I'm here today with James Harris and for anybody who's worked with reptiles or
amphibians in Europe that's a very familiar name because James has been
all around Mediterranean mostly I guess right and mostly mostly collecting
reptiles amphibians lizards snakes and now they're parasites as well and
writing a lot of papers about them I've tried to find how many papers you've
written but you know one source is like over a hundred the other is like 316 any
idea how many yeah see it's probably over 300 by now if you can't hear okay
there's a lot of small notes in I am really small bits and pieces and get
together but yeah it's it's I mean if you think I've been doing it well I think
the first time I went to Morocco was in 94 uh-huh maybe maybe 95 that sort of
time so it's quite a long time now it's a bit scary even big I was being yeah
and that's so mostly more yeah the I went the first herping trip I did was
tomorrow I went my PhD supervisor as fresh PhD student I didn't actually
really enjoy it that much is a surprising thing and what it was I lost my luggage
okay and at least my luggage never turned out so that was a bit bit tough because I
had to do the whole trip wearing the same clothes and this was came from me
yes yes that even in those days there weren't even direct flights to southern
Morocco so I had we flew to Gibraltar and change planes in Gibraltar with
that wagged ear and yeah my luggage never turned up and that had not
something equipment in it which was annoying I didn't have it so we had to
run around trying to get in particular alcohol was the complicated one is of
course we take genetic samples mostly what I work on and we didn't have any
alcohol and it's quite difficult especially in those days particularly
difficult you wander around pharmacists in Morocco saying just me large
quantities of alcohol and and people look at you very nervously but anyway I
think it was more just a stress I hadn't been anywhere like that before people
constantly you know trying to talk to you every time you stopped you
immediately got people trying to sell you things I found it more stressful
than I expected so I went on the backups quite happy to to get out of it I mean I
enjoyed yeah it wasn't it was it was stressful and so yeah it's quite funny
that I've been 20 or 30 times since then yeah I was about to say how many times
have you been but pretty much every year the bus in every ends up for code so
from part from 2000 I started going back in 2000 so I went first as a PHD student
in 2000 I already have my my PhD so I actually wait with the PhD student and
between and yeah since 2000 until now the only years we go with the two years
of COVID and every now and so I mean we're working in Portugal so it's very
convenient destination take students because you can drive there in one day
early in the morning just drive down get the ferry be in Morocco by evening and
it's the right sort of level of difficulty for students to get an idea
whether they enjoy football you know it's it's not easy I mean it's Morocco
it's it's certainly not just crossing the border into Spain but it's not so
you can you can do things relatively and we can drive down to everything in the
back of the car take our tents and our cooking equipment and things you need so
it's really been very very handy as a place to train students and now I've got
contacts there I mean they started off as just people at university talked to
but I've been working some of them now for quite a few years so it's really
worked very well yeah no I've had the pleasure of going to the field with you
so yeah it's great I love Morocco also not just because it's convenient but it
was also one of the more beautiful countries you can visit in North Africa
yeah it's there's not many places that in such a short time for Mediterranean
type landscapes through really high mountains and then down the other side
proper first dummy desert yeah hard-core desert so to see all of that period
yes yeah it is and in 2005 you said you went there yeah so I mean most of the
work we've done is yes it's essentially collecting samples for genetic
analysis usually we've got like a target group so we might be working on a
particular lizard that we think is is more than one species mm-hmm and that's
our main focus but of course you collect other things as you go along so I mean
as an example like snakes you don't go somewhere and just catch 30 snakes it's
never fair but if you go to Morocco 30 times then obviously each time you catch
one or two and particularly tend to find dead ones unfortunately she catch road
kills and then suddenly after what he looked back and said what did be
collection and now we can we never would have thought to look at initially so so
yeah there's always the target species that we're particularly looking for and
then there's just places where you just stop and do this yeah and it's a lot of
driving around right I mean it's you sit in the car you drive around and have
people get tired so you say oh let's just stop here this nice we might see
something interesting it's just and and so that that does happen and on that
particular trip because this is quite an early trip for me so then he'd be let's
