One of the conservation efforts that was happening during this trip was the collaring of a female leopard and Michael was commissioned to write an article about the event.

The leopard would be tracked at night, with dogs, and once they had treed the animal and determined that it was a female, they would call for Michael to join them for the actual collaring.

As Michael talked with the dog handler, he realized that he could write a good article with this information, BUT, in order to write a GREAT article, he needed to accompany the dogs as they were looking for the leopard.  So, off he went at 10 pm, ready to spend the night in the Mozambique bush.

The dogs were carried in the back of a truck…..

….and the tracker sat in the hot seat on the front of the truck…..

I call it a HOT seat, but I am sure that he was freezing out there!!!

They searched for most of the night, looking for leopard tracks across the road and, at 4:00am had finally given up and headed back to camp.

There were several vehicles on the search, and they were retracing the same tracks that they had driven on previously.  Suddenly one of the drivers (Poen) radioed that he had found a leopard track on top of their earlier tire tracks.  That meant that the leopard had only crossed the road a short while ago and would be in the vicinity…..

Michael and Coenraad Scheepers (the dog handler) raced to the spot and the dogs were set off on the leopard hunt.  Coenraad kept track of the dogs using a GPS system…..

They treed them several times and on one occasion, the leopard charged Michael and the others, but one of the dogs turned it at about 10 feet by nipping at it.   Michael was thankful for the dogs!!!

Once the cat was finally treed, they called the camp for the other players to come.   This included the veterinarian who would dart the cat, Dan Cabela (who was funding the collar), many guys who would help with the capture, and a film crew. 

When I woke up that morning, Michael’s bed was still unslept in, and I was hoping that he was having a wonderful time.  I dressed and made my way to the pavilion area.  I was enjoying my morning tea and thinking to myself that the camp was quiet this morning and the call came in “CAT IN THE TREE”!!  

Immediately the entire camp went into action.  One person was putting together snacks and coffee for those who were heading out without breakfast and for those who had been out all night. 

Another was running to the various tents and telling people to get up and get ready to leave in 10 minutes!!

There were trucks moved from the garage to the parking area and everybody piled in and headed to the treed cat!!

The collaring was successful…..

…and Michael returned to camp extremely tired but exceedingly excited by what he got to do, and naturally, he immediately started writing the article!!

I would have loved to be on this adventure too, but after I saw the scratches on his arms and heard the story of how his glasses were lost somewhere in the dense brush, I was perfectly happy to have slept thru the whole thing!!

Yesterday, I told you about my visits to some of the older, now abandoned, villages.

Now, let’s compare that to the new village.  There are still some houses that are rustic….

….but many are concrete buildings…..

There is a local mall…..

I loved that all of these buildings were made from a different form of construction….

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Each one is owned by an individual who walks/drives/bikes to the nearest town where they purchase the goods that they will sell. This can be as mundane as razor blades to as exotic as solar panels!!

Although they still have to carry the water to their homes, there is a community pump-type well, meaning that they don’t have to haul buckets up to retrieve the water ….

The women still work hard……

Watch how easily they walk, even while carrying huge loads….

The young boys gather whenever any visitor appears and love to have their photos taken. They seem to enjoy toys that roll or that they can drive….

Also, they have access to a local clinic. I wrote about it in this post….

….and a school….

We visited the school and spent time talking with the teachers.  Come back next week for that!!

By our standards, their life is very hard but living closer together has made things easier for them. Zambeze Delta Safaris and their conservation partners are to be congratulated for the work that they have done to improve the lives of the villagers!!

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, there has been an effort by Zambeze Delta Safaris to move the natives from their small villages and into a centralized village area where they have access to goods and services such as a clinic and school.

I had the opportunity to visit several of these older villages and loved looking at the construction of their buildings.

The first one that we passed happened to be just before sunset, ensuring that the photos were amazing!!!

This was the main house…..

….with another standing nearby….

I little further down the path there were two other buildings…..

The one on the right is called a Jaungle. It is used for cooking and other activities when it is raining.

This is the chicken house…..

The chickens must be put up at night or they become prey for the Civets and Jennets that are roaming the night.

This blue cording was everywhere, from reinforcing this basket…..

….to holding the house structure poles in place.

