African Adventures

Wonky

2009-01-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

Wonky is a loved character here in Djuma and on WildEarth. He is a bull elephant with some deformities (right tusk curls downward, clubbed rear left foot, skull) yet he is a trooper and a gentle sole and often comes close to the vehicle.

Operation Vervet

2009-01-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

There is a small troop of vervet monkeys that visits our camp frequently and sometimes raids our kitchen. They are so good that they can sneak in while people are actually in there fixing something to eat. They are also a lot of fun to watch. I have occasionally sat for little periods of times watching them and they are slowly getting use to me. Now I am going to sit with them for longer and follow them a little and let them get use to me and a camera so I can start getting some video of them.

They are quite fun to watch here are a couple quick pics.

Yup finally updating, and you wont let me stop lol

2009-01-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

Finally I am going to update my blog sorry it has taken me awhile. I will probably just post a bunch of pics/videos to where here is the first.

It seems like people enjoy watching me eat things so here is me eating a mopani worm that Siphiwe brought in for me. It is the caterpillar stage of a moth which is eaten locally. There are various was to prepare it this one was dried like a beef jerky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KybEDe8m5-I

Typical Day at the "Office"

2008-12-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

Another typical day at the office (so to speak). Get back to camp at 5:30am after spending the night in Dixie. Get things ready in the final control for the drive. After the drive suit up in the walk camera gear to start walking at 9:00am CAT ~9:10 find an elephant on foot and show it live to the world, 9:30am end the walk and head back to camp for chat at 10:00am. :)

Yup you read correctly today for the walk we once again focused on tracking an elephant, and this time we were able to find and approach one on foot. It was an interesting experience with lots going threw my mind, more so on hoping the signal is good, and picture isn't to shaky :) and of course thinking about what to do if the ellie came our way.

I wrote the top part earlier and have more to add from the evening drive. We saw the same elephant again. We also saw White Cloth (Female Leoprad) that was the first time for me to see her, and it has been a while since she has been seen in the area. It also looks like she has cubs. Also while at they hyena den another young pup started peeking its head out.

Nothing like a mejeje to start the day and celebrate Thanks giving

2008-11-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,
Yup to celebrate Thanksgiving here instead of turkey I tried a termite. Here is a video of it posted by one of the viewers. I started off explaining a little bit about Thanksgiving (that the person didn't show in this clip) than well you can see the rest :)

Find more videos like this on WildEarth.TV

On Cloud 9 :)

2008-11-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

A great day today that started around 2:30am (CAT) for me to the beeping of the battery back up in the final control (my room is next to it) where the circuit breaker tripped. So after a quick flip of a switch and a few mouse clicks went back to bed for a few hours.

Then woke up again to the sound of much needed rain and a great sign that the season is changing and things will become more green, more animals will be around, and the snakes have been coming out. The past 2 drives we have seen some. Where I have been in the final control directing or off so I didn't see them in person but that changed today :)

We were waiting in the final control to see if we could go out even for a short drive and Pete spotted a snake in his cabin. So while waiting we went to try and ID it and release it in the wild.
It turned out to be smaller than what Pete first thought so my snake tongs were way to big. He grabbed a box and I kept watch and we tagged teamed catching it (me grabbing it and him putting the container under it). Then we tried to ID it and found out it was a brown house snake and so we decided to give the viewers something to watch and well just see for your self :)

Pete dropped the container as the snake was coming out and that is me hand holding the small FC camera and picking the snake up again :) The beauty of live TV :)

Then we managed to go out on a short drive and saw a leopard tortoise and watched it come out of its shell.

So already a great day, and my first snake handling in Africa :)

Where I went

2008-11-07T09:29:00.001-08:00

The cabin I staid in at Kwa Thabeng Bush camp

Hold the Press

2008-10-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hold the press I am actually leaving on my leave, to where I wont be taking my computer. I have decided to get away for a little and found a place that is in my budget not to far from here and is close to some attractions/town.
http://www.safarinow.com/go/kwa-thabeng/
Is where I will be staying from tomorrow (Tuesday) until Saturday when I will try to be back to start up a new regular Saturday Evening WEchat this time at 8:00pm CAT.

As to what I will do, I don't know that yet :)
I will try to get into town to pick a few things up, then I will relax and just do things on a day to day basis. There is a reptile park that I may try to get to.

I will be bringing my camera and will post pictures when I come back.

To hold you over here is a picture taken today of a baby vervet monkey

Amazing Experience

2008-10-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
This past Saturday (Oct 25) I was fortunate enough to go a long with the take the kids to a movie day, which you can read more about and see the video here http://www.wildearth.tv/blog
I will write more about it and add more pictures to my blog when I get back from leave.

Hope you enjoy
Simon

Blah Blah Blah :)

2008-10-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that tonight (Sat Oct 18th) I will be doing a chat at 10:00pm CAT (4pm EST). So if you want to see me trying to answer questions and talk away feel free to do so. Also feel free to ask questions by either logging onto the chat wildearth.ning.com/chat or sending the to finalcontrol@wildeath.tv (or of course you can email me questions at any time simon.dilts@gmail.com).

