The terror of random communications and Tom sets forth - fully equipped (minus a plastic gun)

I get the strangest texts from Dominik, with his one bar of connection from a particular cashew tree, best received while lying on top of the Land Rover. He writes things like this...under caju w lion. heard leopard earlier. close meet ellie in day.  Or my favourite...last night vivid dream, ikcl a snake, just now I met her in my path, qhe iired n made off.  now owle franzy got a baby m the stairs and pasents attending at best.  That is transcribed for you, letter for letter - I can usually get the gist but sometimes wonder if the lion or snake has eaten him and the owl eaten a baby, or at least something has nibbled off his texting finger!

Anyway the latest communication instalment has resulted in urgent messages requesting that Tom brings yet more useful things. 

The most exciting news is that Tom the new volunteer (see previous entry) decided to go out and see what is happening for himself - he would rather be on the ground helping Dominik with the poaching problem.  So he left yesterday loaded up with all sorts of fantastic goods, bought thanks to the generosity of our supporters....GPS, satellite phone, mobile solar charger, more uniforms, more ibobrufen for Naquata (who if in UK would have a hip replacement.) etc.

Two days before Tom was due to leave - I get a crackly phonecall asking for....plastic toy guns and handcuffs.  After much searching I find them on ebay - ebay is a wonderful thing. I buy and then send pleading emails to the sellers requesting quick dispatch.

Just after putting Tom on the Heathrow bus I return home to see the postman delivering the ebay goods...so sadly they remain here.  (I am now very well equipped for Ranger impersonation in Oxford, where poaching even of Mallard ducks, is yet to be an issue ... but I am prepared.)

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day and thoughts turn to Africa.  Mareja is in an area where an estimated 1 in 10 people suffer from AIDS: sadly the real figure is likely to be much higher. 

There is a very low awareness’ of the effects of the disease and the ease with which it can now be controlled through medication. Free treatment is available in Pemba but it's a 3 hour drive away and a local witch doctor is still a much preferred option.

A new recruit - thanks to my neigbour Annabel and a game of cricket

Annabel yahooed as I approached down my street 'you must meet Tom.'  She was playing cricket at the time with her two children and Tom.  I had arrived back early from London so in fact had half an hour before dashing for an appointment about my blasted frozen shoulder. 

Well long story abbreviated Tom turned out to be an extraordinary find.  Recently left working in Tanzania and looking for a real African conservation project to work on, with a wealth of experience including army, guiding and even some biodiversity research.

So we have a new recruit, as a volunteer until I can raise funds and he has discovered whether Mareja and Dominik in the raw are to his liking and vica versa.  Anyway it does feel as though I have a fairy godmother after all.  A passionate and driven conservationist to support us and Mareja - thank you Annabel and your cricket team.

New tiles, early developments - what do you think???

This batch was not fired perfectly but I love the resulting black swirls

We run womens projects when all the harvest is in - giving them a chance to earn their own money. 

Sofiana with daughter feeding

laying large tiles -
some have a Kudu print

They do various jobs, like collecting grass to repair rooves but last year we began making floor tiles and have now, after lots of trialling, really mastered these large plain terrocota coloured tiles.  (Indeed Dominik has used them to pave every surface inside and out he can think of.) 

They are beautiful and highly practical...when fired correctly.  Over or underburning results in disintegration in the rain or brittle cracking.  The first firings were done in a large pit with much firewood, then the Donkey furnace by the house and now the new furnace which was built with the help of Jason (an ecoBrit who works in Pemba.)

Amina and Margaretta

We are now embarking on a new phase, working on smaller tiles with patterns and designs.  It is a highly interesting and experimental phase.Our local Makua tribe are not known for their art.  They make baskets, matts and beautiful cooking pots smoothed and perfectly rounded and balanced but the extent of the design is markings at the top, dots or dashes.  There is not tradition of jewellery or other mark making -unlike neighbouring tribes.  So this is a real adventure ...one I am greatly enjoying.  We all sit together and happily work in the dappled shade of the cashew trees.

So I tried to encourage them to play and explore the idea of design, creating images from their life at Mareja- with books for inspiration. Sitting in silence with occassional chat and I write down Makua in the hope they might penetrate my dry brain (Niparooto is butterfly - said with emphasis on the 'oo').  These days were probably the most fun I have had in a very long time.

Levene and her son...lending a helping hand/foot!

Two of the young women (Sofiana and Levene) have small children who eat, sleep, fiddle with clay making their own creative constructions and occassionally interfere with the process with a sudden fist or foot, but this happens surprisingly little considering their mothers attention is elsewhere.  They are amazingly skilled at working while a child is attached to a breast or slung neatly about them.  And you can't but help reflect on the benefits of this style of mothering.

