Vegans Love Carnivores

After one overground train, two tube trains, 3 flights and a long drive, I have finally made it back to Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia!  The journey was mostly uneventful other than a sad farewell at Heathrow, meeting a Zimbabwean livestock farmer at Customs, spotting what may have been a three-boobed woman at Cairo airport, having my jar of Specaloos confiscated off me at Johannesburg airport, and coincidentally sitting next to the only other vegan on the plane.  A friend from CCF, Eli, met me at Johannesburg airport and we got the same flight to Windhoek together, as he will be returning to work there.  As he knows quite a bit about cars, he came to help me test drive the Toyota Hilux that had been on offer to me.  We picked up the hire car at Windhoek airport (which was stupidly cheap – if anyone needs to hire a car in Namibia, go for Thrifty car hires!), went straight to test drive the car (which went fine), finalised the deal, checked in to our guesthouse...

Dear Lordi, how on earth did those 10 months of my PhD go so quickly?  How did my fieldwork season creep up on me so sneakily?!  It seems like I've been planning this for what feels like an eternity, but somehow I am still baffled that I'm now about to depart the UK for 10 months and although I know I have put a lot of plans in place I still feel very unprepared!! Whenever I travel off to another country for an extended period of time, I always feel baffled by how little I really need to live.  Currently, my life for the next 10 months fits into a suitcase, a holdall bag and a rucksack: My life for the next 10 months How do you stop the worries that you've forgotten to pack something?  Even though I've packed more than I did last time I left, I still keep feeling that there is something vital that I'm leaving behind!  Oh that's right, my boyfriend won't fit into my luggage :-( On the plus side, I've been avidly looking at the weather in Nami...

Well well well, it's been a while, eh?  What's been happening in the life of the vegan that loves carnivores?  Let's see 'ere... I got back safely from my overland truck tour around southern Africa to the UK and started a PhD at the University of Kent.  My focus is on finding out ways for carnivores to coexist with farmers; read more about it here . I've spent the last 10 months researching into my topic and planning for the logistics and methods in the field. I now have only one week until I go out into the field - scary!  I was saying to a friend today who is planning her wedding that sorting out things for my PhD must be sort of like organising a wedding - so much to do, so many details to think about, so many people to keep happy and you know that no amount of planning will ever make everything go perfectly when it comes down to it! I guess you just have to think positively, go with the flow and ensure that you're as prepared as you can be in the even...