Camping

Not to sound like a true capetonian- who are easily recognized by their well rehearsed praise for the mother city, admittedly, the beauty of Cape Town and its surrounds is truly phenomenal.  After a whole week of sitting in the office, meetings, and endless hours on the computer, I badly needed a breath of fresh air: away from technology, smog, noise, people.

As a biologist, being able to go out in the field and experience the outdoors is perhaps one of key motivations for most people to choose biology as a career path. And to divulge a bit, being a biologist was listed as the 4^th best job to have in 2010, check it out here: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/st_BESTJOBS2010_20100105.html. This is a clear indication that career choices to a large extent are no longer about material well being- ever heard of a rich biologist?

Anyway, over weekend the GF and I went camping to one of the most beautiful camping spots just outside Cape Town. And as always it was awesome, regardless of the fact that we were the only two blacks who were camping, and as a result recieved a fair share of unwanted attention.

The Beaverlac Private Nature Reserve is reknown for its rugged scenery, and beautiful rock pools with water falls that one can swim in. Beaverlac is a haven for hiking enthusiasts, mountain bike fanatics and generally anyone who enjoys the outdoors. Being the outdoor junkies that we are, nothing could have offered a perfect escape. Even though we spent just a single night, it was worth it and I made a mental note to return once again to enjoy nature's bounties.

Sports season

Me crossing the line in last year's Two Ocean's Marathon

It's summer in Cape Town, and everyone wants to look the part, including yours truly. So the bike was dusted last weekend and for the first time I rode my road bike to work and back. My office is about 23Km on a scenic route, that takes me through winelands with very sparse traffic...every biker's dream.

But I forgot to check the weather yesterday, so I was completely taken by surprised when the mercury clocked 36 degrees at lunch time. Now, if you have ever cycled, you will understand that doing 23Km at such soaring temperatures carrying a rucksack is no mean feat.

Since I was stuck in the office, I had two options, to pull my tail between my legs and haul the bike onto a train to go back home, or ride the bike home in 30+ degrees. Being the brave heart, I opted for the latter. So I filled my water bottles, bought two energy bars and hit the road.

The ride was surprisingly smooth, and I felt like a champion.

In fact with cycling high temperatures are not the problem. Wind is.

I'm currently preparing for my 5th Cape Argus Cycle, a 109Km grueling race. In all the four races I have participated, the 2009 one was in a class of its own. I got issued with a special certificate for completing the race. To the uninitiated this might sound like a mundane act designed to make participants return the following year.

One thing is for sure, if the organizers didn't acknowledge that I was one of the brave people who hung in there until the finish line, I might well not have registered this year. All I can say about last year's cycle race is, Pain. For more than 4 hours I battled winds blowing at more than 50km/hr, it felt like peddling a stationary bike. But once I crossed the finish line, it felt really good.


So this year I'm keen to increase my medal collection for the cycle race and the numerous upcoming marathons. I'm also hoping that some of my friends will get the cue and join me in my adventures, for life is worth living and there is no better way to express this other than exploring the out doors.

Disaster

The calamities of nature know no boundaries. This rings so true of the earthquake that struck Haiti this week. An impoverished Nation under tight grip of poverty, political instability, with hardly any capacity to handle this scale of devastation. The exact toll of the earthquake will probably never be known, but just looking at the photos, its obvious the cost to life and property is immeasurable.

One wonders at this day and age, why it is not possible to avert such disasters. Seismologists have been studying earthquakes for over a millennia, but have failed to develop robust tools to predict earthquakes.

The best prediction of seismic activity is usually provided by early warning systems, that detect earthquakes a few seconds before it strikes...so much for 'early' warning.



The unpredictability of natural phenomena, couple with vulnerable societies is a recipe for disaster. I'm glad to come from a part of the world that is not prone to too much natural disasters, even though we have our fair share of diseases, wars and hunger.

At this moment however, all our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti. To make any donations go here: http://www.yele.org/

Mountain bike ride

It's quite fitting that my first post this year, is about my first major ride on my mountain bike. A couple of months ago I moved slightly out of town, to a smallholding with enough landscapes to explore. So I bought my first mountain bike in many years, but it was only yesterday that I took it on a serious ride. After a couple of hours ride, several crashes and a lost pump, I finally made it back home to a hot shower. The feeling of exhilaration was the best I have ever felt in a long time. I'm a seasoned road cyclist, but I have just caught the bug of mountain biking, its going to be a really difficult decision to get onto that road bike again. Atleast for now I don't have to battle for a spot on the road with all those notorious SA driver's out there.

