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SPECIES SURVIVAL PROJECT FEEDBACK
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MY TIME IN ST LUCIA
ENDANGERED SPECIES PROJECT |
| Chris Watson giving us a regular
'newsletter'-type feedback.
Chris was doing three different projects over a period of 6 months
(Chris is very much admired by everyone on his project because despite a
hearing impediment, he is a game and intrepid explorer!) |
|
7-November - Dear all,
Starting to settle in now. The last three days have been out walking
through the bush with armed guards for company. Best has been today, these
people point out things you would never notice. Was able to observe at
close range at least 43 hippo in a pod today.
|
| The technique of the rangers with
rhino seems to be to drop their rifle and crawl up close. I was standing
about 50m from a black rhino today - fantastic. I suppose the gun wouldn't
be much use if it got grumpy. They are very short-sighted and we approach
them from down-wind, which is obviously very reassuring. Really. Most of
the time I was actually sent up a tree (from which I got a good vantage
point) which it started to run around suspiciously. All I could think
about was what I would be saying on a phone call to any of you lot - " Hi
- I'm up a tree watching an angry rhino - what are you doing?" |
| Saw many crocs, 3-4m, said to ranger,
"they're big" he said, "No, just medium. Grow up to 6m". That's metres,
not feet. Crocodiles smell of a cross between a slaughterhouse and a fish
dock. |
| Walked behind a hippo along a path.
Looks like a fat lady carrying bags of shopping down a corridor and nearly
as inadvisable to overtake. |
| Have also seen plenty of warthog,
reedbuck etc. Elephant, although the other side of a car window.
|
| Hot here. The remains of the back of
my neck are lightly grilled. Lot of rain & v variable temperature as well.
Alternates between interesting like above and dull, like food shopping.
Two other volunteers, Kathy and Sarah here as well. |
| ijafsdfa ... sorry just trying to
catch a mosquito on my keyboard! |
| Lots of love to all, |
| Chris |
| 17th November - Dear all, |
|
| Have spent the last week at Rocktail Bay involved with turtles. Only saw
two in the last week but it was worth the wait. Have spent nights up to
about one in the morning one time walking along beaches trying to spot the
things - which is fine when is not raining. |
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SPECIES
SURVIVAL page |
| It's strange going out for 3 hr walk in
bare feet but sand just grinds between your sole and that of the shoe. My
feet do ache to be honest. We accompanied the patrols - locally employed
guards who record data and also protect the turtles when they are at their
most vulnerable. There are also turtle drives along the beaches trying to
spot things. These are 4x4 loaded with tourists. We went on one of these
on the first night but didn't actually see anything then. |
| Saw a Leatherback turtle (about 1.5 m) on
its own and had a good view as it patted down its nest and meandered back
out to sea. The second, a smaller Loggerhead, I saw less of as we where
drowning in a sea of ponchos as one of the turtle drives caught up with
us. Still, was able to see laying of eggs. |
| Well worth the wait. -
Chris |
|
| 29th November - Dear
all, |
|
| Have spent the last two weeks
doing survey work. Week before was spent at Black Rock further north in the
reserve surveying a particular little reptile called something like the
Bowton's snake eyed skink. The only South African population is along a 1 km
stretch of rock on the coastline. Spent some time chasing them around the
rocks trying to catch them and getting wet. We were only supposed to look at
them and count but this was more fun. We spent the rest of the day counting
a fernlike plant which sounded something like "Sarclos ferrus." Here has the
only population in he world - big ones taken for illegal export. As they
take about 400 years to grow about 7ft, demand seems to exceed supply. This
is shaped like any big fern except with extremely vicious holly like leaves
(twice the size and twice as hard). This was combined with bushwhacking
through thorns and in a hot humid environment. |
| I enjoyed myself. I cannot get
over the number of thorns in Africa. Plants without inch long thorns are a
tiny minority jeered by other plants but loved by me. I am beginning to see
where rhino hide might come in useful. I think it will take a while for my
skin to thicken that much. |
| Spent the weekend chasing fruit
choughers and butterflies, without much success, but a good walk. |
| This week has been spent
surveying at Mkuzi, Mkhuze, Mkuze (spellings I have seen on official signs).
