Update from our Malawi expedition volunteering with elephants, hippo, lion and African biodiversity
The expedition team reached base on Saturday after a 450 km bus journey and a mishap 1.5 km from base. The bus git stuck, but no problem – we dispatched a vehicle recovery team and got to practice our skills.
Training
After an early night we kicked off on Sunday with briefings on what we’re here for and how our work as citizen scientists contributes to wildlife conservation in Malawi. An excellent presentation from John Simukonea from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) highlighted how they use our data.
We switched to more practical training in the afternoon – equipment, an orientation drive with first sightings of elephants. hippos and impala.
Our group is very diverse, with people from Malawi, Italy, the UK, USA, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, with diverse skill to boot.
We have another training day in front of us before we switch to data collection. Watch this space for further developments.
Read also: First I second entry. All entries for the Malawi expedition volunteering with elephants, hippo, lion and African biodiversity on one page.
Author: Simon Thomsett
Simon Thomsett MBE was born in the UK but now lives in the Austrian Alps. He served in the British Army for 36 years, working across the globe including two years in the jungles of Brunei, as well as Africa, North and South America and South Asia. He has run diving expeditions in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean and the Mediterranean Seas. A keen ski mountaineer, he now lives and works in Austria where he runs a ski business with his wife Claire. Simon is a qualified BSAC dive instructor, a ski instructor, international mountain leader and Emergency First Response first aider.