Is it possible to be this ludicrously happy for a whole year without exploding? I’ve always know that I’m at least part-plant due to the fact that about 80% of my mood is based on how sunny it is, but even if it was permanently overcast here I would still be in heaven. But not gonna lie, it does definitely help with revision knowing that you can take a break and go for a swim in the sun :)

Last week we started actually going for drives into the reserve. The 18 of us are split into two groups on different vehicles and off we head- cameras ready, binoculars primed, brains (sometimes) engaged to see what we can see and learn some cool shit. It’s not all fun and games; we’ve still got to learn about far too many different types of grass for my liking and nothing anyone can say will make me think that they are interesting. But for every boring thing we have to learn there is a metric fuck ton of amazing stuff out there. We are yet to see any of the big cats but the coolest things I’ve seen so far have been some of the animals that other people might just drive right past. We’ve seen dung beetles rolling up balls of fresh hippo dung, zebra stallions fighting for their females and seriously doing some damage, and inquisitive giraffes peering over the tops of trees at us having our coffee break.

Aside from the animals we’ve had some other amazing experiences. We stopped above a sandy riverbed for coffee the other morning and walked down into the sand and Vaughan, our trainer for the day, walked round and circled different sets of tracks for us to try and ID. We managed to figure out lion, leopard and hyena for ourselves but there was also genet, civet, hippopotamus, crocodile, tortoise and so many more, that you would normally just speed on past. This is all the while keeping an eye out for the lions that had been seen around there the day before and were probably still around there somewhere…

Doing the driving ourselves now has been so much fun, except for the fact that if you’re driving in the morning you have to be up at 4.30 to make up the cooler box with snacks and tea and coffee for drinks stops! But even when we’ve had a less than exciting day studying grasses, the people I’m with have more than made up for it. It’s no surprise we didn’t find the leopard we were looking for on Friday given that we were laughing for about an hour straight and just couldn’t stop. I was laughing so hard I nearly choked on a rusk and what do these lovely people do? Help me? Pat me on the back? No, laugh their heads off and take pictures of course! I’ve laughed so hard, so often in the last few weeks that I’m actually getting abs. Couldn’t wish for a better bunch of people to spend six months with :)

Hope everyone is alright, love you all millions!