This was done with Xander, me, Kathy, Dave from BTCV and from the old
country, and a drafted-in volunteer called Julia from JoBurg. Enjoyed
myself, digging holes and being outside. We laid 100 small mammal traps,
sunk 6 full sized dustbins and six buckets into the ground for pitfall
traps, surrounding each bin with three 7.5 drift nets which needed the
bottom edges to be dug into the ground, in sand-forest. We did manage to
catch one gerbil, a shrew and several ants. |
| We also had the pleasure this
week of Phil and Sam from Travellers (www.travellersworldwide.com
- hidden advertising) who came to check if we were behaving ourselves.
Family - was talking to Phil - yes, I suppose if you do desperately want to
join in on my Gap year, you'd better book the air tickets now. |
| Best go now. Thanks for the
jokes about socks. There was a power cut so hence lack of email last week -
honest! |
Love,
Chris |
|
| 6th December - Dear all, |
|
| We have not had as busy a week since last
time. We had a slightly time-shifted weekend through to Tuesday, then went
back up north to Lake Sibaya to stay at a failed tourist camp which still
belongs to KZN wildlife. |
Lake Sibaya
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SURVIVAL page |
| Miles of aging boardwalk amongst the
vegetation – clonk clonk clonk brring, clonk clonk clonk brring, clonk clonk
crack crash, oops.. clonk clonk… |
| We had the facilities to ourselves without
bickering families and long queues, which is the way it should be. The lack
of human contact meant that snakes came out and wrapped themselves around
the handrails, which gave quite a nice decorative effect. |
| We were studying the area in preparation for
the BTCV group which will be here for the next fortnight. Quite a lot of
golden oldies jokes going around - “by the time we get them through this
clump, it should be lunchtime!" sort of thing. I think they might find
British pensioners tougher than they think. They might be younger, but I
don’t really know. |
| We are sitting around waiting
for them to fly into Richard’s Bay and get up here today. I probably will
have my work cut out having to be nice and sociable – I may find I’m
standing back as we have to stay in one group of 10 around the single rifle
– safety regs breed in buffalo habitat. |
| Love, |
|
| Chris |
|
| 13th
December - Dear all, |
|
| This has been another transit
week with the BTCV group – which turned out to be a fairly mixed bunch from
about 23 to 60’s, along with a local volunteer, Temba, from Mkhuze. Not
really a lot to comment on – we dug holes, carried stuff, dug more holes,
carried stuff. We did manage to catch 2 shrews in the same pitfall trap on
successive days – they go into the freezer for later positive identification
so we were starting to wonder whether the whole family would be scuttling
around in shrew heaven, where there are lots of very big crickets. Am fairly
worn out – there has been non-stop talking this week as there are 7 females
in the group but at least I
can generally get away with staying quiet. |
More information related
to
this project:
|
| The group have had to get up at
0415 this morning to go to Hluhluwe/ Umfolozi game reserve – talk about a
working holiday. |
| We have been working on military
land at Hell’s Gate on Lake St. Lucia, which makes a fairly good game
reserve. It gets the name as the lake narrows here, funnelling winds
through the gap and making it bumpy at times. People must start to pray,
though, when they get the letter ordering them to start their Compulsory
Military Service at “Hell’s Gate Training Camp”! |
| We have also been bat netting in
the evenings. Most of the time has been happily spent untangling dung
beetles from the net. We did get a few, including the butterfly bat, which
is a beautiful white and golden patterned animal. We could also watch out
for hippo –one night we netted next to a pool full of the things. We then
had plenty of fun playing “guess where the hippo is coming from in the dark”
when someone shone a light on the pool and they where no longer there! |
| They are extremely inquisitive
animals apparently. Oh good. |
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| We are going to Black Rock again
next week to do more Cycad and skink stuff. After that I will be spending
the next 3 weeks at the Croc Centre in St Lucia when Xander and Susan are
going on hols. I will be staying at BIBS then. |
| Love, |
| Chris |
|
|
|
| 21st December - Dear
all, |
|
| I have spent the last week at
Lake Sibaya with the BTCV group. During the day we have been doing a variety
of stuff such as being ripped to pieces surveying the ferox species of
Cycad, and getting up at 3:30 Friday so we could get to Black Rock at 6:00
to survey Bouton's snake eyed skink at low tide. |
| We still managed to be an hour
and half late and consequently got rather wet trying to look at what was
left of the intertidal zone, I've done all this on previous weeks, of
course, but something new was crocodile surveys at night in an approx 25 ft
boat with two rather temperamental outboards. A result of this was that I
was jumping into the water rather a lot pushing off the boat after a over
enthusiastic pursuing of crocs into the reeds and finding myself bobbing in
the water as the bottom dropped off quickly off the sand spits. I did get
into the boat rather quickly. |
| There was also a larger than
humane amount of paddling. |
| I have just booked into BIBS
[Backpackers]. A lot of people doing nothing inside, so I'm staying outside
and doing something. |
| Start at the Crocodile centre
tomorrow [on my next project]. |
Love, Chris
PS. Merry Christmas |
| Ceirios Beard
on her Endangered Species Project |
| HELLO EVERYBODY, I'm having the time of my
life out here, the first night I was here in St Lucia I went out on a night
drive and we saw a load of animals, the greatest being a leopard, apparently
their quite rare to see, im really chuffed. I've also seen plenty of hippos,
crocs, antelope, wilde beast etc. I can't list them all!