say five or six times I still wasn't that experienced and I was with some
other herpetologist from here so gal can't it there those Spanish
herpetologist who traveled a lot with me and also and a grader yeah I should get
yes yes he kept saying I'm not sure if you like this and they call us has who
did his PhD with snakes and in particular with with Portuguese Vipers
so he's very interested in in Vipers but the Portuguese one in particular is
interesting this is a very small snake it's it's maybe 30 centimeters so it's
it's a pretty small fairly innocuous one and so in Morocco with a great team of
herpetologists so so what's it like and we just you know get an idea you're
driving around it's hot I imagine yeah of course I mean in particular me I should
get further south obviously gets hot and this particular day we just I mean we
were driving through more Eastern Morocco so out towards Algerian side and
we thought we'd just stop and stretch our legs and never walk around see what we saw
and it was a very steep piece of habitat and sort of rocky dead so mostly
mostly open so we were just sort of walking just seeing seeing what we might
find and basically I stopped take a pee behind very large rock and I saw
secluded spot to go has that and and you know you look down see where you're
pointing and there was a very large snake in a crevice down there and and now
this point I mean I my PC was on lizards not snakes so I've had less experience
in handling large snakes back there so my immediate reaction so I better call
over some some assistance for this so Miguel was closer so I shout to me I
said me I'll get I'll come and have a look at this and and then explained him
no he was the snake on the and Miguel Miguel saw this very large in chill
that's that's what in those days was called mad review so it's a very large
poison snake yes and he's very yes and see a live live one like that was was a
real pleasure so we saw on a we need we need to call
Zechariah so for this because he's got the experience handling vipers and he's
it's it's a thing so so we called Zechariah sober and I'm gonna say like
that's well to maybe me to 20 see big and and poisonous snake so they call us
of course but John is is not I mean they're basically biking gloves stick
thinking on the gloves so if you get bitten and protected and but by the
song obviously people moving around the state to realize that there's there's
people about so it slides off into a into a crevice but second second gets a
good look he's like oh yeah I really I really want to catch this so let's let's
go away for a few hours this will be its you know it's its home territory let's
let's go off look around in other areas but let's come back here in a couple of hours
mmm and see so so we went off and a couple hours later we come back and
we're all sort of you know spread out over the bitter hillside looking to see
if if we can find it and then suddenly Miguel's sort of shout how I've seen it
here it's here and it's a really era said was really steep incline and the
girls standing up above us and and there and myself and Miguel tries to and the
other thing I suppose I should mention is when we catch lizards most of the
time we carry fishing rods me sound like strange thing to do in the desert but
you put a small noose on the end of the fishing rod and it's an ideal way just
over the head of the lizard and it's very hard technique for catching this so
Miguel's got a fishing rod so he sees the snake and snake of course is scared
and starts heading back towards its its crevice so Miguel tries to get the
fishing rod under the snake stop and getting and pretty much at exactly the
same moment falls if this steep and you did so it gets the fishing rod under the
snake and basically flicks the snake up into the air and then it proceeds to
fall down the mountainside in a classic sort of comedic so boom ah ah he's fully
done down the mountain so Carlos is at the other distance really wants to catch
his snake so he's just running towards and shouting catch the snake catch the
snake and at this point I look at Anna and she's gone like why and she hadn't
really mentioned before because she also works with this that she really really
is nervous about snakes and having a sort of meter and a half long venom snake
flying towards you and obviously at this stage in an extremely angry state is
enough to to make anyone go wide so she's just standing there petrified
basically and look on her face I mean she was just a ghost and and I'm not
much better because I just don't have experience in catching flying snake
lion so so both of us are just standing there and see Carlos just comes pounding
across the mountainside which it's like a mountain goat that just and he finally
just throws himself on it and I mean really that that what was amazing is
that look on his face because he's used to handling the little 30 centimeter
yeah and he was just so these holding this huge viper super rare vibrate
the other course is lying at the bottom of the hill so he's ripped his trousers he's totally down
yeah it's all rocks yeah it's all rocks it's like and he really fell he really
just fell down and so if he really took a beating and then the funniest thing
