Monday 11 August 2008

I have now left Namibia and am currently in Pretoria, South Africa and Ruth is in Cape Cod, USA where we both have work commits for the rest of the year. Analysis of our data from Namibia is ongoing and we plan to have a report of our field season complete by mid-Sept, which we will pass around to interested parties.

Updates on the blog will slow down from now on but I'll keep it updated with news of funding and requests etc. For now - we're looking for a boat for next year and hope to raise funds to buy one and we're also looking for a 4x4 which we need for beach surveys for stranded animals and towing the boat etc. Ideally we'd like to get a vehicle sponsored or loaned for the project.

Once again - thank you to everyone in Namibia who helped us out this year. We feel that we had a great and very successful season and we couldn't have done it without all the help and support we received from everyone there - too many to mention here!

Saturday 2 August 2008

I'm still in town as I'm trying to sell our little Golf that we were using during the season to get us around town. This week, together with John Paterson of the Albatross Task Force, I got roped into helping NACOMA out with their launch of the new Coastal Awareness Programme. The launch ceremony was held at the Raft Restaurant in Walvis Bay, where the Minister of Environment and Mayor (among others) were speaking. John and I and a few other local paddlers had to kayak past the venue bearing the standards with the new branding. Seemed to be a successful launch and we wish them all the best with the project. The "kayaking with banners" obviously hit it off with the media too as we made two of the papers the next day. All in all, it was an amusing day out and a much needed break from data crunching.







Had nearly 100 pelicans fly over the house this afternoon - a really striking sight, and their wings make a surprising amount of noise too as they fly along.