I've got the weekend off, so I was thinking of going snorkelling
tomorrow, then on Monday we've got to go and catch some crocs and measure
them, and on Tuesday I'm moving camp and going to find some other animals,
maybe even elephants. It's great out here, lovely and warm even though its
meant to be winter.
Anyway I'd best be off coz this is costing, speak to you soon, love u all
Ceirios xxxxxxx |
 |
 |
Abby Hayward on her
Endangered Species Project |
| Hi Aoife! Africa is amazing. We have done so
much since I came here, and so far it has just been like a safari
holiday! Today was the first day we did some proper work as we went into the
dune forests to do an oppourtunistic survey. Will, the other volunteer,
caught a skink of some kind and a shrew and I caught a toad. |
| The day before yesterday was the best day as
we went to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve (I think that's how you spell
it!) Steve said it was one of the most successful drives he's had as
everything came so close to the car. There were zebra crossing the road and
a herd of about 10 or so giraffe on the road side. Also just as we saw some
impala ahead, a huge bull elephant errupted out of the bushes just to our
right. They're huge but we still didn't see it behind the bushes until it
broke through them. I could have touched it it was so close. |
| Also just as we were crossing a bridge a
buffalo bull blocked the bridge and we had a bit of a mexican stand off with
it for about fifteen minutes. The accommodation is pretty basic and there
are lots of insects in the rooms but it's not a problem as you cant really
expect 5star luxury when you're living in the bush! I found a huge praying
mantis in the loo today and lots of interesting moths. |
| We are thinking about driving up to Cape
Vidal today and going to the beach which should be nice as it's about 28
degrees outside. I'll have to go now as I've got some more e-mails to write
and I'm running out of time. I'll send some photos to you when I get
back! Regards, Abby Hayward |
| Christine Barratt,
a report on behalf of herself and her daughter, Sarah
Barratt, on their time spent on the Endangered
Species Project in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park |
| I cannot begin to tell you what a privilege
it was to be on this placement. The work involved was sort of invisible,
except when it began at 4am & meant looking under stones for skinks &
insects, which was far from easy to ignore. Otherwise we were mostly just
keeping our eyes open. If one saw nothing, this was still a result, & any
sighting however minor was carefully recorded. The privilege was more
subtle. As a visitor to the project we were housed behind the scenes, in
areas closed to the general public, and with access to an expert with a deep
and caring knowledge of African wildlife, the project researcher, Xander,
who lives there with his equally generous-hearted wife Susan and their very
small son Stannis. I have a lovely photo of us all setting off for the Fig
Forest, one of the restricted areas. Xander has Stannis on his back & a
rifle in his hand! In the UK toddlers & firearms are not commonly seen
together… That’s another bonus point; I’ve never been for a walk with an
armed guard before. Here it happens all the time. |
Christine Barratt |
| The second serious rifle time was when we –
Sarah, John-the-snake-man,
Grant-the-elephant-&-other-large-creatures-psychologist, Xander & I -
went on a long hike into hippo territory. We left in the late
afternoon when the heat of the day had passed, and spent the night in a
permanent campsite in dune forest. We crossed dunes, veldt, scrubland
and more dunes, before reaching an amazing collection of about 6 dark grey
heavily-waterproofed tents, a deeply insect-ridden kitchen tent and some
awnings over high benches. |
| Everything was littered with
twigs and leaves. It was obvious that no-one had been there for months and
we soon had a fire lit. We had followed hippo tracks there – I could write a
thesis on hippo tracks, the sound of hippos and the smell of hippos, which
is not unpleasant and no doubt quite attractive to other hippos - and you
should have heard the noise they made! I had no idea that they were
such good and constant communicators. All night you could hear them
moving about and grunting to each other, and the next day they all muttered
and grumbled away while they were snoozing in the water. Unfortunately
Sarah was off-colour following a tick bite, so next day she and I stayed
behind to look after her headache while the others went off hunting snakes. |
| Anyway, you would be surprised how quickly