what said of course biologists are then going to take photographs we can take
samples and we took photos and and so of course most things photos of say Carlos
and Miguel holding a snake and then people like come on you've got to have a photo
taken with the snake because after all you know and it's still like you know
hearts obviously beating like crazy I don't really want to even touch it but
so they've got a picture with with Anna holding the snake although in fact
so cause is probably still holding and correct other people are there and they
were asked to send some photographs for publication in some sort of natural
history type journals and magazines Portuguese and it was the photo Anna
holding the snake so this is published photograph of Anna extremely nervous
but it was very like saying and but yeah those are the sort of experiences that
that everyone enjoys I mean after after after poor Miguel he was really beaten up
as well so it was like one of those days you know we were close to ending up taking
the hospital or something really you really just fell with it and it was a
good day it's a good thing no I know if you find one of those your trip is good
right I mean that's a super rare snake and I find a big one yeah and a snake
like that could be like 20 years old it's amazing so you think all of that
time it's been out there on that hillside yeah yeah beautiful to find
very pretty you really yes of course of course we take us two drops of blood
analysis tip the tail and those tips those next go yeah that's one of the
great things about genetic sampling mostly is that we don't need to kill an
awesome that's nice you can spend your time out in the field you can get
excited about finding things actually that macro every on red just they just
they just had to catch you don't turn up in collections because you know Jim see
a lot man I've seen far more dead ones really yeah yeah yeah only big yes
certainly not not Colin that's the first big dangerous see you see also them
now just a classic I don't know what people would normally consider them as
sort of Indian cobras yeah the ones that that rear up and and open up now that's
a serious cover as only one species of cobra and you're a cobra that's and
that's that one you see but only in the far south so in the rest of Morocco in
the north in terms of big venom snakes the only one you're gonna bump into is
abysmal a bit and yeah it's a feature fun snake and I would eat the seal
fantastic yeah it's a bad for his a girl's he did his picture book she has
nice make he probably got his own pictures and in other places but yes
that particular one it was fun to see other because she has she gets nervous
handling any in Morocco there's also another snake which again used to be a
cool type lot it looks more like an earth yeah really really tight and that's
about the only snakes she doesn't really like had me then so water snakes on
that tricks of jury yeah totally harmless innocuous small snake even
those she's a little bit and then this is a big one but also it makes me think
you know looking back at some of these old stories makes me realize how we've
progressed to herpetologist going to Morocco being many times with her and
so you get that gal be blinds they post and she were we were much more amateurish
there you know cuz it's close to 20 years ago and but now far more people
experience myself included yeah but in AI I still remember that it was the first
big venomous snake going to be in Morocco and it was quite an experience
right and Morocco has changed quite a lot as well I imagine yeah the the
particularly the roads is something you notice there used to be almost no
highways just a little bit down the coast and so driving down to a cash or
something took days and and you saw everything you know you saw people
hanging outside of buses dozens of people on tractors cars driving lights
which was quite quite no and whereas now he basically European style I weigh
the way down to a good deal so if you stick to the main roads yeah
Morocco driving yeah it's a breeze super easy if you go out to the mountains you
can still wonder down some dirt tracks yeah because you spend most of your
time also in high up in mountains right yeah certainly that the high mountains
places that there's a lot of unknowns there because people don't go so often
so there's a lot of alpine species which are known only from one or two places
that are easy to get you know there's a classic place who kind of dead which is
both a ski resort and they have some international telescopes there there's
of course I mountains clear skies not much light pollution and so they've
there for example there's a nice road right up high into the mountains and
everyone goes there so the mountain lizard species generally then them from
this kind of place almost nowhere else so if you're interested in if it's
actually more than one species or just how much variation there is then you
need to go there of course and again I went there on my very first trip to
Morocco and during my PhD but also you need to go to the other mountains where
there aren't ski resorts and therefore there are no place and you end up just
hiking a lot yeah and the thing is once you've done a few trips you start to