They have produced some wonderful designs - using a porcupince quill or guineafowl feather. 

Here you are...

Guineafowl and cashew tree

Sable Antelope or Pala pala

Cashew tree by Amina, this is one of my favourites-
wonderful composition





Do you like these early designs?  Please let me know your thoughts.

Elephant poaching in QNP - shocking photos released

Mother and child



Here skulls gathered. We don't really know how many elephants have been killed recently.
At least 15 locally but likely to be many more.

Killed in the area surrounding Mareja within Quirimbas National Park, Northern Mozambique.  Killed for their ivory.  Ivory turned into trinkets, carved into artefacts that are sold openly in China and across Asia.

Elephants are protected by International CITES legislation - recognised as one of the most majestic and highly intelligent large mammals, from an ancient line of evolution called Afrotheria.  Their killing, trade and the making of artefacts is totally illegal.

Above a mother and baby - the baby would have had only stubs for ivory (teeth) - heartbreaking pointless slaughter. 

I am about to embark on an Appeal to better equip our local team of Rangers and increase our surveillance of the area, which stretches to 36,000 hectares of coastal forest.  These new professional heavily armed groups seem to be close to Mareja.  We provide a sanctuary for a small breeding population of now extremely frigthtened elephants.

Back with a bump: Dominik arrives in Pemba

Dominik is back in Mozambique and without car, water or refrigeration (and the hot season is well underway) ...

• car alternator broken (despite having been with mechanic for 2 months, they haven't the right screw)
• water pump totally defunct in Pemba (and no nearby river unlike Mareja)
• fridge cable chewed through by mice

He left his computer at a friend's house in Nairobi (sadly only himself to blame) and more devastatingly his bags didn't arrive with him in Pemba.  They were stuffed full of wonderful things - such as 10 new rangers uniforms, night lights and the usual mysterious and essential plumbing parts.

So all in all a bad start....not to mention the news that the armed poaching groups are on the Mareja border.

10 elephants killed in 11 days at Taratibo

Ivory poaching has been on the increase but we have just received news of a MASS slaughter at Taratibo.  A reserve run by Jacob (a cousin of Dominik's) the only other conservation project within the Park - it is a particularly beautiful area with a large Inselberg range.  How devastating for Jacob and what a huge dent in the small population of elephant in this area.  Jacob has a good local ranger force but the poachers were heavily armed with automatic weapons and supported by a helicopter that removed the ivory.  Locals say the poachers are planning to return.  We must put everything in their path to stop them getting to Mareja. 

Sign of a new born elephant at Mareja 

Only yesterday Dominik was telling me about the elephant birthing grounds that are near the house. When a female makes noises to indicate she is giving birth, all females within range trumpet back and form a protection ring against predators.  Time for trumpeting from the human world.

poachers retaliate - wild fires rage

Apparently fires have been lit all around Mareja and even below the house. The Rangers found a poachers camp and confiscated nets and snares.  They then scuttled away before the poachers returned.  Fire making is a skill everyone has with or without matches and it is very effective, used to drive game into your net, push them into a snare rich zone or temporarily wipe out a habitat.  The hope is that they were not really 'hot' fires which devastate all flammable life.  However, at this time in the season the land is getting pretty dry, so they could be...

Every year there is a programme of early burning.  And we managed, what felt like, a good amount this year trying to create 'breaks' so that the big hot fires can't take hold.  I drove as others dabbled their fire sticks into thick knots of vegetation (fire sticks made from bamboo shredded at the end like a loobrush or knots of grass tied into bundles). 

These burns are done along roads and tracks so the breaks are linear.  Dominik particularly wants to protect the rich and rare mountain vegetation.  But the thought of this uncontrollable force of nature manufactured for maximum effect is really worrying. You can only imagine the panic in the animal world when they hear that deep crackle of hungry fire.  And apparently a 3 day fire came really close to the house, they have estimated about 5,000 hectares of fire.

Intense reality...tiles, spirits and blood analysis

As usual we are doing a flying Pemba visit but this time with added urgency as we have to leave for UK in 5 days.  Much to say but in brief:

For me a time of tile making with a group  of four women (two children).  Now that they have mastered the large floor tiles, am encouraging them to explore designs.  It is a new world entirely for them and full of much excitement for me and they seem to be enjoying it greatly too.

Much illness amongst the community, Adamo has a horrendous boil in a comprising place.  Maria is suffering from various pains I can't quite understand and yesterday I took her to the Private clinic here in Pemba.  She had many blood tests that revealed great illness and were a shock (she was given an antibiotic drip and looked like a startled rabbit but I sat with here and gave her the odd mint I had (M&S curiously strong...and comforting).  She is now armed with 6 types of medication and we will take her back to Mareja today to her natural environment.  She has a chronic womb infection and syphillis but sadly that is not it and the last condition the doctor decided to keep from her for now.  The reality of life here involves major illness with an average life expectancy of 47, Maria is 37 and we must now get her the medication she needs to prolong her life as much as possible.  (Dominik is also trying to locate a councillor who suffers from the same condition and speaks Machua, as there is potential confusion, fear and stigma to try to overcome.)

