Back home

We are back on site after a wonderful two week break. I
am very happy to be back, as are my bowels which are
looking forward to having beans regularly again. The
tropical storm has rained on the spiny forest which has
grown about a foot as a result, turned a bit greener
and there is grass around where before there was dirt
- in the spiny forest and on site, and on our football
pitch. So the goats are very happy.
The rains seem to have brought some new birds to spot
too. :)
Expedition 35 is now underway. :) hoorah. we have
welcomed new staff members Lois, Georgie and Lalao
onsite and a bunch of new volunteers and two more
independent researchers.
Sadly, we've also already said goodbye to Fran, who
left for Tulear this morning. The group were good
humoured about their delay in Tulear. Our camion
driver was stuck somewhere on a very muddy road
and arrived a day later than we were supposed to
leave.
The camion only took 13 hours (including stops)
onto site - though I was in the 4x4 (which only
broke down once. It was fixed with a bit of
wood...!)
The journey up was even more beautiful than last
time because the rains had flooded lots of plains and
encouraged lots and lots of birds (great grey herons,
stilts and others). There was a hairy point for us on
the 4x4 though when we had to wade through a river that
was waist deep, but otherwise, the journey here was
fairly uneventful.
We've already had a day of site tours, protocols, village
tours and will be ready to throw them into the water
(not literally), tomorrow. The weather has calmed down
considerably and thankfully, my hut has almost dried out.
The damp is merciless to my arthritis unfortunately but
my pain levels are pretty low right now so I'm assuming
we'll be rain free for a few more days now. it's early
days for this expedition, but I'm optimistic that it'll
be another good one.
There'll be something a lot longer next week when
hopefully I'll have some time to write! It's all been a
bit hectic.
Thanks to everyone who wrote emails to me over christmas.
I'll reply to you all in due course - or as soon as
possible! Hopefully for next week's send.
Veloma.