21 July

As last night no frogs were caught, we didn’t have any identification to do. Louise and Leo, one of the volunteers went to release the Tiger rat snake from yesterday. So with the snake in a pillow case and in a backpack they set off for Vulture Rock. It is quite a hike and the furthest we have been so far. Although we didn’t choose the best day to do this. Normally a day starts sunny but quite soon the clouds already come rolling in. However, today there was no cloud in the sky until late in the morning. After crossing two rivers, only one of which has a bridge, and climbing over some fallen trees we reached the steepest bit up to Vulture Rock. The last path is in a very open area with lots of grass and ferns and only a handful of trees to give you some shade. It was so hot to walk on here with the boiling sun shining right on you, plus zigzagging up the mountain. It was also quite hard to see the path with all the grass covering it and every now and then when you place your foot a bit too much to the left it would slip down. But don’t worry, we stayed on the path. Once we reached Vulture Rock we took a long break, enjoyed the amazing view and saw some lizards and vultures. The next trail was probably the biggest challenge so far. Frank and the rest who went up yesterday cut a path going straight up from a trail by the river, to Vulture Rock and further. But unlike the normal trails, this path went straight up, without any bends or zigzagging. So as you can imagine it was very steep and extremely slippery with all the loose soil and cut off branches. Eventually, after a lot of sliding we reached the point where we had to release the snake. We were planning on filming the release, but as soon as the bag was open and on the ground the snake took off at a crazy speed. There was no way of filming that. Once we got to the normal trail again our trousers had become very muddy brown from all the sliding down the hill. In the end it took us 4 hours to get up the mountain and back to camp.
At 2 we went down to San Gerardo for Marian’s project presentation. Over the past 6 months he has been studying the different trees and fruits found in this reserve. It was in town so anyone interested in these projects can come and listen. A very good way to engage the community as well, especially when some presentations are done in Spanish when possible.