think that driving up mountainous tracks and crossing quite difficult terrain
is quite easy so on a on a late trip we went and as it happened there's a
conference scene in Marrakesh as well so we thought this is really will will not
only go to Morocco do something and take a bunch of students to get some
experience but we'll go to the conference as well the agent they can
get experience on that so we took more students than we normally okay and we
were gonna go up a particular mountain that we were looking for to catch these
high mountain lizards called Andrianski's the very pretty little lizard I've been
working on a lot but after after a few days already going down I'm sure the
students will be able to cope with a really high mountain trip was it the
students or was the situation or no I think it's just they it's just it's just
hard I mean a lot of students haven't and this is probably a sad thing even a
university students or biology students they haven't been out in the field much
so they don't know what it's like so you know when I say camping you stop
somewhere and you say we'll put our tent here and sleep and and people come to
you and say well where's the bathroom yeah and you say well you see that bush
over there that's a nice looking bush I'd use that one if I was you and and of
course there's always a few things you can amuse yourself with as you all know
working a lot with scorpions and scorpions are quite fun to see out in
these places because you'd be go out at night with the blue light they shine in a
really unexpected way the first time I saw it I was I was definitely impressed
it's not what you think a scorpion will do in fact I still wouldn't know why they
do it it's a very unusual feature but it's quite striking so it's quite fun
for the students you count you camp out you say alright let's set up our tents
let's you know we're sitting around getting our food ready and then you say
oh come and have a look at this is it gets dark and you take your your your
dark light and shine it around there are lots of scorpions in these places so
sooner or later you're gonna see a very very bright scorpion and then of course
all the students start to panic because they think somehow scorpions are gonna
wander into their tents at night so so on this particular trip I had an
experienced post-op with me Daniel Salvi, Daniel had a lot of work with me in Morocco and we
said alright let's let's split up because we've actually got this trip we
had so many people we had two cars and he said alright I will take the other
experienced people and some of the PhD students I'll go up mountain looking
particularly and you take students who have no experience or very little and
we'll just do a really small what I thought was a really really small hike
and on a I wouldn't like to call it some of the hills right and there were some
species that we were interested in finding if we could so I thought this would be nice
see we'll just we'll just do it literally camp get up the next day hike
for two three hours get to the place nice see if we find anything in a few
hours hike this should be really nice but as I said I was taking only the
inexperienced few people so you know we camped I showed them scorpions with all
kind of fun and then the next morning I said all right make sure you've all got
plenty of water so you know carry everyone's got to carry a couple of
liters of water with you it's hard for the open territory and we we start
hiking up there and and again I pick this as an easy but again perhaps well
then I've got nothing I'd misjudged how much experience I have in because for a
lot of people when you say you're hiking again it's not trails it's yeah it's
climbing through bushes and when there's a big rock to go round it or over it
however you're going to do it it's you get going track sometimes in places but
it's it's not what many people think of it even as hike because they're used to
hiking on very easy trails which are marked yeah not just across Stanford
yeah and so after after a couple of hours I checked them and so and I looked
and a lot of people had no water left already oh all right and I was like you
do realize that you know got the water that we all brought we all brought a
couple of liters if you can't call your water now there is no more water that's
just how it goes and and they were like oh yeah we were hiked on a little bit
and we got to the place by the time I got there I was just couldn't really look for lizards
yeah and and Danny and one is it one of the girls said I can't I can't walk any
further and I was like well what do you want me to do you know I'm I'm not gonna
carry you and I assure you if I leave you here see if we're not going to go
well so so I mean it's astonishing to me sometimes that people I mean a can't
walk what's really a more than two or three hours and be then then just have
no idea that you know you ration your water don't just sit down and say I
can't walk and we really what they thought I'm gonna do I had no idea
fortunately I said my waters I've still got some of my water you can get some of
my hold and I was oh god I'm glad I'd take these guys up high enough to do is
they would have just done and we saw stagger back to the fact well at least