To where to watch just go to wildearth.tv and there will be a clip of a lizard/lizard eye close up then the live feed will be there. Where people tend to open that in a new window to chat and watch at the same time.

Maybe you will see me then :)

A little bit of Jealousy but in a good way :)

2008-10-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

On tonight's drive I was off but still watched the pm game drive. Early on they spotted a black mamba and followed it up a tree. To where I have been hoping to see one in the wild, at least I got to watch it live and know they are out there :)
Don't worry I will be safe.

What a morning

2008-10-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

This mornings game drive was amazing. Saw an Hammerkop (aka Hammerhead) bird gorge on about 8 frogs it picked out from the mud remaining in one of the dry water holes. Later on we came across a small breeding herd of elephants with a couple youngsters (~10 months old) . To where we watched one of the youngsters try to feed on a small acacia tree, then mimic mom.

That was soon followed by radio calls from some of the other game drive vehicles (from the lodges) that spotted Tingana (meaning the shy one) a female leopard. So we went to check her out before she lived up to her name sake and walked off. After a little bit more driving we came across Tingana's grandmother Safri who was sitting on a termite mound before she wandered off.
Safari is a leopard that got into a fight years back with a lion and lost eye sight in her right eye which is swollen.It was then back on the road to let the other vehicles take a look. To where we stopped to look at a male giraffe before continuing on.

We were driving one of the main roads and spotted another leopard sitting down and thought it might be Tingana again but it turned out to be her mother Karula (means peace) who got up and walked off with a pregnant belly. We followed her for a little while and let the other game drives follow as time was getting close to the end. On our way back we managed to spy Safari again and followed her to yet another termite mound. But this one was right next to us so she was only a few feet away, and stayed with her as long as we could before heading back for WE walk.

So it was an amazing morning with 4 leopard sightings (3 different leopards).

Memorable Experience

2008-10-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

I know I said I would try to blog the other day about an amazing experience that happened on the pm drive Oct. 11th. Well here it is :)

We headed back to Buffelshoek dam near the start of our drive as in the morning Mafufuyani one of the male leopards was there relaxing. When we arrived he was laying down in the shade. He eventually got up and took a drink from the little water left in the dam before heading out into the bush.

Of course Rexon who was presenter loves Ingwe (leopards) and we followed him for over an hour through some thick brush, and some roads. Eventually we were in an area of bad signals just before the sun went down. He first walked ahead of us on the road then he turned around and came back. He went right next to the vehicle (I am talking inches) and looked up at Rex, than myself as he walked on by. It wass amazing as then truly did I notice his size, as well as looking into his yes is an unforgetable memory.

New blends in with the elegance of yester year

2008-10-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon a storm rolled in knocking out the power around 3:30pm having us resort to candle power for light.
I loved the glow and ambiance it gave to my room. Where it gave the feeling of stepping back in time to when people started exploring the world and would write in journals by candle light on desks in their campsite. Now a laptop replaces the ink well but I think the feelings remain the same.

Morning traffic

2008-10-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like you can't escape morning hour traffic no matter where you go in the world, including the bush. This morning it was 2 bull elephants that we found in the bush and follwed a little. The older male (top picture) decided to walk on the road infront of us while the younger male stayed in the bush only to cross the road later.

Updates

2008-10-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally decided I will try to use one of the work computers to upload pictures on this blog as my laptop if it turns on takes forever.
So I have decided to start things from today and try to keep a more regular blog with either quick written comments about things or pictures from now on.

As for the camp I have decided to wait as I would like to do a WE Bits show (behind the scenes) on that so it will be easier to show.

Adventure Begins (09/06/08)

2008-09-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

Well my streak of starting of my summers and new jobs in an interesting way continued.
My boss/friend from the GSTC (Georgia Sea Turtle Center) graciously offered to drive me to the Jacksonville FL airport for my evening flight out (thanks again Stef) . She arrived around 4:00pm with her truck overheating a little due to a small leak in the radiator that she was going to have fixed soon. With a quick hose down with water and top off things got back to normal once we hit the road.
I arrived at the aiport with plenty of time to spare and no lines in ticketing or security which was nice so I had time to relax a little before my flights to the land of tomorrow :)

To keep things a little short here is a list of my flights with out much detail (feel free to ask for more if you wish):

JAX-Washington DC (IAD): 7:00pm left and arrived at 8:40pm (1hr 20min flight)

IAD-London Heathrow: Boarded plane dirrectly after arriving from JAX and arrived at 4:38am Eastern Standard Time 9:38 London time (6hr 38 min flight)

London-Johanesburg 8:54pm London time depart, arrive 7:31 am CAT (central african time) 10hr 37 min flight

All of the flights were not to bad and I managed to sleep on some, and I met my new boss Graham with no problems.

I staid the day/night at Graham and Emily's and we left for the bush/my new home the next morning. It took a little over 7 hrs of driving to get to Djuma and the Wild Earth camp.

Finally :)

2008-09-26T03:03:00.000-07:00

Finally I am working on a blog. Sorry there will probably be a lot of posts right away as I need to catch up. There is also going to be a lot of text at the start but later I will try to keep it to more pictures and maybe some video.