Romeo Hotel

It sounds like the name of some Casanova’s love den, but is the name the staff at Chuilexi would use for me if they knew my surname initial. Tango Lima is Trevor, a consultant here to advise on field activities. It’s amusing as literally everyone knows him by that, instead of Trevor.

Highlights today:
* an African fish eagle chowing down on a fish on a sandbank
* friendly camp staff Luis and Issa who found a tin of condensed milk for our coffee, which we happily switched to from the powdered variety (which the vervet monkeys keep breaking into anyway)
* my colleague Michelle making great strides in understanding the complexities of data, information and systems at Chuilexi (and when not doing that, whetting my whistle about her time living in Etosha National Park, Namibia)
* Issa’s freshly baked bread accompanying every meal
* a couple of useful chats with the UK office after the sun had already set, the staff here keen to shut down the generator and internet, but letting me cling on
* a breakthrough in the planning for realistic tourism development at the Conservancy, which the government wants to see progress on and is a condition of running this concession
* seeing a clip of that moron Trump listening to chants of ‘lock him up’ at a baseball game in a liberal city
* getting excited about a mini road trip in the Cape at Christmas
* a cooling shower in the dark and retreating to bed with an interesting book by 8.30pm
* the rustles and snorts of wildlife in the bushes near our tents whilst ensconced safely under mosquito nets