is going down right I mean this should be able to manage that so but by then of
course you know they're all absolutely dying back in the play and we get there
and and there's a like a roadside little place with the kids sell stuff and say
it's they haven't got but they they've got a few things to drink and one of
the things that happens Coca-Cola it's Morocco you can't can't get a cold beer
and so people get in the car they're first and so they start drinking and
young lad in front seat car just takes a large bottle of Coca-Cola and starts
drugging just like blood blood blood blood blood I thought Alex it's just
kind of weird behavior but he just blood blood blood and then I looked at it and
he just literally vomited into the wind we're fitting in the car just like
that's the windscreen of the car and then glass back over pretty so we're all
just like so cool a lot I mean I had to be stomach for very long but so well
even so we're we're we're all a bit sort of like it's like okay get him out of
the car you know it so we try we sitting down by the side of the road
nothing well I say these kids are really struggling I mean you know I I thought
it's just um yeah he's moaning yeah but so the the guy sitting by the side of
course the local Moroccan kids in selling their stuff from their little
store but some the road will come over to have a look because they're all quite
excited about it's not often you see someone bomb it into the window over the
car from the inside and and one of them one of the small boys comes up and he
takes him some herbs or something from inside the road and he's clearly
indicating that this is something you should sniff or mean it do something we
of course the guy on the side there speak anything that we can but it's very clear
that it's an indication that someone who's you know fainted or something
should write this and you sniff it in so yeah exactly that concept so one of the
students obviously also understands this and he and he takes the smelling stuff
smelly plant whenever he wants and and holds it up towards the nose student who
just vomited everywhere and the students vomited actually using it so he acts like
he's gonna bite the other person's such like snapping at the hand really it was
just bizarre wow he was really out of it he was really out and then Joanne Meyer
the students with her and you know yes he says he looks at I mean you know I'm
now thinking oh my god this guy's really really lost it completely and Joanne
looked at me and said do you think I should give him a massage
I don't know what happened to this kid but he's completely lost it so we're
like okay I mean I said no it was like dehydration or something worse or what
happened so we we said after a while he's just sitting there calmly I said
well I seen windows we'll have to just let's get out of here let's get to a
place a tower there's a hotel or something yeah load up with water maybe
go to a pharmacist and get some salts and stuff in case it's some sort of
dehydration yeah and started off just sitting in the car and the straight away
his phone were yeah so he picks up the phone and and he starts talking and it's
absolutely British it's just it's not it's not doesn't make any sense really I
mean it's complete she was like that half random sentences that didn't make
any sense and then there'd be a pause say something else for a little fight and
the strangest thing was exactly his parents who called for the house because
we didn't know we didn't know who was calling us but they must have been
thinking because has absolutely no and then he's slow and put the phone away
we were like that was weird but yeah I mean there I mean I suppose the bright
side of the story was that we went to a you know a small motel next time and we
gave him some salt water and he laid out 24 hours 24 okay okay it took a long
time to get better but then it was fine and he totally recovered yeah I mean I
guess he actually did manage to dehydrate and we unexpected yeah it just
goes on servers yeah yeah so and the reaction was in and then the worst thing
of course we clean the car as you do yeah at least in the way why do baby
wipes because we always have but what we forgot is that we just sort of cleaned
up and look fine and then two days later somebody opened the glove compartment
and it was one of these sort of plastic ones sort of cup shape at the bottom so
basically what had rolled down the windscreen and actually just boat in there
was still there so we had these five or six day old sticky bottom to the
club compartment like a bottle of coke or coke vomit yeah it's amazing how it
looked back you know it's amazing how much you know a liter or two of coke
hitting windscreen and bouncing back into the car are you can soak while
I'll be touching the cloth. Also yeah I mean we're kids so that was and that was I
know I wasn't really sure to think about so well I'm glad I didn't take on the
difficult hike yeah or maybe my difficult hikes now are really difficult even a
media hike is is is too much so yeah that was that was an unusual day we
haven't had anyone have to be hospitalized. I smacked a couple of
fingers I've still got some scars somebody dropped a rock on my hair and took a few
