Monday morning was nice and leisurely for a change with no tests! We did, however, have three lectures this week to broaden our knowledge on freshwater fish, reptiles, and amphibians in South Africa. Luckily, Ryan and I have studied these things before but now we have to apply it to the specific species found in this region.
This week was full of drives from Tuesday to Friday which was fantastic to get back into, except that my back was killing me all week and painkillers weren’t touching the surface, so once I’d managed to huff and puff and haul myself into the vehicle for drives, I then couldn’t get off again for drink stops. Thankfully everyone fed me rusks and chocolate on the vehicle rather than watch me suffer and starve!
Ryan and I had to go and finish our paperwork for passing our driver’s test on Wednesday between drives, so we popped into the doctors at the same time. He was incredible and prescribed a load of heavy-duty anti-inflammatories and painkillers for next time it happens so I might finally be able to function with this problem! Poor Stian who came with us also saw the doctor and was diagnosed with tick-bite fever. Luckily, they caught the problem early enough to get him on medication, but it’s been a rough week for him.
Wednesday afternoon was my first drive of the semester, and as it was my first one with Trevor, I was pretty nervous because I wanted to prove myself to him as he may be one of our assessors. We didn’t see too much on the drive until it came to our drinks stop, where we saw lots of giraffe, zebras, and blue wildebeest right next to us. I was really happy with how the drive turned out, even though it wasn’t my intended route for my assessment. Trevor was also happy with the way I drove and gave all of the information and interpretation, saying if it was an assessment drive he would have passed me within 20 minutes, which is great praise! Let’s hope I can do as well on my actual assessment…
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful in terms of drive, but we did have our new trainer, Ed, sit in with us to get a feel for everything before he takes over the reins next week. We already love him and can tell he’ll fit in great, providing a wealth of new information. We will be sad to lose Vaughan but as he’s only conducting research on the neighbouring reserve and still living with us we should still see his “punny” face.
The highlight of this week has definitely been my birthday as Ryan arranged for us to go back to Blyde River Canyon and spend the day at the natural pools, and thankfully my back had healed up. We hiked down with our cooler boxes and inflatables which must have looked ridiculous to those who passed us! We then spent most of the day eating and drinking by the pools, jumping and flipping off the rocks into the water. It was the perfect release from camp life and the stress of all the work we have to do. Everyone had such a good laugh and it is such a beautiful environment to be in, I couldn’t wish for a more awesome birthday.
Once we came home, me and a few of the boys went to Mahlahla for a couple of games of pool, and with it being my birthday I ended up getting rather drunk and chatting to them until 3am… I don’t know how they put up with me! Sunday was a bit of a rough day, but not just from the hangover. A few of us were starting to feel a bit more ill than usual on a Sunday but luckily it’s nothing too serious, just a bit of flu which Trevor and Sharin think is from such a heavy day on Saturday and being in the freeazing water, which I know mum and dad will say the same thing! It was so worth it though and I’d do it all again tomorrow!
Let’s hope that we don’t feel too ill for next week and we have some exciting drives lined up!
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