Caden's big day!

So, this post is going to be a tag-team effort between myself and Ryan. I’ll take the beginning and ending and he’ll be sandwiched in between. It’ll be fun!

Today is all about Caden, and we’ll start with a little learning experience he had last week with an “ouchie” bug. He’s about the age where it’s important to understand that he can’t just grab and pick up everything he sees in nature, and since we’re in Africa these lessons are even more important. He’s learning that snakes and bugs and spiders are all very cool, but some of them can actually hurt him, so it’s best not to touch without asking first.

After walking around outside with him all morning, I came into the cabin, threw my shoes off and discovered a tick on my foot. Eww… but a prime learning opportunity! So we went out onto the deck and I let him look at the ouchie bug on Mommy’s foot before I pinched it off and put it in a plastic carton so he could safely “hold” it and study it. 

It was an experience both fun and educational; what more could I ask for?

Now I’ll pass the laptop over to Ryan and let him share the most exciting part of this post.

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Greetings family and friends! It is I, the elusive guy-who-doesn’t-blog-very-much, and at long last it’s time for my first entry. I finally have a bit of a break from capture work today, so I thought I would take a minute to share a really wonderful experience that Caden and I were able to share with Rui Branco (our park veterinarian), his 4-year-old son Diego, and our esteemed helicopter pilot Mike Pingo about a week ago. 

The GPS collars I’m putting on antelope here have a remote release mechanism that allows me to send them an e-mail via satellite and release the collar from the animal when the battery begins to get low. By the time we arrived at Gorongosa this year I had already released all of the collars from 2014, and my field assistant Flavio had managed to find most of them (they continue to transmit their GPS location to me even after they’re released). However, there were two collars that were a long ways out into the bush and inaccessible by vehicle. So, in the midst of our helicopter-based capture work, we decided it would be most efficient to just fly out there and pick them up.

This was not an opportunity to be wasted though! There was no darting to be done on this particular trip, just a short flight out and back, with a little bit of radio-tracking on the ground to locate the collar. Caden had been begging to go on the helicopter since it arrived, and Rui’s son, who happened to be visiting for the week, also badly wanted a ride. At $600/hour we can’t really afford any pleasure cruises. However, since this was a trip that needed to be done for work-related reasons anyway, we figured why not bring the kids along!

The whole thing was so exciting for them, and they both had a blast. Well, for the most part anyway (see below). Caden loved talking over the intercom, and Diego kept explaining how we were going to fly into space. Man those kids were cute together! 

When we landed at the general location of the first collar we decided that it would be best if I just hopped out to quickly find the collar while Rui stayed in the chopper with the kids. That way Mike wouldn’t have to go through the power down process, which takes several minutes. Big mistake! It only took me about 5 minutes to track down the collar, but when I returned to the helicopter it was to find Caden in tears. As much as he loves that helicopter, he did not like being left there by his daddy.

So, for the second collar we decided to make it a bit more fun for the kids. We landed a couple hundred yards away from where the collar was supposed to be, powered down the chopper, and let the kids go on a “treasure hunt” with us. We exited the helicopter into 5-foot tall grass, so we put the kids on our shoulders to walk through it as we tracked down the collar together. I would have given anything to have a picture of that experience, because it was so cool, and the kids loved it, but unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera. I know, stupid right?

Anyway, when we got within about 20 yards of the collar and I had spotted it (in much shorter grass thankfully!), we let the kids down, told them the general direction the collar was in, and had them go and search for it. They both saw it at about the same time, and man were they excited! They found it! 

Then it was back to the chopper for the 5-minute ride home. On the way we saw a nice group of elephants, and Mike circled them so that both kids got a good look. Caden didn’t have to be told what they were…”real elephants!”

So, all in all it was a great little bonus for us dads, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves a bit as well. 

Next up from me will be a capture blog, and if I can get them uploaded I have a couple cool GoPro videos of darting kudu and sable from the helicopter. Stay tuned!

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Thanks, Ryan, and now back to me again! 

Caden and Diego had so much fun together. Caden doesn’t often get playmates out here, but for about a week he had a buddy his own age (+ one year) to play with. Every day Diego, who woke and ate breakfast much earlier than our kid, would wait for Caden to finish eating so they could play for hours on the swing set next to the restaurant. 

So on the same day Ryan took Caden for a helicopter ride, we also went to the beach for a relaxing evening. Not the beach at the ocean, but the beach of the Pungue—the same river that Caden and I crossed in order to get to the grocery store. We three were there, along with Rui, his son Diego and his father Antonio, Diego’s nanny, whose name I could never quite get, Mike and Anthea Pingo, and Louis Van Wyck (a good friend of Rui and Ryan, and a professional game capturer from South Africa).

As I’ve said in a previous post, the Pungue is a deceptively fast-flowing river, and there is always the chance of crocs in the water, even if they wouldn’t come up on land with that many people there. So we drew a line in the sand that Caden and Diego were not allowed to cross and Antonio volunteered to be the “bouncer” at the line, because for a little while Caden, being Caden, tended to think that “don’t cross the line” was a game of Let’s see what I can get away with. The line was well away from the river so there was no danger of Caden falling in, and soon he lost interest and went back to playing in the sand (i.e., purposefully fall down the side of sand dunes over and over again), or running around with Diego, or throwing sand into his own face, or tackling Diego etc.

Yes. He did, in fact, throw sand in his own face.

It was so nice, just sitting there, laughing with friends. A relaxing end to a very full day.

