Final Destination: Kosi Bay

Setting up the lab for processing the samples

Prof Eric Holm & Danie from Aardwolf

Relaxing after a long day of driving

The Birthday Girl, Robin

So here we are all safe and sound after more than 9 hours on the road!

The scientist and logistical group arrived at the camping site with all the Toyota vehicles intact. The camp was erected with the help of the efficient logistic staff of Klipbokkop.

.

For the very first time all members of the group are together. Expectations are running high. People are sharing information and experiences. Here is the team:

• Marieka wishes to find fungi or mushrooms to create articles in support of her thesis.
• Olivier is on his second Enviro Outreach and expects to collect more plant material to expand the iBol database
• Vincent joins the group to collect tics and mosquitoes and other insects which causes diseases
• Herman, expert on fresh and sea water fish, search for the evasive Killie fish who lays his eggs in the sand and only breeds after the first rain shower
• Doctor Jacques, looks after everybodyís wellness and hopes that there will be no eventualities; He prefers his camp job as barman
• Richard forms part of Herman's team and they are eagerly waiting for tomorrow morning dawn to set their traps in the water to catch fish for their DNA samples.
• Barnabas, Ntshembo and Beseng assist Michele and Herman in the field and with preparing the samples for the labs
• Nicci is a journalist, and will write stories for New Media Publishing Group and will accompany the scientist in the field
• Andrew, friend and co worker, will assist Herman at the fish waters
• Hermien en Danie is on the Aardwolf team of Kyknet they shoot and edit a programme for TV usage.
• Prof Eric specializes on fruit beetles and hopes to find the 5 endemic species from this area
• The SABC is also represented here and Foeta will conduct interviews for RSG with some of the scientist on their work
• Robin, our birthday girl has been nicknamed the spider-woman. she has joined the Enviro Outreach to look for spiders and especially the Front-eyed Trapdoor spider
• Our IT specialist on the team, Christof, will keep us connected
• Christiaan is an entomologist from Tuks who specializes in dung beetles. He wishes to catch any insect to expand the DNA database
• Michelle wants to continue and expand the project of last year. She heads the scientific team
• Brigitte is our ant lady and specializes in the ants found in the Western Cape. She is eager to research this area in Northern Natal
• Our citizen scientist, Renier, wil bridge the gap and show how every person interested in this project, can contribute.

Tomorrow, with all the scientists hard at work in the filed, we will introduce the logistical team to all.