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I am sitting here on my bed. It’s only 19:45 but I am so ready to collapse into bed! I got home from spending the weekend with John at his field-work site. This weekend was his last planned field trip and I hadn’t had a chance to go and see the place so I decided I’d take Monday off (I went back to work a week early-I think I’m allowed to!) and go and spend the weekend with him.

I wish I had gone sooner! It was such an wonderful weekend. The area where he’s working is quite remote (but I still managed to get there in my little VW Golf!) but it’s so beautiful. I tagged along with him while he did his bird counts. We got up at 03:50, had a quick cup of coffee, some toast and hopped in the bakkie and set off up the mountain. John’s working at high altitudes, between 1600m and 2200m and we had to be at the top before the sun came up. The road were so so bad. I can’t actually explain and I’m afraid I don’t have any photos of the worst bits because I was far too busy hanging onto the holy-sh*t handle and bracing my feet against the footwell! Still, the views from the top were worth it:

 

Pre-dawn light - 5:01am

 

The sun makes it's appearance - 05:20

 

 

Old Stone Wall

 

 

We were all done with his work for the day by about 10am; at which point we went back to the little cottage he stays in and had a second breakfast and then a really good nap! Later on, when we’d woken up and the temperature had cooled down a bit (did I forget to mention it  was about 36C?) we went off on a drive. John showed me all sorts of cool things that they have on the farm.

 

Dino footprints

Dinosaur footprints

 

Like dinosaur footprints! So cool! Pity that they are getting a bit damaged; but it was still so cool to see!

 

Cliffs

River cliffs

 

Then we went on a bit of a game drive and we found these amazing cliffs in the river bed. They are massive! All soil too, no rock supporting them. It always amazes me to think of the power of water…

 

Windmill Pool

Windmill Pool

 

And then, because it was stinking hot; we went for a swim in the water tank next to the windmill. It’s something I’ve wanted to cross off my personal bucket list for years! Dunno why-just seemed like it’d be a cool thing to do. And it so was. I balanced my camera on a brick on the side of the tank and set the self timer. And there you have it! Proof! We stayed in cooling off for a good 15mins. Until my camera went into power-saving mode and toppled off the edge of the tank and into the mucky puddle outside. Sh*t.

Fortunately, it didn’t fall into the tank because that would have taken ages to find. John rescued it seconds after it got dunked and took the battery and memory card out. Back at the cottage I opened up all the flaps that could be opened (without forcing) and plonked the whole lot in a mug; and then filled the mug with dry rice and left if overnight and all of the following day.

SHE LIVES! Yep, memory card and camera are both fine. Phew!! Now, if anyone wants to buy me a GorrillaPod….!

 

PS I just want to wish my dear friend Rach a very Happy Happy Birthday! Can’t wait to see you in April! Love you madly!

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