An alarming turn after a happy day of tile making was a sudden call early evening as Ali's wife had 'developed madness'.  We visited to discover a terrifying night attack of wild screaming and voices where she had to be restrained.  We tried, crammed into her smoke filled dark home, to help calm her but she was consumed by a world far from our reach and had to be driven to Nanduli yesterday.   She usually had the broadest most beautiful white smile which has quite disappeared and been replaced by a deep reflective scowl. They say she is possessed by a spirit which arises from a time when she was enslaved during the war of Independence and suffered who knows what terrors.

There are reported armed Poachers on the Mareja border.  They have apparently killed many many elephants using AKAs and armory only associated with the Police or Army - a new twist to have guns involved.  Our Rangers have been flakey lately so there has been much discussion and work to improve their drive and commitment.  They are focusing patrols around our elephant strong holds.  We seem to have more elephants present than usual so they may be fleeing towards a safe haven.  Dominik is strategising and working hard - all his fears may be coming true.

On a light note I have had some clothes made by Josephina - African materials into simple but striking outfits and a few presents to add a bit of colour to the European palette.

Plans on hold - malaria and a common cold

Stuck in Pemba for the 5th day.  Dominik recovering from malaria and I have a cold (obviously less serious).  Wish we didn't live opposite the main hospital with the pavements piled high with people awaiting  treatment.  Our Pemba home could be described as the Infection Hotspot of the North, not quite idyllic coastal living...we don't even have a view of the third largest bay in the world to speed recovery.

Sengi course run at Mareja by Galen and Peter

Harith (Ecology Tutor at Unilurio, Pemba) wrote in his feedback: initiatives like these are fundamental to the growth of the biology students not only from Cabo Delgado but from Mozambique.  With these 3 days we could live and learn with the kind of people we all want to be like in the future.

Whenever we have visiting specialists at Mareja it is our express wish to involve locals were we can and in particular enable them to share and benefit from their passion, professionalism, skills and knowledge.

It is widely acknowledged that Mozambique needs to build its capacity for research and conservation so it can better manage its great and diverse natural resource.  There are huge holes in its current expertise, so it relies on visiting specialists and a small team based in Maputo at Eduardo Mondlane or the Natural History Museum. 

It is also recognized that the country's biodiversity resource is severely threatened by persistent and increasing factors - farming, development and exploitation for logging, mining and poaching.  As one of the country’s most at risk from climate change, due to its large coastal line, the preservation of its coastal forest is paramount.  Mareja supports 36,000 hectares of this unique habitat, sub tropical coastal miombo forest, an ecosystem that makes it a Global Biodiversity Hotspot.

Early this year we signed an MOU with the newly established local university UNILURIO and Quirimbas National Park (QNP). Unilurio offer two degrees, in IT and Biology - subjects that reflect areas of great economic growth and importance to the country.  However the university has limited resources with no laboratory and only 15 titles in its library.  But it has attracted 120 students who are currently studying Biology and it has aspirations, such as, to employ Tutors with a relevant MSc qualification within 5 years.

Galen and Peter only had three weeks to achieve their objectives but they made time for a 3 day course for four key individuals, two top students and a newly employed Ecology tutor, Harith, and Snr Denga, Head of Research at QNP.  They ran a practical field course offering insight into Sengi and their research.

One of the objectives of the workshop was also to teach the British and American style of discussive learning, creating an informal 'tutorial' atmosphere where questions and debate are encouraged.  (They tend to use a more lecture based style of teaching here in Mozambique.)

It was a hugely successful few days full of hands-on learning, much discussion - fuelled by homemade fare, Peter's contagious interest and Galen's life experience as one, if not the, leading Sengi specialist.

Here 'papa' (sweet maize meal) for breakfast prepared by Antonia and served by Maria

- topped with nuts, banana and Mareja honey

MANN Mission: we mount the ex army truck and head to Nanduli..in search of a goat

Ali: left look out

Without question one of the strangest trips of my life.  Imagine a huge army truck, really huge dating from 1960's built for the Cold War and imported from Germany by Dominik to Durban and driven overland. 

We have two lookouts precariously balanced on the front and a cargo of immensely excitable whooping cutana (bush knife) swinging people, and Peter - who are so enjoying the clanking, hulking dominance of the strada to Nanduli.  Dominik is driving and me and Galen are upfront perched on the unstable detachable seats that are semi covered in kudu skin and smell rather strongly of rotting meat.

