Ed has always had a love of birds and enjoys watching them from the comfort of the mess tent through his binoculars (another part of the birthday present!). This course offered him the chance to understand these beautiful creatures better and get a bit of practice spotting and identifying them.

While the camp is closed, we are not laying idle. The rains are beginning again, which is great as they are almost a month late now and had been causing much anguish, so we have been replanting a number of flowerbeds that had been eaten by dik-diks. Read more about what we have been up to.

In late March, just when the conservancy was looking its driest, a fire broke out on the western side and blazed for nearly three days and all but destroyed 8,000 acres.

In December 2020, a survey was done of the population of Makurian, the neighbouring group ranch to Lolldaiga Hills (on our northern border), to find out which issues were causing the community the most anguish. The answers were wide-ranging; lack of employment, deforestation, overgrazing, irregular rains causing drought, lack of education opportunities…. But one answer stood out again and again; Opuntia.

During the last couple of months, we have been focusing a lot on training with the staff in order to maintain and improve our skills and staff presence around the camp. Our most recent training was on sustainability and climate change.