On the road again

I bet you guys have been checking this site every day, just to see if I've had a chance to post anything yet. A lot has happened in this past two weeks--I went to the mountains and begain to properly apreciate the term "pissing rain". It rained the entire time we were up there, which was a shame only because we were really at cloud level, so we could only see about 1/8 of what the view should be, and sometimes we couldn't even see to the clothesline at the end of the yard. While we were gone from the reserve, everyone else there were being pissed on as well. They couldn't ford the river to start our waterpump, so they were on water rations the whole time and had to shower in the rain out in the bush. I'm kind of sorry I missed that, actually. And they also had a 4 meter long crocodile attack the front bumper of the truck as they crossed Croc Dam.

Last week I had all kinds of other adventures back on the reserve. A couple of hippos got out of the fence and onto the main highway where they were hit by a car. The reserve manager had to shoot them because injured hippos are very dangerous. And then they were butchered by the local people--we took a stake home, but we never got to eat it. I also saw a rhino chase the horses from one of the other lodges--it was their guests first night's ride! We had another morning with the hyenas, a rather illicit morning, actually. We weren't supposed to go down there because the rain made the roads down there so bad--but it was my friends last drive, so a staff member took us down there and made us all swear not to tell. If we had gotten stuck, we would have had to pull ourselves out because we couldn't let anyone else know we were down there. So don't tell anyone. We even got off the truck and walked with them for a bit. They are adorable! (And I swear you all will get pictures sometime!)

You would be not so surprised to know that I have already gained kind of a reputation for always being covered in mud, wearing bizzare rain outfits (my yellow poncho for a start, and then trying to make waterproof pants out of trashbags), and also for my irrational love of fungus (i was given the termite award for the end of the five weeks--some termites cultivate fungi the same way leaf cutter ants do).

I'm in St. Lucia now, in the wetlands park. Tomorrow we're goign to find crocs and hippos and flamingos. I just got back from the beach, and I'm going to go shower and lounge a bit and then go out for a delicious dinner at a restaurant of some sorts. And just so you all know, we cook our own food on the reserve and it is terrible and most of the vegetables have gone bad by the time we get them home. So we tend to gorge ourselves when we get out. I'm going to eat my way through this week off. Starting with some kind of shrimp, I think.

I'm glad you all aren't having any fun without me. Stay well, I'll try to post again at the end of this week.