Admao: right look out



Forca!  The road ahead

 The cutana wielders have been instructed to cut any overhanging branches.  And in between whenever a stretch of road without huge holes appears everyone cheers Dominik on to pick up speed.  Right at the front, against the metal grill that divides the cabin and large open back, is a mother and child, the child is being rocketed or poked neatly into a hole in the metal grid but like the mother she is smiling and laughing – those in the front decide she is possibly the most resilient child in history.

Usual employment of the Truck

This truck is used for road making and carrying overly large piles of wood, a huge water tank or similar.  However on this occasion it is being employed simply to go to Nanduli to... pick up a goat. 

I kept on wondering if there were other reasons to mount this exuberant voyage – but there really were not.  Well we might collect Maria who could help prepare the beds for the students arrival tomorrow but then again she could walk or bike to Mareja, and Antonio would like some shima.  So the 20km journey was to collect a goat, Maria and shima in priority order.

We have had a run of tyre problems on the Nissan indeed three flats and two innertubes peppered with holes.  Dominik has tried every sort of patch and fixative and many days have been spent pumping, clamping, jemmying, gluing to no avail.  Now  message has been sent for two replacement tubes with or without Mechanic to come to Mareja.  Thus we have to take the MANN truck as the Nissan is wheel-less.

Shima, milled maize

The  most surreal moment of all was on approach to Nanduli, everyone started chanting M-a-reja, M-a-reja, M-a-reja.  Sounding like vagabond war mongers, I was sure all of Nanduli would be in hiding or armed to the teeth.  But in fact not - the whole town surrounded the truck and added to the already highly charged excitable occassion. 

We bought The Goat... 

Nanduli by night

a poor goat for the Mareja community party on the Scientists last night.  Galen had bought it as a thank you to the community, providing a great treat and feast, so my feelings about goats had to be suppressed.  (I find them exteremly endearing, with their wonderful coloration and willful ways.)  Ours was trussed up in the back of this most uncomfortable of transport methods.  We also bought an immense about of shima (12kgs) but Maria surprisingly didn't want to come back with us...oh  how wise

...no more than 100m outside Nanduli we heard the regular low thud of a flat tyre - but not any flat tyre a huge hulking tyre flattened.  Suddenly the jubilant arrival in Nauduli ebbed away and the dark and cold set in.   Adamo forgot the jack - how was he to know this trusty stead would get a flat tyre too?  Four hours later the tyre has been replaced for one of the extras on the back.  Many free riders had headed back to Nanduli and others had lit a fire.  At this time of year the nights are freezing.

In all it was an eight hour round trip to Nanduli and back, and a rollercoaster of emotions.  Now the goat is tethered awaiting the party (thankfully unaware)

Learning to prepare a study skin

By night or twilight (depending on the days progress) Galen and Peter prepared their specimens for transport and more importantly for preservation as scientific museum specimens. (They have a collecting permit for 8 of each Sengi species.) They were neatly and expertly skinned and then stuffed, turned into ‘study skins’.  It is something I have always wanted to know how to do. 

Having worked at the National History Museum in London, as part of my job I have investigated most corners and storerooms to examine their extraordinary collections and stood eye to eye with preserved large animals, all but alive... for the glass eyes and elements of slight curl or fading that set in over time.  Images are etched deep, such as the baby elephant prepared by the great Taxodermist Rowland Ward, so life like it is turning as if it has just spotted you or the Black Maned Lion now extinct from the Cape in South Africa.  Or the large collection of Giraffes in the storeroom in Wandsworth were necks are separated from bodies for economies of space and placed carefully next to their matching body - the slender necks form a wonderful dappled grove with the heads as a low-lying canopy you could almost touch.  Or the small Victorian cabinet on display in the museum, crammed full of hummingbirds that glitter prepared with their habitat and scattered amongst the trees like Christmas decorations.

Peter was taught the skill and quickly picked it up, being very dexterous and careful.  For some reason I would always alight on the stuffing scene, which was sharply illuminated by their head torches, just as Peter had finished neatly putting a kebab stick with twissled cotton wool into the tail and was embarking on brushing or stroking the specimen with a toothbrush.

Towards the end of their trip Galen very kindly taught me to prepare a specimen.  I so enjoyed my lesson, once I had detached myself from the living creature that was still warm in my hands and imagined its great value as a sample of its morphological and genetic evolution - I had the opportunity to examine it closely and did.

I have always wanted to try this art, there is a difference between preparing study skins which preserve the features as much as possible and a taxidermy specimen that preserves the pose of life.  Mareja Sengi are being prepared flat with feet neatly and directly forward and back, not the most comfortable pose but they can be stored and studied to best advantage.