time passes while you are sitting next to several big animal skulls under a
bush, watching hippo wallowing. Hundreds of flamingos, both greater pink
ones & lesser white ones, stand on one leg in a line like an audience
watching the animals. Water buck drift down in single file, looking in the
heat haze like Santa’s reindeer on holiday. Storks stalk like old gentlemen
with their hands behind their backs, crane spread their wings over the water
looking for fish, great flocks of lovely birds swoop from nowhere, and all
the time the hippo exchange gossip, the news being passed from one end of
the bathing pool to another – hard to believe that they are one of the most
dangerous animals in the reserve. So the day passed. I like plants and found
an ally in Tebani, Xander’s assistant. We talked vegetation while the others
talked animals. And then we walked all the way back again, past buffalos &
through smoke, it being the season for firing the undergrowth as part of the
management of the region. Then there are the crocodiles. And the rhino.
And the people. And the weekends at Kosi Bay, with water sports, diving &
night life (a bit). And the stunning scenery of Mozambique. |
| The icing on the cake was the extra
activities included. Sarah went to the Hluhluwe game reserve before I did.
(I learnt that the name is pronounced as though the Hl was sort of Welsh
double l, though the locals made it sound more like Slushshloowy. –thought
you’d like to know so you can sound cool if you visit it.) As their car
entered the reserve an elephant was standing right beside the road just
waiting to be admired. She also saw lions, but by the time I arrived neither
were to be seen. The drought had all but dried up the rivers and mud
wallows, but lions and elephants apart we saw fifteen or so different sorts
of animals, including a black rhino that had been spooked by a game warden’s
helicopter. This was my first example of being with an experienced ranger –
in this case Action Man Steve - who said that we had seen something rare. I
heard it again on the hippo walk when during a quite a scary fight one of
the hippos was turned completely upside down by the other, so that its
little fat black stumpy legs were waving in the air like a toy in the bath,
and again on the same walk when a leopard came down to drink during the
morning. We also saw bald eagles and a pair of smart magpie kingfishers.
They have wicked shiny black beaks; I was afraid they would blunt them in
the shallow water, but somehow they didn’t and even managed to catch a fish
or two. |
| The second treat included was the boat trip
on Lake St Lucia. This came at the end of our stay, so we were a bit blasé
about the families of six or so hippos we met after our stunning sightings
of about 200 at once. We felt very smug when the boat passed No Entry signs
to waterways we had already visited with the project. Nevertheless, the
guide was extremely interesting. Just one snippet of riveting information -
did you know that hippos have delicate skin so they excrete a kind of sun
tan protection cream? No? Nor did we! And then there was the night survey.
We went out searching for snakes, which involves one person each side of the
car leaning out with a spotlight looking for snakes lying soaking up the
heat from the road. Sadly it was cold and threatened rain, so we only
trapped two, one a brown house snake and the other an egg eater. When I
asked how such a small snake could eat an egg I learnt that the egg is
swallowed whole, then the snake sort of dislocates a vertebra in its neck,
which smashes the shell. It then swallows the contents and spits out the
shell. So now you know! BUT… The great excitement of the evening came
when we rounded a corner of the track in the dark & narrowly missed bumping
into a wounded bull hippo. John-the-snake-man was driving, so we did all the
right things, retreating cautiously after what seemed like rather a long
wait with the engine switched off listening to alarming crashings in the
bushes around the truck. |
| I cannot imagine having a better
holiday, although I would like to have seen an elephant. There is an
elephant reserve not far away so if I had had more time I could have gone
there. But that is unimportant. What matters is that Xander made sure that
we had opportunities for all the experiences that make this part of KwaZulu-Natal
special, things that are rare, precious, & never to be forgotten. |
| Sarah Barratt,
feedback on her time spent on the Endangered Species Project in
the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park |
|
Sarah Barratt
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|
What experience do you feel you gained?
