Day 00 - Great welcome at Tembe Research Camp

Ok, so we’ve zero’d what is officially our first day on the project at the Tembe Elephant Park on the border of Mozambique but technically it doesn’t really count as we’ve been travelling from Cape Town to the Wildlife ACT research camp all day into evening. We were met outside the entrance to the reserve by Clinton, the Wildlife ACT monitor who drove us in the truck to camp and by now it’s getting pretty dark! Waiting for us to arrive were Leonard (elephant monitor), Yvonne, and Paule who has become a long term volunteer on this project. We settled into our hut and then joined the team for a lovely supper cooked by Paule and simply started to get to know each other. These guys meet so many people volunteering on the project so they are used to 2 to 5 strangers from all over the world arriving at camp every 2 weeks that they are pretty used to the scene. Super friendly bunch and already feels as if it’s going to be a great 2 weeks here working with these guys. One thing we also know – the days are going to be incredibly long and full-on out tracking and monitoring in the bush …… Best get to bed then!!

Left to right - Fi (Wales UK), Cheryl (Malaysia), Yixuan (Singapore), Clinton (Wildlife ACT Monitor), Paule (French and from Guadeloupe), Yvonne (Holland), Leonard (Tembe Elephant Monitor)