In haste...Termite mound makes feeble telephone station

Momentarily back in Pemba to collect food and deliver two Rangers to a guide course.  Set off rather late and two flat tyres later arrived!  However, this all feels like a holiday after the intense but (almost) comical patch we have just had in the bush.  ...All to do with me needing to send a vital funding bid with only a whisker of connection from one termite mound...and then my computer battery failing again and again until we wired it up to the car. 

A summary of events in pictures.


1. At the moment mobile connection is particularly bad on the reserve so we plan to drive to Pemba so I can send my funding application by the deadline at 12pm on 20th June.   Just before leaving Dominik unexpectedly goes on a drive to check some road work.  I wait and wait, until I recieve news that he is in a large hole....

2.  The Nissan is completely lodged and has to be pulled out with the huge German army MANN truck.  Now it is too late to drive to Pemba, we decide to try the Termite mound and  just hope it works...



3.  A shot of the communications hub

4. And here is the termite mound, the few feet of elevation makes a small but significant difference.  After a long, painful hour of trying eventually the document went, well it registered 'sent'...

Bush living is not without its stresses, in fact on such occasions they crescendo to a fever pitch rather like cicadas at Christmas.  I hardly slept wondering if 'sent' actually meant 'received'...?

Trapping SUCCESS and we eat cake

Only day two of field work but Galen really wants to catch a Rynchocyon and Peter says he will be on valium if they don’t within a week.  They are particularly hard to trap. But trapping them is their entire focus, only then can they begin the process of seeing if they are a new sub species or even species. 

As they appear up the forest path, they are clutching a bag (old pillow case) that contains something, it seems large.  Yes, they are smiling, they have caught one, the mysterious Giant Elephant Shrew.  It is an amazing creature, dark rusty brown with darker lines and spots along the back and a deep orange bottom.  The nose is elongated to a point and very mobile, with its twitching and effective end.  It has dark currant eyes.  It is placed in the loo with natural vegetation, logs, much foliage, for some photographs –( and the loo looks like the corner of a hotel lobby where the brief is ‘natural’ or a perhaps a local museum diorama.) 

Rynchocyon sp.

Notice the mobile tip to its nose

We go in to see the setting and the Sengi is released and immediately runs up Dominik's back behind his shirt and hides under his arm, pocking his long nose out of the short sleeve.  It is so endearing and Dominik feels protective of this wild creature that has found good refuge. His currant eyes are now matched by D’s doe eyes, and it is clear that he is wondering about it as a pet.  Galen stiffens the mood and pops it back it the bag.  We remind ourselves that this beautiful creature could be an ambassador for its species and hopefully enhance the spotlight on conservation at Mareja.

In no time it is prepared and stuffed, pinned on cardboard and drying in the sun. 

(The chickens have to be watched, they have discovered the centre of Operation Shrew and the scraps left by the dissecting process under the table.  Destroying the final carefully prepared specimen would be a disaster on a global, biodiversity hotspot, scale.)

Throughout this I am working hard preparing a fund-raising bid with Oxford University, the deadline is approaching and we have much hope pinned on this bid. It will support research and the development of a Biological Field Station at Mareja for the local university, Unilurio in partnership with Quirimbas National Park.

Also I decide it is a cake baking day, so the furnace is lit.  Dominik is making a drainage channel around the loo involving the new tiles and music.  We rarely have music playing, in fact never during the day.  But it has created a happy non speaking environment for everyone.  In the later afternoon, at the table by the swing, Peter and Galen are preparing their Sengi, dissecting, dusting with maze meal and stuffing with cotton wool. 

After the cake mixture is carefully divided between tins, Antonio prepares the furnace as only he can, removing the larger coals which narrowly miss his feet.  I go to help Galen cut his nets in half, to double his capturing capacity, with a tin mug of tea for us both.  I have a view of D with trowel in hand to my left with Peter beyond with many small tools and a pinned out Sengi in front of him.  I reflect on the scene as we stretch the nets the length of the main domestic area of Mareja, then The Killers sing us into the sunset. 

One of those moments to hold onto - surreal and wonderful.

First full day in the field and a WELCOME ceremony

There are two trapping methods for the species that is of greatest interest Rynchocyon, low nets and Tomahawk traps.  It is intensive work, nets are opened early and checked twice, then closed at night and traps are checked three times, left open at night and checked at first light.

Success, four smaller elephant shrews caught, Petrodromus tetradactylus (Four-toed Elephant Shrew).  They are beautiful things, with cream rims to their eyes and large rounded ears, with slightly comical pointed noses and elegant thin legs, the back ones elongated for jumping. 