Milestones

Last week I was invited to lead a panel discussion at the FSC general assembly held here in Cape Town. The FSC is an international non-profit that foresees the responsible management of the world's forests. The FSC works primarily by certifying forest products, which allows ordinary consumers to know whether the products they are purchasing were produced sustainably or not. Just like blood diamonds there is massive trade in timber whose proceeds are going into the wrong hands, or leading to environmental degradation. FSC therefore addresses issues such as illegal logging,deforestation, and global warming that is threatening the world's forests. This is is critical because more than half of the world's forests have been degraded, destroyed or converted to other landuses.


So it was an honour to be invited for a side event at the FSC AGM on Ecological Networks. This was the first time I have led a panel discussion at an international event, but it went very well. I gave a talk entittled: Strategies of integrating freshwater biodiversity into conservation policy and management. This was followed by a one hour discussion with members of the audience, led by the 5-member panel.

I was flattered when the Organisers addressed me as Dr. Amis (see pic), even though I have not yet graduated. But this was totally understandable, because its not very often that students are lead panelists at international conferences.

And to crown my week of milestones, I was profiled in the African Conservation Telegraph (ACT), a newsletter of the Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology.
To Read my profile go to this website:
http://www.conbio.org/Sections/Africa/ACT%20Vol3%20Issue1%20BW.pdf

The week that was...

Last week, I had an opportunity to go out with a team from the Organisation with which I'm involved to participate in a project that is trying to make big corporations conserve water. The project is fondly referred to as 'watersheding', just like 'loadsheding' when electricity is rationed. The current thinking in the conservation arena is that society must be reminded that whereas oil resources are renewable, water is a non-renewable resource.

So Our aim is to make big companies become 'water neutral', i.e. the net amount of water required to produce your bottle of beer must equal to zero. For your information, to make a single bottle of beer requires 4.5L of water. So how do we hope to make companies produce beer without water? Well, welcome to the field of Conservation Biology.

To do that you need to cut down trees!! And that is exactly what we did last week. But you are going to ask, ain't I supposed to be conserving the very trees I was choping down? The answer is yes.

If you are still not too confused, after finding out that you can brew beer without water and cut down trees to protect the environment, then we Conservation Biologists are succeeding in doing our job.

A famous Marine Biologist (yes, there are famous biologists), once said that if a conservation biologist can't explain what they do in a language that their grandparents can understand, then they have failed in their job.


Now how I'm supposed to tell my grandma that cutting down trees is protecting the environment?

Anyhow, maybe one day when I'm all grey and they have instituted a Nobel Prize for Conservation Biology then I will be able to explain what I do in a plain language...

The spotlight is on me!!

Right now I could do with some advice from the likes of Usain Bolt, the guy who broke the 100m and 200m olypmic records with so much ease, it felt like anybody could do it...until you watched the faces of those guys who trailed him in the 100m race.

I'm negotiating that last corner, and is about to sprint to the finish line with my thesis. And you might ask, what does the writing of a thesis got to do with athletics? Well, everything. Before the whistle is blown, the athlete needs to have a clear strategy of how to tackle the race, but its only during the last lap or metres when a winner emerges. The winner in most cases is one who could muster all the energy required to cross the line ahead of the pack.

As a PhD student, a clear strategy is also required which is in form of a proposal at the onest of your studies, although that is probably one of the biggest time-wasters, because it is nearly impossible to stick to what one had initially set out to do. I suppose the same also happens to athletes,otherwise there would be no losers. But unlike in athletics, in academia there are no losers, because even dropouts gain some knowledge of sorts albeit without the paper recognition.

I have a clear strategy of how to get to the finish line, and I have mustered all the energy with plenty of coffee as back up. But I would have still loved to pick the brains of such exceptional winners as Usain Bolt.

Right now the spotlight is on me,everybody is on the sidelines cheering me to the finish line, and I'm feeling so strong as if the race has just started...I'm sure Bolt would relate to this. My office is a clear depiction of what is going on right now.