Hard Graft

I took a bit of a break last week. Mostly due to the fact that there was nothing going on.
Only thing of significance was the eventual arrival of the SA Agulhas II in Cape Town.
For those back home in South Africa, this would be a pretty big deal and surely heard something about it. As for the rest of the world, well the ship arrived. It's quite exciting and now we wait for it to come collect us. Really I can't say much more about it.

This week seemed to be going along the same lines as the previous. Plenty of rain, and night time temperatures seeing the mercury slowly dip below freezing. This has kept us all indoors and only sees us venturing out when the sun does sneak a peak from behind the gloomy clouds.

And we had one such day. But even if this wasn't the case we would have had to go out none the less.
We were out again weighing the seals. And It is now becoming seriously hard graft!

Fortunately, Nkoane and I were able to recruit Karen and Sylvain to give us a hand this time round. And it was hugely appreciated and desperately needed. I like to see it as them returning the favour for the times we assisted them with the birds. But we volunteered to help them and I was so grateful that they volunteered to help us.

The seals have really filled out since the end of March and have got a good fat reserve to keep them warm this winter. Makes me think I should do the same!
All went really well and there was no drama or any incidents.
We had Karen taking down all the weights whilst the rest of us hauled out seals ranging from sub 10kg's all the way to the beast which tipped the scales at over 20kg's. Not sure what that one has been eating but it did make for plenty of amusement as we chased him down and hoisted him up. It was much to everyone's amusement as I struggled with all my might to read the mass off the scale as this monster merrily dangled about and tried to take chunks out of my gumboots. It didn't seem to end there! In the hassle of holding him up I forgot to check the sex and was reminded after I had already turned him loose. This saw Nkoane and myself bounding along over the slippery rocks amongst the scattered seals trying to catch the one we had just released, before he could get to the ocean. Fortunately we have become rather skilled at chasing seals over the rocks and were able to grab hold of him. Only issue was we had to hoist him up one more time. Needless to saw, my back was not entirely thrilled by the ridiculous amount of strain it was being subjected to through the course of the day. And I can say with certainty that Sylvain and Nkoane shared my sentiments and welcomed the call from Karen to say that we had got all one hundred pups.
What a pleasure it was to have the extra set of hands, and I hope they enjoyed the seals as much as I enjoy assisting them with the birds.

Lets hope next month they are just as eager to help.