What are the rich doing today?

This was a very pertinent quote by Trevor, a South African who is here advising on patrolling, data collection and general strategies for effective protection of the Conservancy. We had been talking about donors and the gargantuan task of raising enough money to finance the annual budget. Conservation attracts wealthy philanthropists, often termed ‘major donors’. They’re more likely to be marooned in board rooms or spilling oysters down their Gucci suits during 15-minute business lunches, instead of being here contemplating the Lugenda River in dry season, framed by a couple of upturned traditional mokoro dugout canoes.

These words stayed with me as a good tonic to yesterday’s whingeing about internal processes and bureaucracy. In the more serene moments, this deck and the promise of wildlife watching do offset that stuff rather well. Today a group of ground hornbills occupied a sandbank and a herd of waterbuck sought the open riverbed for moisture and protection from ambushes. At night orange eyes slide silently through the water, betraying the presence of crocodiles. Chelene, the wife of the Conservancy Manager, said that yesterday she saw the biggest crocodile of her life, sunbathing on the sand. Signs of wildlife are plentiful and I don’t need to move far to hear about the leopard that killed an impala next to the toilet block last week, the fresh buffalo dung next to Trevor’s tent, or the lions sniffing around the newborn impala on the grass by Wim and Chelene’s house.