. We stopped for photos a couple of times, and the sunset was nice, though Colin's photos came out much nicer than mine -- we'll try to get his up on the blog later. (My nikon washes everything out; his handles color much better.)

We are leaving this locale on Tuesday morning (Monday night for Dear Readers) to head up into the cold, cold mountains, and we will have no electricity for the next week after, so if you want to say something to us, say it now!

more kirstenbosch

here are more birds @ kirstenbosch...

july 24 - kirstenbosch

today the team worked at base all morning, processing plant specimens. John Silander joined the group, so there were more baboon jokes. In the afternoon, we went to Kirstenbosch, which is a truly fabulous botanical gardens. The girls bought more jerky (just general "game" jerky) to replace that stolen by the baboons. We have many gorgeous botanical photos from today (pelergoniums, protias, ericas), but will post just a few, mostly that have birds in them. You *really* need to click on them to see the birds. Both plants and birds were very pretty.

more baboon photos

click on the photos to see them properly...the tail is my shot of the baboon on the top of the van, after he'd checked out all the windows and mirrors - presumably looking for a way back in

the baboons, july 23

hi, this is Jessica. Colin is working on research tonight, so I will try to get the blog up to date -- it is extremely slow going, with this silly slow netbook.

What happened with the baboons was this:

the team was cataloging plants (or whatever it is they are doing) on a hill at one of the sites at the national park on the cape of good hope. I was hanging out in the van, as I had already done the hanging out outside thing. It was getting hot, so I opened one of the windows part way -- I did not know that Emily had left some carrots, sprouts and springbuck jerky on the seat under the window. A large troop (20+) of baboons (who saw the window/smelled the food) came flying down the hill, past the team, and one of the males jumped through the window and began to snack rapidly. Carl and Cory came running down the hill and started yelling at the baboon, who did not want to leave. I had jumped into the way-back, since the baboon was between me and the side doors. Carl opened the door (but not my door, which could only be opened from tThe baboon did try to read the field guide, but was disuaded by more yelling. Eventually he or a compatriot climbed on top of the van, where he ate carrots and eventually lay down. No one was hurt except the sprouts, carrots and jerky, but there have been many, many jokes. I will post the photos in stages -- as always, click on them to see them bigger.