Porco-espinho

Porcupine. This morning’s walk with our donor/board member was exciting as we came across a lot of recent buffalo and elephant sign; as fresh as could be. Porcupine droppings and quills too. You know you are close to a herd of mega-herbivores when you can smell them and hear nearby branches crash under the weight of a very heavy animal. We realised our scout, a very experienced and bush-hardy character called Abelio, was hard of hearing when he didn’t react to some booming and crashing fewer than 100 metres away. We still felt safe under his trusty watch.

This deck at the guest camp of Kiparara (the Swahili name for the African skimmer - a bird species found on the river) has hosted us very nicely when we haven’t been wild camping in the bush. Sometimes we have been spotted here with gin and tonics, watching the moon rise. A long trip with our guest has been useful for rumination on the various technical, operational, financing and governance issues that surface in a project of this size. ‘Well, you’ve got a big job ahead’, has been said to me around 25 times on this trip. Ain’t that the truth, especially when personalities, precedents and histories are factored in. However it’s remarkable how restorative bush camping and 8.30pm bedtimes can reduce stress to a manageable level. It’s something all frazzled online city types should do periodically. To do it here as a tourist you might need several thousand dollars due to the cost of access, so pitching a tent and unfurling your Thermarest on Wimbledon Common is a cheaper alternative, and may produce the same effect. Worth trying.

The deck aesthetics are complemented by these upturned mokoros (traditional dug-out canoes used for fishing and transportation). These were confiscated from people illegally fishing in the Reserve. Wim was asked to destroy them by the management authority, so he made sure their alternative use fixes them well out of circulation.