Since being back I have such mixed feelings about some of the decadence in our everyday lives. From the products we have so readily in our supermarkets to air travel across the world, our lives rely so much on international trade.
Thankfully, whilst coming back was a tremendous shock, my mum and sister came and picked me up from Heathrow airport. They managed to get a car and come and pick me up which is great because I do not want to have to get a bus back!
Yesterday, I got a call from Emma, I am leaving. The Conservation Research Africa Trustees have said staff need to return home. This is crazy. We all have a teary tipsy evening of packing and cant believe what is going on...
We also had a braai night on Sunday night, but sadly this will be the last for Tom as he is going back to the UK, due to all this crazy virus stuff going on... We are going to be a musketeer down in the bat team.
We managed to get an extra night in of surveying and managed to go down to the banana plantation for one last survey attempt…but the rain halted that and back to camp we went.
Daniel and Bridget arrived this week from the Bat Conservation and Research Unit in the UK for a scoping trip with African Bat Conservation. I was super excited to have them hear as I was working with them both in England!
Me and Dom having been trying to go on more walks at Kumbali during our lunchbreaks with our cameras, trying to get out of the Office a bit more and enjoy our surroundings...
This week was International Women’s Day (March 8th) and is also Esther’s birthday. As it fell on a Sunday we had a cake in the week with her today at the Office as no one seemed to be about earlier in the week...
After Emma’s departure and a few days off, Tom and I spent a few days scoping out a new site for a potential new African Bat Conservation project, with bats and farms.
We managed to pack so much in to the week as we had so many different things to talk about, sort out and also a few road trips for meetings. My favourite thing was visiting Kuti Wildlife Reserve, I love this place!