close shapes but I think that was probably the closest I've been to thinking right
just like doesn't get better. Especially the talking gibberish. Yeah it was just
most peculiar and he had no idea afterwards and said like do you remember
usually don't know what happened. It just lost. Wow okay and so now with the
students you have yeah now now we yes that would be the same three
started at least to the first couple of days because they as I said or I think
this is also part of the important things never never take a whole bunch of
students and be the only experienced person because it's neat if you it's
really handy if you've got someone else there to just debate things with because
I was like do I need to take him to a hospital if so what if this gets worse
what's my dear it's really hard if you're the only person there because
there was no point asking the other students because they were all basically
in shock except giving mass. So yeah I was thinking now on I think that's
a balance with fieldwork when we take if you take a card I always try and take
one total student who's never been anywhere and then other students got a
little bit of experience and then at least one other sort of well experienced
person and then you know you've got people to discuss things with yeah and
it means it's just easier if you have some people in the middle as well like
PhD students then then you don't get a sort of divide between the people with
no experience and older people like myself. Right. So yeah learn things from
tricks even when it's not and myself it's having there. It's fun but it's
really I mean you're really out there in the out of this mountain so it could take a day
to drive out. Yeah yeah and I mean that's the thing I mean for the high high
mountain so that all naturally while we were doing the easy hike and the other
people tried to get up the mountain and basically failed because the problem
with this particular mountain we were trying to find we just couldn't find a
good road even halfway up so you end up parking the car at still let's say a
thousand eight and if you want to get up to three and a half thousand meters
that's a really high part and most of the time once you get higher there's no
water that's the same coming you can carry sleeping bag you carry food carry
all the stuff you need it's the water that kills you because you need liters of
stuff right it's heavy so yeah so I think I don't know if you're the following year
after that tree we said we've got it we've got to get up just got to do it so
we're just gonna take some more experienced people and and we're gonna
each up there and even there it was it was it was quite difficult to just get
up the small dirt tracks to get into the base of the cliff and we kept looking
for new dirt tracks get a little bit higher and and we'd really struggled a
bit it's hard to find the tracks we've got a puncture three quarters and so we
had to stop so by the time we we got the car as far as we could go and so right
any further we're just gonna have to start hiking from here we were already a
bit stressed because it'd taken longer than oh it's too punctured slowed us down
the Jack we have with the car's rubbish you know the usual things so so we get
out it's just we can do this and we had a plan early in the mornings just let
them by the car and we saw it we can just basically hike up for a day sleep
another day up there probably just a morning because it's coming down much
faster so it's not gonna be that we've got to take everything so you got the
things to we thought the species might be any species so take calipers to
measure it with cheetahs alcohol for the samples and all its bugs you need the
cameras and things like that okay okay how we're gonna walk six you're gonna
carry the tanks yes that's okay right you and you are we're carrying water
tons of water oh no problems water yet fine got all the equipment we need yeah
ready but we really wanted to get started so we you know we were everyone's
this file and we'd like okay we can all sleep at one time for that short period
of time it's gonna be a total squeeze but we can do it and we start and and
the the hikes are too bad knows it's a proper trade man probably after we've
been hiking four or five hours there was still like a little heart with some
shepherd and they were there that people are incredibly nice in those sort of rural places
they are see people coming so they were so far we again not speaking but showing
with their gestures you know do you want to say it needs a bread with us or
whatever we're good which we're gonna get up these mountains we're still going
so we yeah very nice rest a little bit as you do and I can we keep hiking keep
and you may actually sourced it I mean that that day I keep up mountains is
always the killer but you know we've taken experience people this time we
know what we get there and we get pretty high we're not right where we want to be
but we could probably be there a couple more hours tomorrow so done the vast
majority of the height destroyed ourselves climbing up this mountain
we'll sleep and we'll go on so let's let's get all get the tent out I think
and then my father who PhD she was working on particular species and she