Happy Father's Day!

Caden had a surprise for his daddy yesterday, and he has a message for Pops, Papa, and all our friends.

Crossing the Pungue

This has been a big week for us, and it’s funny how quickly that can happen! One minute we’re all having dinner at the restaurant, and the next someone mentions a trip to the grocery store and anyone who wants to go says, “sign me up!”

Four and a half of us (Matt, an employee here at the park, Anthea, the wife of Mike the helicopter pilot, Megan, a visiting student from Trinity Collage in Dublin,  me and Caden) headed to Chimoio on Friday morning. And this trip was exciting for me because we were getting to town by a little bit of a different route than last year. We met at the Chicalango restaurant at 8am and had a quick bite to eat before hitching a ride with a scientist who was driving down to the Pungue river. 

Caught mid-sneeze.

Little man still has his breakfast muffin.

 

Walking the last little bit to the boat.

Just your average trip into town.

After crossing the river, which was wide and shallow and had a much stronger current than it looked like, we walked for about 10 minutes to the hospital where Andres’ truck was parked—he was letting Matt borrow it for the day.  

 

At the hospital Matt showed Caden how to pump water like the locals do. And then off we went down this horrendously bumpy dirt road. Now, when I say “horrendously bumpy” what I want you to visualize is a cowboy trying to hold on to a bucking bronco. That’s how bumpy it was!

And Caden fell asleep anyway. Sometimes I don’t get that child. I’m sitting next to him trying to hold on to my teeth and he’s nodding off in his carseat.

Once we were in Chimoio we, of course, took care of the most important things first and stopped at an ATM. Matt stayed in the car with Caden, and Anthea, Megan and I went for money. At the ATM Megan had a creepy encounter with a man who had a crisp suit and a lazy eye. He was as affectionate as a drunk, but he knew what he was about because when she jumped back from his oily smile he took her place in line… like a punk.

For the first time I considered how lucky it was that I didn’t know Portuguese, because if I were fluent, I would have wanted to give him a piece of my mind for sure!

So after that… interesting experience, we went FABRIC SHOPPING. Woo!

I learned a lot about Anthea’s shopping abilities on this trip. She doesn’t really speak Portuguese either but apparently good bargaining doesn’t require that both parties speak the same language. She was winking and smiling and pointing out flaws in the fabric and getting discounts left and right. Her skills were a wonder to behold, especially for me since I have never been a good haggler. I’m too American, I guess. I either assume the price is the price, or that offering a lower price will somehow insult the shop owner. Like Daniel Son under the tutelage of Mr. Miyagi, I have much to learn from this Bargain Master.

Surprisingly, I didn’t actually get any fabric for myself on this trip. I went into that shop with things like curtains and throw pillows on my mind. I didn’t see anything that fit the bill for either, and didn’t feel like transitioning my mind to fabric just for fabric’s sake. Shocking, I know, but I wasn’t worried. We’ll be here for a while and I’ll get another chance to buy capulanas. At least I got some fabric for another scientist who hadn’t been able to come and had sent some money and a short shopping list with me, and Caden and I both had fun looking around at everything. He kept climbing over the flatfolds and saying, “Ooh, this one’s pretty!”

 

Sorry for the bad picture. I didn’t remember to take any pictures until after we’d already left the shop. Then I had to hurry back and take a quick shot through the iron bar door that they’d closed because they were all going to lunchtime. At least I remembered to take a picture at all this time. If we go back to that shop again I will try to take a couple more so you can all really appreciate the size of this shop. The amount of fabric in there is just overwhelming!

After they’d shooed us out of the shop so they could close for lunch, the plan was that we would stop at this pizza place Matt liked and get some lunch of our own. But when we got there it was all closed up! We were all a little bummed, but Matt also knew of a really good place that served this amazing chicken, so we went there instead, but not before doing some veggie shopping at a local market. This place was the real deal, folks. Just look at those pictures!

 

 

I had shopping lists from several people that wanted fresh produce, and Matt and Anthea were both so helpful in finding the veggies and carrying the bags. Matt speaks Portuguese muito bem, so he did a lot of the questions and translating for us, but I remembered how to say a couple things and was so proud of myself when I understood the answers.

It’s the little things in life that make you happy.

After that we had lunch. That. Chicken. Was. Amazing! And they gave us so much food! We got three large plates of this awesome chicken, with salad, rice and French fries on the side, which was more than enough food for four and a half people. Lunch cost us 880.00 Meticais, which is about $30.00 US. Not bad, huh? I wish I’d gotten the name of that place…

 

Oh well. Matt knows where it is. I’ll just bug him for the address if I need it.

After that we went to the grocery store and then we drove back to Gorongosa on the main road, which was as full of car-size potholes as it usually is, but was not nearly as bad as that dirt road was. And last but certainly not least, we stopped at a roadside stand for some fruit.

Bananas! Bananas that weigh more than Caden!

 Crossing the Pungue on our way back to the park. This time we drove over the bridge instead of taking the boat.

Caden fell asleep on the way home as well, and woke up just in time to see a porcupine right outside of the park gate. It was dark, so I didn’t get a picture, but you should definitely Google the African crested porcupine. It is really neat looking.

All right people. That’s about it for this post. And if you’re wondering why this post is up mid-week instead of on the weekend, it’s because this has been a busy week, and we’ve got another post coming this Saturday, which will be centered on Caden and the big adventures he had yesterday. Sorry for leaving you on the edge of your seat… well… no, actually, I’m not.

See you then.