Preparing for the winter

Nadia left a couple of days ago and now I am all alone again. Don’t know if anyone will come in October or not, I’m fine though. We have had some hectic days and it’s nice to stroll around in camp and not have anything special do to. Speaking of things to do, my brother asked me what I did on a normal day here; figure I might as well write it on the blog for all you curious people.

I get up at about seven, actually, that’s not true anymore. It’s getting cold in the nights here so I get up at about five to start a fire, then I go back to bed again. Usually Oyuna turns up sometime around seven to make breakfast, after breakfast it’s time to climb Signal Mountain. It takes a little more than an hour in the mornings, I know, I know, but I’m not 20 anymore and I can’t run up mountains in the morning. If any of the trap-transmitters are on fast pulse, we pack up and head for that trap to see what has happened. About 90 % of the alarms are false in the sense that there isn’t any animal in the trap. Though one might have stepped in it but not got caught. Or a rodent just tripped the transmitter string, or something else…

 I have 15 trap sites and I check the traps every second or third day, since I split it up, there are usually some traps to check every day. Most of the time there isn’t anything that has to be done with the traps but once in a while I have to restore or improve something. At the same time as I check the traps, I also download the pictures from the trap cameras and when we get back to camp we check the pictures in the computer.

 I also write notes of temperature and weather in a log (it’s warm and sunny would be a good description of the log). In the evening, we climb Signal Mountain again. That’s about the daily routine, obviously, when there are two or more people in camp we split up so that all of us don’t go up the mountain on all occasions.

 It takes almost a full day to go to Gurvantes and buy some groceries and gas cause Midgi and Oyuna runs off on private errands all the time and we usually go there once every other week or so. Obviously I also have cluster checks to do, scouting new trap sites and other occasional field work.

 This afternoon I washed some clothes, first I have to heat up water, then I hand wash the laundry in a basin, arrange a rope in the ger and hang the laundry to dry from the ceiling. It takes quite a long time to wash socks and underwear by hand. Washing myself also takes a lot more time here than back home. I have given up on the shower and just heat up some water on the stove, pour it in the basin and wash inside the ger (it’s actually too cold outside. I know, I know, that’s Knapsu…)

 It’s not bad at all to hike around in the mountains or to sit down for a couple of minutes and enjoy the view in the sun. A couple of weeks ago I was following an ibex trail high up on a very steep mountain side when a golden eagle passed me about 50 meters below. That was really cool. Quite often when we are high up; eagles or lammergeiers come to check us out. It’s not like home where the eagles are merely a spot in the sky; these guys will pass so close that sometimes you don’t need binoculars. Yesterday, I took the motorbike for a quite long drive to check accessibility to some connecting valleys. It’s fun to ride it and a great relaxation from the ordinary life because I have to focus hard to keep it in the track. I’m getting the hang of it after a couple of not-so-good trials.

 Tomorrow we will take down the Office ger and put the felt (wool) layer on the Living ger. It’s getting cold and we need to insulate the ger a bit better. The wooden parts and furniture in the office will be stored in the kitchen. We have already moved everything in to the living ger that I will need for the winter, it’s really cozy in here now. To give a brief description of what it looks like, imagine that you come in from the door: Immediately to the right are two water barrels, then the gas stove, the orange kitchen cupboard, boxes with food and then comes the spare bed. Between that bed and my bed is a locker where I keep my clothes, I have put a blanket on top of the locker and this is Friday’s favorite place. Next to my bed is a shelf with books, papers, a printer and a scanner. Then comes two of the white tables from the office (full of gizmos, a computer, sat phone, pens etc), after that some boxes and last a low shelf for shoes and equipment. In the middle of the ger are the stove and the orange table from the kitchen. In all empty spaces there are boxes and equipment tucked away.  

 If we put in a big load of fuel in the stove it will burn and glow for about five hours, even though it’s not warm in the end. But as long as we maintain the fire we can keep the ger warm. Right now I have two candles burning to light up the ger a bit and as I wrote, it is really cozy. In case we need more beds for visitors we can put up two more bunk beds in a couple of minutes.

 A couple of weeks ago Peter wrote that I am a slacker and as usual I have found a slacker-job. No bills to pay, nothing to worry about, a cook and a care-taker, just like a vacation. I guess that he is right; I have a very good life out here.

Obviously, there are some downsides, I am a bit tired of eating sheep and I really miss my friends and family. Yesterday was opening day for the annual moose hunt in Sweden, since all my family (including my mom but actually not my little sister) hunts we always gather for three days of moose hunt. This is the first time in many years that I’m not there. Well, my brother is in San Diego so I’m not the only one to skip out on the tradition… And last year, Peter and I got sick and were lying in bed with fever, trying to speak to each other. Most of the time, at least one of us was asleep but somehow we still managed to keep a conversation even though none of us knows what we talked about.

 Oh well, almost time for bed. I forgot to write that, we usually go to bed somewhere between nine and ten. There aren’t too much to do once it is dark. I’ve had the same routine when I liven in Masai Mara, to go to bed early and it’s really nice not to be tired more or less all the time in the week.