Mission Eastern Cape! #Bred4theWild
On Friday the 27th, the harvest team set out on “Mission Eastern Cape”! The week leading up had been filled with organizing and planning and a reinforcement climber, the intrepid Mr Charl Brummer, was called to duty.
Two nesting sites had been identified and this initiated the eight-hour drive down to the Barkly East area. There was minor uncertainty on the nests status as they had not been confirmed breeding this season, but the prospects looked good as both pairs of birds were active in their territories at the time they were due to lay.
The team was very kindly hosted, fed, and entertained for (what proved to be an extended) three-night stay at the lovely farm, Birkhall, situated in the heart of the Barkly farming district. The hospitality of our hosts, Basie and Corien Vosloo, reached a new high, after our trusty land rover burst into flames midway into our first harvest. We were delayed a day but were given a Birkhall vehicle to use until we’d finished our mission.
Ok, it wasn’t quite as spectacular as a fireworks display, but after the smoke had cleared, it seemed that the starter motor had self-combusted. This didn’t, of course,happen on a busy, signal-rich road, but rather on the isolated, ‘without comms’, 4×4 route on the topside of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere!
After a brisk 2km run, Devin our youngest team member (who is dragged along specifically for moments like this) managed to commandeer James Viedge, a farmer who lived nearby(ish), to kindly tow us into action and out of trouble. This incident cost us a full day’s delay, but thanks to the kindness and generosity of our hosts, we were safe to continue our mission a mere 24 hours later.