Camelthorn

From the shit water we move on to what I found to be one of the more exciting jobs we've had to do: build a leopard trap. The plan is to capture a leopard and collar it with a GPS tracker. But trapping a leopard is far from easy. They've already set one trap, which hasn't worked, so we're redesigning it. This involves us ripping out the existing ring of bushes and installing a new structure. Before doing this we have to chop down a whole load of bushes and collect hundreds of branches of camelthorn. However, while my first go with a machete proved less dangerous than I'd feared, it turns out the plants were themselves the source of danger. Camelthorn is nasty stuff, with thorns that can be up to four inches long. We all got scratched and stabbed slightly as we pulled down branches and dragged them across the stony sand, but eventally Katarina got one impaled through her finger and glove through to the other side. I had been off collecting branches and missed it all. When I returned someone had already pulled it out and we got on with our work. But Katarina was clearly a little shocked. One picture here illustrates the size, the second shows the two sides of the puncture wound. You can see why it's useful for building a trap.