Matching what I know as a Biologist and a Biology teacher to actual
practical and useful situations. I learnt a lot about animal
behaviour and
wild life too. |
| What is the best thing about your
placement? The people. Xander is excellent and does everything to make
you feel welcome and settled in. He is also very flexible and his focus is
always you having a good experience. He sits with you to talk about what you
want to get out of the project and then does everything to make your time
enjoyable. He is also very professional and knowledgeable. I felt that I
learnt lots about the animals and environment. I also enjoyed catching
snakes at night and helping other researchers carry out their work. Camping
out with the hippos was excellent. |
| Would you recommend this placement to
anyone else? Yes, although it is best to visit
when Xander is there. Also, there are some times of the year that are better
to visit than others in terms of being useful and collecting data. St Lucia
is also very nice. The town is pretty, well stocked with marmite etc and
safe. St Lucia town is only 5 min down the road by car. You need an
international driving license and then Xander will let you use the car. You
also have use of the car for the whole weekend as long as you stay within
the town. |
| What type of person do you think this
placement would suit? Somebody independent and
patient with a real interest in wildlife. |
|
Was their anything that
you weren't told before you went away that you think future volunteers
should know? If you are on the Endangered Species
project you may be on your own. So be prepared to read, listen to music and
be independent. The baz bus only travels on certain days and you have to
book a few days in advance especially if it is peak season. Also, there are
other methods of transport such as the Grey Hound coach. Internal flights
are cheap if you book them in advance. Kulula is an excellent cheap airline
that does e-tickets. Don't use the Baz bus if you want to get anywhere
quickly although it is an excellent place to meet people. You need a copy of
'Coast to Coast' to book hostels. You get this book free at any hostel or
information centre. You must book your accommodation before you arrive at
least one day in advance.
Can you describe a typical
day? There were no typical days as every day was
different! but generally we got up at 7.30 and then collected equipment for
they days research. Sometimes the research was at night and so the day was
swapped around. In my placement I: Caught and measured snakes at night; Did
random sampling under rocks for snakes and lizards; went on 3 day expedition
which involved getting up at 4.30am to avoid the heat to look for reptiles
in beautiful mountain gourge; Camped overnight by a lake full of hippos;
Trained a dog to find snakes! |
NAME:
Cristina Paternoster
AGE: 33
PLACEMENT: Endangered Species
COUNTRY: South Africa |
|
What
experience do you feel you are gaining?
I feel that
with this placment, I put into practise what I had learnt about reptiles
from the FGASA Conservation Course near Alicedale (Eastern Cape). I came to
South Africa with a terrible fear of snakes - I had never ever handled one
before and although they fascinated me, the thought of being anywhere near
one would fill me with dread and make me want to run away! My first week on
the Endangered Species project was in Mkhuze Game Reserve and every morning, I
had to get up at 4am to go and look for snakes and lizards under rocks....by
the end of that week, Xander Combrink (the supervisor of the project) had me
eagerly handling small egg eater snakes and even an olive whip snake
(semi-venomous) which was a real achievement for me. |
 |
|
What is
the best thing about your placement?
The variety
of this placement was great fun and really suited me down-to-the-ground. One
week, we were actively looking for snakes and lizards, the following week,
we were doing crocodile nesting surveys and the following week again, we
would be in Sodwana Bay looking at orchids by day and nesting turtles by
night. Xander is also very accomodating - if there is an area that you are
particularly interested in (for me in Sodwana Bay, I was very interested in
finding the nesting turtles on the beaches there and one morning, we woke up
at 1am so that we could find these turtles - we were rewarded with the
sighting of one who had got stuck on the dunes just as the sun was rising -
such an amazing opportunity), he will steer the week's schedule to include
that area. I was very keen to handle snakes (mainly to overcome my terrible
phobia and it helped greatly - if I can handle a snake, anybody can) and
Xander would help me out with that at every opportunity. |
|
Xander's
enthusiasm for the project and the animals was astounding and I would find
that his enthusiasm would then rub off on me. There were plenty of occasions
that could have been perceived as potentially dangerous - such as I was sat
near a female crocodile lying on her nest (Xander's advice to me in that
situation was: "If she makes a run for it in your direction, just move out
of her way and you'll be OK!") but never once did I feel frightened with
Xander around since he gained my full trust and always made me feel at ease
at all times. |
|
What type
of person do you think this placement would suit?
