8th Sept. REST

8th Sept.
Offal day again. Not the most pleasantest of jobs. I mentioned to Maria how it would be made less messy if the animals to be killed were given no food for 36 hours to let them empty their stomachs, like they do in any abattoir, I don’t think the idea went further than her.
We had spent the morning stock piling stones and building more steps, always hard work though the pace did slacken somewhat when she had to attend a meeting. Earlier, Jack the purple roller was ceremoniously carried by Joan out to his new aviary. He loved it; bush around him once more, birds calling. He will never be released but at least he catches the cooling wind and is alert to the sights and sounds around him.. He came alive again. Just hope the honey badger doesn’t tear the door off.
Maria surprised us all after the offal delivery by sitting down saying it as too hot to do more stones. We had a group discussion after which I went up to feed Nesher. I have mentioned earlier the problems they were having getting the wild birds to come down and feed at the restaurant There were quite a few vultures circling as I put Nesher’s food out, then I saw one come in to land at the offal. It was fantastic. It didn’t take long before 40-50 birds were feeding. Funny, usually vultures follow jackals to the kill, as I said earlier all the jackals had been poisoned in the area but the last couple of nights both Joan and I had heard them howling through the night, at least three of them and Martin had surprised one at the hide that morning.
A fitting farewell as we had decided to leave a couple of days earlier than planned. We have to get a 2nd battery for the van as well as some more repair jobs on the camper. It has been hard here at REST at times. Maria is a ‘Work Hard’ not ‘Work Smart’ person. She listened to some of my suggestions at the start then decided she knew better, to everyone’s sufferance. The work demanding but the workers here are great, the vultures so interesting. We have learnt so much, we will miss it.