Invaders or visitors?...
Mornings start earlier than most of us would like; fortunately the morning chorus of birds in the campsite provides welcoming atmosphere. Red-capped Robin-Chats sing chirpy songs, greenbuls and bulbuls provide the background chorus and a couple of Nerina Trogons and the Livingstone Turacos provide colour and beauty.
 |
| Friend of Foe? |
 |
| Friendly visitor |
The invasion by the vervet monkeys forces one out of the tent to protect one’s belongings. We even take turns to do 'kettie' duty at the kitchen..
Early morning visitors to the ladies ablution block were met with a pile of monkey faces in front of the full length mirror this morning!!
Following just behind them is gang of banded mongoose raiding the dust bins and begging for scraps of food – at least they are very cute and not that cheeky.
And when the giant bush babies came to visit after dark, the Frenchmen could not understand why they are allowed in the kitchen and the monkeys are chased away.
Friendly visitors are the local bushbuck and the red duiker grazing around the camp site and posing for photographs. O yes! The mozzies are here and verrrryyy hungry after the long winter – fumes of Peaceful sleep and Tabard engulfs us all.
A welcome visitor was the rain of this morning because the scientists were waiting for the creepies and crawlies to appear – the back-up plan to move the open air labs under canopies and gazebos assure continuous processing.
 |
| Doctor at work again |
 |
| Operations moved under cover as the rain commenced |
And then we have our visitors from the media arriving regularly and the Toyotas do the airport run almost daily.
Gerhard Groenewald of Klipbokkop Mountain Reserve
Gerhard is the leader of the logistical support group. He has been taking groups of 4x4 wheel drivers on Eco Challenges and game rangers and park officials across borders to visit neighboring parks. He is also an expert on training and the design of new off-road tracks and has a reputed knowledge on environmental issues and other related fields of study.
In 2009 he combined his passion for environmental conservation and his desire to reach exotic destinations that can only be reached by sturdy off-road vehicles when he threw his weight in behind the iBol project. This cutting edge scientific research is in line with Toyota’s drive towards sustainable resources and cleaner water, cleaner air. Since then he has traveled many thousands of kilometers to find the most appropriate and unique destinations for scientists to explore terrains with biodiversity to maximise the possible samples that can be gathered by multi-disciplinary groups of specialists simultaneously.
The Toyota Enviro Outreach of 2011 is again a highly successful event and Gerhard contributes this achievement also to the continued involvement of many sponsors.
These sponsors are involved throughout the year with at least 6 research projects running continuously
Toyota provides the Hilux and Fortuner vehicles for transport to these destinations
- National Luna has been involved with these outreaches for many years and their reliable fridges and freezers make life easier
- Good Year is also a valued sponsor and highly appreciated for their involvement over the past 11 years
- Cross Country is sponsoring the vehicle insurance
- CAMPWORLD provides the tents and sturdy off-road Jurgens trailers
- Mega World has provided the camping equipment and all special accessories on the vehicles for the last 6 years.
- Total sponsors a big part of the fuel for these trips
Klipbokkop Mountain Resort, with Elmarie and Gerhard as owners, has a reputation of good maintenance and stewardship of these sponsored items and therefore the mentioned sponsors have been involved with them for many years.
No comments:
Post a Comment