said all right yeah and we got to say okay where's all the stuff cooking stuff
and she said James okay where's the food I don't maybe that maybe that then we're
looking around and then she said no James where's the food and I was like
I've got I've got some bad news we brought everything except we forgot to
bring any food and of course my father just doesn't she's just take James it's
not funny it's not funny anymore where's the food and I'm like all right so um
no we forgot the food so so we with this is the experience people we know it so
I was like well I've got like a packet of sweets in my pocket which you can
carry on the way up anyone else got anything and they Daniele says well
actually because I'm sure this is gonna be news and and so I as well as all
stuff I supposed to carry they also snuck into my bag a bottle of wine and
an Italian sausage because I wanted this to be when we get the new species we're
gonna have Italian sausage and bottle of wine so I'm like right so basically over
the next six what we've got what we've got is like an Italian sausage and like
half a packet and and my final cook and I'm vegetarian so so we like well
what can we do thin slice of sausage everybody that's your dinner breakfast thin
slice of sausage everybody that's my bread it was quite hard but then so we
we we hiked up the next little bit of mountain the next morning and the good
news was lo and behold the little lizards were there and then this is
about our third trip trying to get up this mountain so we're super happy and
and it was looking for probably is in these feces we still haven't described
it but probably is and so Daniele said let's get get the bottle of wine open let's
drink that because we found the thing it looks a bit different and we sure it
will be something different so so let's celebrate as an act of me when you it
you know two and a half thousand meters and you haven't eaten anything a day and a half
it's amazing what happened you can really feel I don't think I've ever felt
so drunk quarter of a bottle of wine empty stomach yes so we drank about the
wine it's got some slits just we don't need to stay a whole second day hike back
down so we managed to we spent that afternoon so in the end it was only two
days people eating it wasn't that bad still but yeah experience
sabotages take everything with them forget for that yeah so I'd like to say
I've actually improved from the first trip where I flying snake I know what to do
to full ability by the egg but no I still kind of important one of those
things but yeah so certainly we we've had some fun in rock when was that that
would have been I mean my father was here she she stopped around 2015 so I
think it'll be back 2012 so these probably about ten years between the
first trip at the last but he has I said we carried on and there certainly be
well I see you're you're prepared on the call and I'm not so sure I'm supposed to
tell stories of you in that was a nice that was a good repair so at one point
we were we often don't have quality vehicles here at CBO so we trying to go
off mountains with with a Renault Kangoo basically which which is a big little
car surprise but you can rip the bottom out of it bouncing over big rocks on
dirt tracks that nobody sensible would take anything except a four-wheel drive
come on time we were driving and suddenly people away I'm smelling a lot
of petrol and we stopped the car and we're on a dirt track obviously not
another cars gonna come by oh I remember we are spin out and and there's petrol
pouring out pouring out of the fuel light and you you got it there with the
pliers and got them and I think we just had to like sell it a board and we'll
sell it yeah oh you had some tape some good tape yeah and we taped it up and we
thought that gets to the next village and in fact he calls all the way back to
Portugal it worked very well so I don't think we even told the people here that
no I think just thought that's good little repair so are you going here this
year yeah let's see I'm not sure I mean I've got a lot of few work this normally
let's break it's it's still my preferred time of year and but I have been later in
the side it's very hot and we don't need to go in it that hot so I prefer not to
and in the autumn sometimes it can be good a lot of people like going in the
water and this spring I've got a lot of food work to do here but I have got some
new master's students that need their initiation yeah so I think I'm up I
might try and go in in September just even if it's just a short trip just so
that they get get their experience it's a more stores let them practice a bit
walking up hills before that make sure they make sure they take sensible boots
because I mean you tell people ten times over take sensible boots and they think
I bought my tennis shoes I thought that was good shoes like not not exactly no
no not the ideal foot you gotta be walking on sharper rocks for two weeks
in a row yeah pretty right James thanks a lot that was pleasure
I hadn't heard those stories yet so and we I know there's a lot more where that
came from there are a few now we look forward to
here to be able to you know recording at the same time yeah yeah I'll let you
rest yeah bye you