South Africa: Zulu the Meerkat Brightens Up The Day

This morning we had to carry out my "favourite task" as Carolynne put it to the other girls (she was being sarcastic). We had to set up some more pitfall traps to collect some more ants as part of the Aardvark survey. I was on a bit of a mission to get it done and get back to the house so that we could get ready for the trip to Nambiti Game Reserve. Although the day was cloudy we all had our fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain so we decided that as lots of pictures would be taken we had to look our best. That turned out to be a bit of a wasted effort. When we reached the site by the river to set up the pitfall traps we discovered a helicopter hovering around the perimeter of our fence line. With all the stories you hear about Rhino poaching I was a bit worried. However, it turns out that the guy that owns the property next to us has a helicopter. Very nice too!

After showering and making ourselves look respectable we headed towards Nambiti with a bit if a pit stop at Ladysmith for a spot of lunch at Guineafowl. It was Nish and Lizzy's first Guineafowl milkshake, a land mark day! We popped to the off licence to get some drinks ready for the braai on Saturday. It will be my last Saturday at UmPhafa so I think I should have at least one hangover before I go!

Anyway as we got out of the car at Nambiti the thunder started to roll in. We had about five minutes with the cheetah before it started to rain which was a real shame. However, the guy at Woodlands Lodge was really lovely and said that we could come back next week when hopefully the weather would be better. Before we left though Lizzy took some fantastic shots of me with Zulu. She really does have a natural flare when it comes to photography.