Mbuluzi Game Reserve is a delightful reserve in Swaziland where Sense Africa often helps out with conservation projects and this year we had a couple of great projects lined up. The first was constructing a bridge across a river for a biking trail and the second was mammal game counts in the reserve.
The bridge was set upon with gusto and enthusiasm, we were used to mixing cement and manual labour so off we all set. Lucky, who was one of the rangers in Mbuluzi, was very surprised at how hard we all worked and I think was concerned that we would finish it all in one day! This was far from likely although we made great head way on the first day.
Meanwhile, the second team was working hard at spotting the game, the grass was still quite high so we had to keep our eyes peeled for any movement. It is surprising how easy it is to miss a giraffe! We did four game drives, morning and evenings, counting every mammal that we saw. The record was 82 in one drive and and this included 34 nyala, pretty impressive.
The most challenging part of the conservation project was the camping; it is a beautiful and secluded campsite, pretty remote, no electricity and water that is tractored in. In order to get hot water, a donkey boiler has to be lit, this means making a fire under an oil drum.
It didn't take long for us all to get used to cooking in the dark, making our own fires, getting up with the sun and having giraffe walk through the campsite whilst we had breakfast!
Something never to forget.
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