Dr. Leon Prozesky came out from the veterinary faculty in Pretoria to discuss various bits of wildlife pathology and some case studies with us.  We spoke a lot about forensic pathology and things that could eventually end in court cases or, in the case of a lot of expensive animals, insurance settlements.

There was also a necropsy later in the afternoon.  Louie, one of our guides/Cobus's employees, used to be a professional hunter and guide before coming to work in conservation, which he vastly prefers.  So he shot an impala since they have too many on the farm here and we had a go at it.  I hung back and let other people who were interested do it, because it's possible the only thing MORE boring to me in vet med than necrospy is dermatology.  I just stop caring about things after they're dead... there's nothing more I can do about it, so I'll let the pathologists sort out why it's dead while I move on to the next living critter.

After that, we went into town and split up to two laundromats to wash our horribly messy stuff, especially the clothes from the boma building.  When that was finished, we ended up at Stefano's, an Italian place where the owners are personal friends of Cobus and his wife.  It was a great meal and a lot of fun to sit around and chat in that setting, as opposed to our usual campfire.  Of course, we still had the campfire when we got back to the farm, heading to bed around 2 AM (for me, but there were still others around as I left.)

Today, we're going to a place where we'll ride some horses out to see South Africa's last wild horses.  And then we're going to hit a local cave system, the second largest in the country.  It's kind of a laid back touristy day before we start up chasing and drugging stuff again tomorrow.  Apparently there's good local flavour in the souvenirs around there too, so that might be cool.  I had originally thought all the stuff by the side of the road was mass produced some place and shipped out there to sucker dumb tourists, but it turns out that the people are just that consistent in what they make.  It's all hand made by the men and the wives sit out along the road or in the stands and sell it.  They're very competitive and rather insistent too... you almost feel bad walking away from one when another is offering you a better price, especially since in Rand it's probably not that much of a difference. 

Anyway, it's about breakfast time so I'm going to run off and eat before the riding.  Later,

-P