At dusk there is a ceremony to welcome our scientists – Untamar and the new young Queen have visited to clean the graves.  We gather at the main grave site where the three Barons are buried including the first.  (Untamar is the fifth Baron of Mareja).  Muslim chants lead into animalist thanks and request for guidance.  We are all crouched and listen intently to the Machua, then Portuguese then English translation.  A waft of incense floats from the shovel of hot coals outside the first baron’s grave marked out with head and foot stones and covered in a small grass roof.  Thanks for the harmony between black and white people here at Mareja, that no troubles have come with the white people, that the scientists may leave with all they hoped for, and that a willingness for good remains.

ELEPHANT SHREWS...Ranger induction and I learn more about this fascinating creature



A world map and distances travelled by Peter and Galen
to Mareja to research...see drawing

The first day of field exploration for Galen and Peter and it began with an introduction to the Rangers.  The shrew mission was explained with maps and images, drawn with battery charcoal on the terrace floor.  They recognise the long nosed creature, and know of two ‘types’ locally Mpili larger and russet-brown, this is the exciting one a Rynchocyon sp. and another known as Rete smaller and later identified as Petrodromus tetradactylus (Four-toed Elephant Shrew). 

Four Rangers troupe off to show Galen and Peter some Mpilii and Rete habitat. An hour or so later and they return having seen two elephants but no shrew.  The name Elephant Shrew is somewhat misleading as it is not related at all to the Shrew however it is an ancient relative of the Elephant belonging to an order of mammals that emanate only from Africa the Afrotheria. 

Afrotheria include a wonderful  and diverse mix of other relatives, dugongs (seacow), aardvark, hyrax, golden moles and elephants.  There are 17 known species of Elephant Shrew (also called Sengi the Swahili name), very few and they are only found in East and North Africa and devoid from the Sahara and West.  They are best described as a cross between a miniature antelope and anteater.  I also learn from Galen they are monogamous, territorial and nurture their young by the ‘female absentee system’ which means the mother only feeds them once a day.  But her one or two young are born fully formed and ready to run and defend themselves.  Galen is one of only a handful of specialists who study Elephant Shrews, surprising considering their unique and fascinating ways.

After the first foray into the bush our scientists are full of renewed vigour, I think heartened by the signs of life and potential Sengi habitat.

We also see some wildlife....D and I go on a small drive to the damn and then beyond.  On returning guinea fowl and baboon are making a din.  We stop and there is a Serval about 50 m ahead with its long spotted and striped tail flicking as it saunters off along the track.  D manages to fix its face in the binoculars.  A clear view of a red data species

Start of Operation Shrew: Peter and Galen arrive to research Elephant Shrews or Sengi

It was wonderful to see Peter, safely arrived with bags of mammal equipment and ready for his second visit to Mareja and meet Galen from Calafornia Academy of Science.  Galen commented that he was entrusting himself to a 21 year old from UK and trekking across the world to an unknown location with his unknown companion.and he thought perhaps I am mad!  In fact he was right to trust his instinct, they make a fantastic research duo.  And wry, warm, wise companions for us.  We stocked up on additional kit such as cotton wool, chicken wire etc much food and set off.

There were a number of particularly intense and frenzied vegetable  buying stops on the road, enhanced by the night and general air of Nipper (the local schnapps).  A sea of hands, faces and baskets full of various goods filled every lookout point and were accompanied by much shouting.  Many things bought, tomatoes, cabbage, manuka, mysterious beans, matapa (a green leaf), aubergines.  Every last crack in the already packed boot of the Nissan filled with packets of damp, awkwardly shaped but fresh food. 

Whenever I turned round to feed these purchases backwards I was greeted by a view of our 3 companions all different ages and heights but all conveying a sense that they wanted to be there amidst the growing cargo.  Maria (Mareja cleaner and helper) was perched highest in the middle seat particularly enjoying the ride despite sitting on a roll of chicken wire.  Peter managed to find guava at one of these stops and it turned out to be a wonderful, exotic addition to the only two fruit we found, a rounded yellow banana variety and unripe oranges (on day two of eating it more light was shed than usual in the dining room and to my surprise I discovered it was an intense sugary pink colour, dotted amongst the yellow and orange it looked beautiful by candlelight.)

In the Mareja village a very warm welcome from everyone despite the dark.  I am getting more used to unpacking by the flicker of torch light, you mostly do it by feel, texture and shape.

My first stop was the new ecohouse to see what damage the big rains had done.  But it is hardly scathed, a few termite trails over the lime finishes and a bat or two in the bamboo eves, but in fact it looks homely and effectively hand crafted.  Peter and Galen draw straws to sleep there or in the ensuite with its own extended (huge) colony of bats in the ceiling, hidden but apparent. 