I wasn’t sure what this utensil was…..

…but it sure was interesting to look at!!!

The next village was where we chose to film Michael’s Ted-X talk…..

It was a great backdrop for the video.

We explored inside this house….

….. and Dylan showed us some interesting aspects (make sure that your sound is on)……

Michael tried to climb the ladder and found that the rungs were too far apart….

It makes me wonder how the shorter natives were able to climb up!!

The construction was interesting, with twigs intertwined and then covered with mud…..

I explored the area a bit while Michael was recording and found this delicate fungus….

Come back tomorrow to see the “modern” village!!!

On Friday, we received word that the Cheetahs (see last week’s post) were released out of the boma and into their new habitat.

The Cabela Family Foundation released this video on Friday. As you can see, the cats had to be lured away from their enclosure using meat……

I love that they pant as dogs do!!

Also, Willem Briers-Louw, the conservation biologist overseeing the release, sent several photos of the event…..

Don’t they fit perfectly into the landscape??

Here’s hoping that they love their new land and that they grow and thrive for years to come!!!

When we woke on the morning of July 20^th, there was excitement in the air.   Through the morning, the staff worked diligently to get the place spiffed up and ready for a huge influx of friends.

The reason for the excitement…..the Cheetahs were arriving.   See yesterday’s post for the blessing!!

We were originally told that they would be there by 11:00 am.  But being Africa, they did NOT arrive that early!!!   Around 3:00 pm Mark Haldane radioed in to say that the first plane was in the air and would be there around 3:30.

The excitement started growing and by 3:15 there was a large contingent of people waiting for the big event…..

The first plane buzzed the airstrip (fairly low I might add) and then made a circle and landed…..

 Then the fun began as they landed and parked the other two planes and two helicopters that were ferrying both Cheetahs and people to the camp…..

I was reminded of watching the parking crew direct traffic at the Oconee Fall Festival!!!

The human passengers started emerging from the plane….first came the “dignitaries”….Mary Cabela and her son Dan, followed by Mark Haldane.  Then came the support people….veterinarians, photographers, writers, camera crews, and who knows who else!!!

There were several interviews going on for the film crews and of course, Chief Tozo had to get into the fray as well…….

Once all of the animals were on the ground it was time to get them to the bouma (a specially constructed pen to hold the animals for several weeks of acclimation).

The crates were carefully removed from the plane…..

….loaded on the trucks…..

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…and the people piled in, filling every empty slot……

….and off we went!!

There was even a drone in the air following our progress!!!

We were riding in a truck that had two cats in the back.   One of them was quite upset and kept growling and scratching her claws along the bottom of the crate floor. It was an eerie sound!!  

When we arrived at the bomas there was a LOT of milling about and discussions about which animals were going in which pen!!

Michael enjoyed getting into the act by carrying one of the crates into the boma…..

The first Cheetah was carried into the pen…..

….and released by Chief Tozo….

I stood outside the fence to watch the release.

But then when the next set were released, Mark said that any of us could come into the boma as long as we were quiet.   Oh my….I get to be IN the pen with the Cheetahs!!!!

Mary and Dan released the next two….two BIG males.  They were so muscular and amazing to watch.

In the next boma, four siblings were released at the same time.  These guys BLEW out of the crates and started circling the pen.  As you will see in the video, one of them ran headlong into the boma fence but, fortunately, wasn’t hurt!!!

As they circled back to the gate-side of the pen, we were told to “GET OUT FAST”…..they did NOT have to tell me twice!!!   It was interesting to watch the guys as they put themselves in between the Cheetahs and the gate.   They were determined that the cats were going to stay inside of the boma!!!

The last three were a bit more placid but still growled as they fled the crate.   That growl made the hair stick up at the back of my neck!!!! 

We quickly left the newcomers to explore their new surroundings and joined the party that was already in progress in camp!!!

On the day before we left, we rode back over to the boma to check on them and got a momentary glance at one of them…..

….before he laid down in the shade of the tree…..

They all look pretty content and I expect that soon they will be released into the wilds of Coutada 11. I can’t wait to hear about their lives in future years!!!

It was a privilege to be a part of this historic day…..the day that Cheetahs were returned to the Marromeu Complex of Africa!!!