The World's Biggest Hamster Wheel

Now every day on this continent is seeming a little surreal but today was more so than most. Early morning, we had to transport a huge circular wire trap to a house in the JoBerg suburbs. It was intended for Hyrax/Rock Rabbits ie big gunea pig looking things. The house was apparently plagued with the 'Mega Guinea Pigs' gnawing at wires, pushing funiture around(!) and we were going to relocate them to the reserve.

The trap looked like a giant hamster wheel. We strained and rolled it's ungainly mass into the back of a ute and tied it down. The ute took off while Francoise and I and 2 other volunteers followed it in a little Fiat Uno.

(behold the cage!)

Then followed one of the most mad car rides Ive been on. While a navigator in front seat tried to make sense of convoluted JoBerg highways, off ramps and turn offs , we followed this ute (whose driver is native to these parts) ducking and weaving at high speeds over 140kms through huge trucks and crazily driven cars. There were plenty of white knuckle moments and a few screams I tell you. I feared that hamster wheel was going to spell our doom.

(Musn't lose the ute..)

The ute led us to a swanky hill suburb of JoBerg to a posh mansion overlooking a valley. We strained the wheel into place on a lawn while we watched the 'rock rabbits' racing around, to the chagrin of the well to do Afrikaans family that lived there. I note it was weird to be served a nice fruiit drink with ice from an ice maker and stand by a pool with a spectacular view, having come from a squatter camp the day before.

Another mad journey back to the reserve and grateful to be alive we had lunch before the next task of the day. We were meant to be testing the water of the dams here with little kits but just as we got the 'Water Testing 101' talk from our boss, a thunder + lightening storm rolled in. Obviously I was not keen to get out into the reserve with lightening bolts going off around but during a lull we headed out (apparently the repeated thunder storms we've had are very unusual this time of the year...global warming?)

It actually was quite pleasant (apart from some subsiding rain) to be out by a dam watching animals come down to drink. Nice cloudy sunset too. The powercut around dinner time sucked though, but I tried to entertain my fellow workers with candle light anecdotes as Francoise shook her head.

Manfred