Peter gets the ecoroom, the Swallow or Red Room.  The other ecoroom the Hornbill or Green Room is still not quite finished it is suffering from the low-grade imported plumbing fittings.  I have come armed with ½”flexi pipe bought from the Plumb Centre on the

Botley Road, Oxford

, and hope it will solve ALL problems.  (However things are rarely compatible here despite ever effort to measure and shop wisely – the thread, washers or some fine detail usually let you down.)  A DIY aside.

10th JUNE stranded in Niarobi - my plans burst like a water balloon

Am full of self-pity today, my first year wedding anniversary.  This entry could be regarded as an abuse of blogging protocol - no wildlife and no bush but perhaps writing into the blog abyss might make me feel a little better.

I arrived in Nairobi early yesterday and then after some waiting discovered my connecting flight was cancelled, no explanation just not going.  Feeling already rather feeble after 3 weeks of illness and ladened with all sorts of packing, in 4 cumbersome bags together weighting 40 kg, I just melted.  It was all so carefully planned I would arrive the night before our wedding anniversary having not seen each other (or had the benefit of his nursing skills) for nearly a month.  There was nothing to do but cry publicly and unreservedly. Everything went pop - like a water balloon, me and my plans.

Chris a friend very kindly offered me a bed.  Today he has had to go and now here I am alone in Nairobi with the thick air of traffic fumes and the sound of cars and children playing.  Sometimes days just have to pass. 

Tomorrow I should be off - now that two days have been lost, rather alarmingly I will have to go more or less straight into the bush.  I usually find the intensity of Mozambique overwhelming and need to acclimatise before facing nature in the raw.

Our guests Peter and Galen will arrive before me, the scientists leading operation Elephant Shrew.  Ha, there we go, not quite as I had planned.  Hope to be full of renewed energy when I next put finger to keypad.

WARNING HEALTH NOTE: Tropical Medicine Unit...in Oxford

The papers are full of discussions about the NHS - and the great variety of performance across the hospital landscape against the decision to freeze funding. I can't begin to offer you a rounded view but I do have a small insight from my own recent experience.

My health has been boringly overwhelming and after recovering from pleurisy I suddenly had an excruciating headache and very high temperature that resulted in being sent to the Tropical Medicine Unit in Oxford. (And I have now had to postpone my flight again to Moz.)

We were greeted by sweet but distracted nurses, the usual morass of grey corridors, strip lighting and that all consuming smell of cheap disinfectant - and when we arrived at 10 am on Friday all the doctors were in a meeting.  So despite having been prepared for my arrival, the greatest concern being cerebral malaria, I had to wait.

Then an hour later large quantities of tests taken and much examination by two nice doctors and I felt monitored.  I explain that I would rather go home to wait for the results - which have been marked 'urgent', sent to the lab and should take no more than 2 hours.

At home I wait and no call, we ring and are told the doctor will ring us if there is anything to report. I am battling with such a bad headache and temp just below 39C, my really wonderful GP Dr Curtis comes round and gives me a prescription for stronger pain killers, codeine/paracetamol.

The next day we ring again, and are told once again that the doc will ring us.  Eventually he does ring, a different doctor, and says quite calmly...the malaria results were not processed. 

Arh what does that mean?  You lost them? 

No, no absolutely not they were just not processed?  And they expire after 24 hours, so you need to come back for more tests. 

There is one comfort, I couldn't have cerebral malaria and survive this, so by default it is not that!  My great dislike of hospitals is being tested (re-tested). 

In Mozambique health care is basic to an alarming degree, unless you have malaria and pay to go to the small private clinic in Pemba, where you have a blood test and a result in 30 minutes (and Cuban doctors prescribe the most appropriate antibiotic.)

On this point we may be worlds apart.  In the British National Health System 'loosing' seems to be a greater crime than just 'not processing'!  Two days later I was processed and I don't have malaria (although they did add that I should have three consecutive tests to be 95% sure).  But next time I or those around me have suspected Malaria lets hope it is in Mozambique!

PS - just to reinforce the varied health 'landscape' here, my GP is quite exceptional.  The landscape analogy is proving problematic I don't like a flat landscape (e..g Norfolk) - better stop my wonderings, blogging with a temp may not be a good thing.

SUCCESS - permit issued and small mammal research can commence

That little paperclip symbol attached to an email can offer such joy.  Today it was an attached collecting and export license for small mammal research at Mareja.  Authorised nationally by Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and the Natural History Museum issued by their Director.  Many thanks to Snr Guissamulo for facilitating this process.  Now we can forge ahead with this planned research and welcome Peter and Galen on to the reserve in June.  Very happy day.

News flash: Hasso's babies are dug out by Constantin!

Here they are, four in all and rather like over fed velvet-clad slugs.

Constantin couldn't bear the suspense any longer and dug them out of the fox den Hasso had created.

