Rhinos are a common sight apparently.

Graham is the farm manager here and Tommy and Tim work for him. He's friendly with them and he jokes with them but he's still their boss and he still locks his door if he leaves the house. The inter-racial relations in Africa are so complex, it would be tempting to call many of the whites (and blacks) here racist, but I dont think its such a clear issue.

Graham came past yesterday afternoon just to chat, about corruption, about bad business practice and the declining standards of motor vehicles and their servicing. We dont see eye to eye on a lot of things. Thankfully when he declared that its ridiculous to think we are related to apes, I only had time to say 'I disagree' before a rhino walked up to the waterhole. Still, he's very friendly and the discussion is civil.

Yesterday we did return to the hide and placed the cameras in the same spots. I did my best to rid them of their smell (which is really imperceptible to my nose), soaking in aloe and lavender, even burying them. It seems to have worked, though none of the rhinos we spooked off returned, a separate young calf came past and drank calmly - even returning 3 or 4 times after we'd left. I also placed a camera by the waterhole here at the house, and annoyingly Nina and her calf turned up here while we were gone. Ive moved the least useful camera to this waterhole hoping to see them again.

I've been alone today as Graham had to go to Tsumeb for some business and Tim and Tom are busy working. He left me a landrover to use and asked Tim to escort me. I have to admit, I feel like my driving is pretty good. I parked (though probably too close to one side) in a narrow garage and reversed out -twice, and managed to maneuvre across the awful rock roads here for maybe 2 hours in total (the roads are really bad, the government didnt buy the farm because of the bad roads). Tim came with me to pick up the camera memory cards first, and then to the bush camp where we parked. Using a GPS we tried to relocate the pangolin poo sites, but didnt end up finding them. Hopefully after closely examining photos of their locations we can find them tomorrow. Tim has an amazing sense of direction, while I used the GPS to get to the marked coordinates, he then knew the way back to the car instinctively.

That's about that. I love being here; the view is dramatic, there are constantly groups of animals in the bush surrounding the house and the nearest public road is quite a few kilometers away.

Oh, how do my living arrangements compare to the previous place?
- The house is bigger
- It is decorated like someone would live in it
- the furniture is not broken at all
- there is proper electricity (like from plugs,,, you know?)
- there is no hot water. I have to specifically ask Tommy to start a fire for hot water.
- There is definitely a broader range of cooking apparatus, and the pans dont stick so I can make decent pancakes. Also, I dont feel like im being attacked every time I approach a hot oily pan.