Chipper

The security plan we’re drafting for our northern Mozambique project took a while to complete this morning as our colleague in the field had to go and deal with a snared buffalo before returning to his laptop. The tribulations of fieldwork. On a serious note, both Covid-19 and the insurgency in northern Mozambique are creating the perfect storm for illegal wildlife trade networks to embolden themselves and spread into areas where the poaching threat had until this year been successfully reduced. As conservationists we are very nervous that hard-won gains will be reversed, especially around losses of elephants for ivory.

I jumped on a train to Brighton as my friend Giles is staying there for a while, and it’s now possible to go direct from Cambridge without faffing about on the tube. I had to continue working on the security plan on one of those trains with no proper tables and only fold-down ones suitable for coffee cups and not much else. Despite being scrunched up like a gnome in a mask, I completed the work, which was a relief.

In Brighton we dined on classic British fare (battered sausage and chips) from the Bad Boys chippy, and scoffed it on the seafront. The chilly winds blew the cobwebs away and I was very quickly refreshed by travelling further than I have since March. The Royal Pavilion in Brighton is always a sight to check out when here.