Anybody who
is enthusiastic to learn about reptiles and other animals (St Lucia has over
1000 hippo - some even wander the street!), get themselves dirty and sweaty,
get up early in the morning when it suits the schedule of the project and
stay up quite late going on night drives looking for snakes would enjoy this
project immensely. Like with anything, the more effort you put into this
project and go on all the offered night drives ( you will see hippo in the
road in the Wetland Park!) and see the dwarf chamaeleons, antelope,
bushbabies (an experience in itself), then the more rewarding your
experience in St Lucia will be. |
|
Would you
recommend this placement to anybody else?
Definitely.
St Lucia has so much to offer. There are plenty of opportunities to explore
nearby places too - like Hluhluwe Umfolozi GR, Dumazulu Cultural Village,
Sodwana Bay, and other places nearby - the Baz Bus stops at St Lucia and
there are other ways of getting around too. Bring your driver's license and
borrow Xander's car (stay in the St Lucia area though) or hire a car for the
weekend - KwaZulu Natal has lots of beautiful game parks to explore!
A typical
day? It
all depends on what the schedule for the week was and what the weather was
like - if it was going to be sunny and we were walking around the field
looking for crocodile nests, for example, then we would start the day at 6am
to get the majority of the walking done before the midday heat set in. When
I was in Mkhuze looking for snakes and lizards under rocks, I was starting
the day at 4am and staying out in the field all day until the afternoon,
then back to the base camp for a nap and then out again in the vehicles in
the evening to look for snakes again while doing a night drive - I was tired
but it was worth it!
This
project does involve lots of night drives so you can get to bed late but
Xander is very realistic and will then make the following morning a later
morning. You'll always catch-up on your lost sleep! Failing that: a string
Xander coffee should perk you up! Lunch hours are taken out in the field by
taking a packed lunch - you are always warned when to take a packed lunch so
that you are always prepared for the day.
A couple of
nights after that, I decided to face my fear of holding the full python all
on my own and I had talked to Xander about this and he was keen for me to do
it. The python not only weed everywhere (which Xander had warned me that it
would do...) when I got hold of it, I wrapped its tail around my left arm
and started to constrict me! Pooing itself at the same time....Wow - I
didn't have the nerve to take the rest of the snake after that but at least
I can say that I have been constricted by a python and have lived to tell
the tale (and yes, there are some funny photos to prove it - Xander seem to
be laughing just a little too much for my liking!)!
I
thoroughly enjoyed this placement due to its variety of activities on offer
and the enthusiasm and friendly nature of Xander, Susan (his wife) and Jon
(the MSc snake guy who I would also often go out with looking for snakes).
It is an excellent opportunity to learn Afrikaans (both Xander and Susan are
Afrikaans-speaking and they speak to their little boy, Stannis, in Afrikaans
so I found myself learning a new language just so that I could play with
Stannis!).
When I
first pithced up at Mkhuze with the Baz Bus and Xander picked me up, I had
no idea what we would be doing for the next week in Mkhuze and I blatantly
blurted out "I hope it's got nothing to do with snakes - I hate snakes!" and
Xander turned round with this big grin on his face and I knew that I was
doomed! But thanks to him, he turned that week into such an achievement for
me and later on, told me how proud he was of me for having the courage to
face up to my fear and get on with it and actually handle snakes. That
encouragement really helped me and I will forever be grateful to Xander for
those words of encouragement.
Another
night, we decided to go for a night walk in the woods behind Xander's new
house just off McKenzie Street in St Lucia town. We rigged up a car battery
to the spotlights, sat the battery in Stannis' buggy and set off walking in
the woods - we left Stannis at home by the way! Just by chance, we found
this python crawling along the ground so Xander and Jon caught him and Jon
took him home (as you do with a random 4 foot long python that you come
across on a night....). Later on, we walked down to the shores of Lake St
Lucia Estuary and I shone the spotlight on the lake, and I could see all
these pairs of red eyes looking back at me - crocodiles! Amazing!
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