Collared

After the intensity of the President's visit it was a slower morning with coffee and tranquil river views.

Niassa Reserve is currently divided into 17 management concessions, three of which are grouped together to form Chuilexi Conservancy, the key entity and partner for our conservation work in Niassa. I travelled on with Matt, one of the key representatives of this organisation. Travel in light aircraft is more popular and obviously faster than overland in this area of Mozambique so we hitched an impromptu ride to one of the next camps along the river from Lugenda. From there we drove almost three hours to the headquarters of our area of focus. It was the hottest part of the day but I enjoyed wildlife spotting: elephants, zebra, buffalo, waterbuck, plentiful impala and statuesque kudu.

At the headquarters of Chuilexi we met with the Conservancy Manager, Wim, a taciturn, committed and excellent South African, and planned our next week. Interrupting the discussions was the ongoing elephant collaring exercise (as per yesterday) that was operating in Chuilexi and darted a female close to the airstrip we were stationed next to. We rushed over to see the collaring in action, which was fitted fast and clinically. Tracking collars can tell researchers a lot about elephant activity and movements to best protect them in the constant fight against poaching. There is a relatively large number being collared this week across Niassa.

The camp at Chuilexi exceeded my expectations, and was busier than normal because of the collaring team. It overlooks the Lugenda River, looking parched at this pointy end of the dry season. Night falls early here at 5.30pm (it feels like northern Mozambique should shift a timezone forward, especially as it's light by 5am). Communal dinner was an interesting affair, with a mix of gnarly South Africans, Kenyan pilots and Portuguese elephant darters. Wim's lively wife Chelene who has stuck it out with him in different roles in Niassa for coming up to twenty years, regaled me on the various wild creatures they've ended up adopting and rearing, including a baby bushpig that shared their tent and later died of heatstroke. Always an interesting cast of characters on such occasions.