So Anne wins but I learn more about running a betting 'book'...there should be no room for interpretation.  Are they black or do they have a brown hue?...if so Manuel also wins.  (If you haven't read the earlier entry none of this will make any sense.)

THANK YOU to my new Followers on May Day

...a full 20 (including myself and one hidden profile!)  Thank you so much. 

I am soon off to Africa again after our extended stay.  The winter here has quite passed and the rain there is slowing...and more importantly the Swallows have arrived! A sure sign that we should fly back.  Though I find it so hard to leave England as it bursts into life.  The energy, fervour and colours of Mozambique are thrilling and challenging but... 

on May Day, as bluebells appear in carpets, white hawthorn replaces pink cherry blossom and nightingales begin to sing, for me nothing compares to the green and intricate beauty of our isle.  And it makes me want to watch Morris dancers and drink yet more tea. 

I discovered at the weekend that my love of Morris dancing may be genetic, they originated over 500 years ago from the Cotswolds and reach their peak of skipping, whooping and jangling around whitsun - so May is their busiest month.  Sadly they are a male phenomena, so I can only watch.

HAPPY May Day.

INSECT journey: Mariel's progress from remote beginnings

In the Summer one of the Oxford University Expedition objectives was to begin to develop INSECT TRANSETS and long-term monitoring at Mareja.  This requires the Rangers and hopefully our new connection with Unilurio (the University in Pemba) to follow up and collect twice a year.  And potentially we could even involve interested visitors in the project.

But information gathered will open up the world of insects for us and help build a picture of: habitat diversity, species composition, and highlight changes and impacts from pressures such as hunting to climate change.  Vital data that will support our actions, build awareness and direct our management.

It is a many staged process and it is very hard to imagine that from sunny days collecting in the field that these steps will progress smoothly or at all ...and result in identification at Oxford Natural History Museum... and recording in an esteemed data base or publication for all to access and disseminate.

The two greatest hurdles where finding the right alcohol mix to preserve the insects and getting export licenses. In the end small bottles of 90% medical alcohol and toxic cheap vodka (pineapple flavour!) were located in Pemba and mixed up to make enough preservative.  Then gettinng the export license was a whole other saga.

But the many bags of insects ARRIVED in Oxford and Mariel has been volunteering for over 6 months to begin the sorting process and here are the results

It is very moving to see the reserve name neatly presented on labels and the insects carefully sorted and prepared for full indentification. Mozambique is very poorly represented in national collections.  

Sitting in Mareja in such remote surroundings I wish the Rangers could feel the full weight of this small but significant contribution towards science. But I will greatly enjoy showing them these photos.

Mareja LOGO, website and on going research permit anxieties

The Mareja website is nearly 10 years old and as the main tool for attracting visitors it needs attention - some would say urgently.  (Containing a very vague map and old email address for Sonya, Dominik's previous girlfriend, poor thing probably gets much unwanted correspondence.)

So at last I am doing it and enjoying the challenge of presenting the project and its many facets in an simple but evocative way -with the superb design aid of Jamie Middleton of WAI. 

We have a logo challenge, Dominik is very attached to the existing one that is figurative with many references - sable, mountain, palms to denote the fragment that was saved, river.  I think it looks like a sand dune in a very different setting, perhaps Eygpt?  He disagrees heartedly and understandably, it is a central part of the history and development of the project.  Here it is.

The question is how much does a brand matter in these settings?  One day when we have many partners, sell products for the community and are a research centre, it may be important.  Or not, the modes of operation are so different.  Would love your thoughts if you have any on the subject. 
But throughout this the ongoing concern of the last two months (and indeed much of last year) has been and is...research permits.  Last year we required two, one for plants and one for insects, for the Oxford University Students and we finally discovered that although a research license must be issued by Quirimbas National Park the research and export permits must come from the national museum in Maputo.

We are now preparing for a visiting scientist Dr Galen Rathbun (California Academy of Science) and Peter Coals (leader of the Ox expedition) and they have been sending requests and reminders to our contact in Maputo since November...as yet to no avail.  They will be coming to Mareja in June to do some exteremely exciting small mammal research but the whole trip depends on gathering these vital official permits.

To Dominik's frustration we may have to reroot our trip to Pemba via Maputo to try to gather the documents in person.  He is very keen to get back to the reserve (Jasper went on holiday a few days ago and the rains are stopping, so the season for poaching will soon begin again). Although there are other jobs that could be usefully done...such as buy a 4x4, ours had to be handed back before we left at Christmas due to an interesting complexity with its paperwork, and mattresses for the new guest rooms etc....

Or perhaps I will go alone to Maputo.  Plans will evolve, dictated by flight prices and other such practicalities.  I have never been to the capital and hear they have rather a good collection in the museum - it could be a fascinating trip.