O grupo das plantas

By 6.30am I was baked out of my tent by the scorching sun. We joined the plant monitoring group on a slow walk up the hill to record and sample everything we saw. The cuttings are enveloped in newspaper and stored in an old-fashioned press contraption, which two of the students are using here. When the samples are enclosed, it's tightened with straps and slung over the shoulder, until the next sampling opportunity.

The temperatures were brutally hot so by late morning we weren't able to function well and survived on a diet of shade and rusks. Rusks here are not the snacks chewed on by British babies but absolutely rock solid blocks of charred biscuit sold in cereal boxes in Southern Africa. During fieldwork in extreme temperatures, the risk of tooth damage is worth the emergency sugar hit.

The afternoon was more chilled: catching up on torrents of work that I've missed in recent weeks, and circulating among the various scientists analysing their survey findings so far, on the lookout for interesting things about Chimanimani.