Another spectacular week in Mauritius for me to rub in your wonderful faces. Have I lost any friends yet?
My picture is of a sun clock that we found at one of the sugar cane planations. I think it was part of the land owner's garden originally, now it stands alone on it's plynth. In the background you can see the eastern mountains and the chimney from the old sugar factory.
Since this was my last week working on fruit bats for the forseeable future, I shall link you to this brilliant youtube series. Please watch True Facts about the Fruit Bat, as shown to me by Mr Ed Ellis of Australia - my partner in fruit bat escapades, loser of fruit bat catching competitions and shaver of healthy looking beards.
Five things
1. Shouting "OUTTA MY WAY, NATURE!" and swearing profusely in no way helps you whilst thrashing around in dense forest in an attempt to reach some obscure coordinates that a bat was once at. Mostly, Nature just whacks you in the face with a a sharp stick and carries on with it's day. Any suggestions for how I can do this better? See the picture below for a picture of some dense forest, in case you didn't know what some looked like.
2. Dragon fruit is grown on a cactus and the flower opens only at night, pollinated in their native habitat by moths and bats (come on, you knew there was a bat reference coming soon, don't kid yourself). In most other places they are hand pollinated and that's why they're so expensive.
3. Fig wasps now live inside my computer and keyboard. I just saw one crawl in under the space bar. He looked nonplussed.
4. I cannot flirt easily in french. Mostly I have to look it up on google translate, which makes smooth conversation nigh on impossible.
5. Vanilla comes from a self fertile orchid.