Jonathan Proud

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Samaria Gorge	cheese. Had a briefing on counting tourist and goat numbers in the camp. In the afternoon I walked around camp and watched the goats. Later we did a dry run of the goat processing procedure, using Dave as the goat. I PIT tagged him through the T-shirt. A few minutes later, four goats were caught and we did it all for real. I had to PIT tag all four and there wasn't time to get nervous about it. For the goat's sake it had to be done right first time. The Bulgarian girl cooked dinner. Thu 16th: Up at 04:30 again and this time I went with Tom to the chapel high on a pinnacle
of rock above the village. Saw about eight goats, mainly mothers with kids, and was able to track them for about 30 minutes, noting behaviour every three minutes. Returned to camp where there was a good vegetable stew for lunch. Watched goats and tourists in the village during the afternoon. We had an early dinner, then processed goats. This time five were caught and dealt with in quick succession. One of my PIT tag numbers did not match the list, which had supposedly been carefully checked previously. It was all rather stressful and I was glad when we were finished for the day.	Observation point
Mother and kid	Fri 17th: Got up at 05:00 to hike into the next gorge. We climbed up to a cave which contained a huge quantity of goat droppings. The view was good, but we saw no goats except the skeletion of one long dead. We climbed down into the riverbed and soon came upon an old female goat that was dying. The volunteers walked further up the riverbed while the goat experts put it down. Continued another half mile over rough boulders, had lunch, then made a difficult ascent to a viewpoint. We then returned, slowly, to camp. Caught three goats in the evening, but one had to be released before processing was
complete. Sat 18th: Slept in until about 7:30, then hiked with Melissa and John down to Agia Roumeli. I managed to escape to swim and snorkel by the cave where I'd camped years ago. Returned to the main beach and rejoined the group. Sunbathed there for a while before lunch. Later went back to the rocks with Melissa and John. We swam in the sea and rinsed off in the stream. Saw a female goat and kid on the return walk.	Earthwatch group
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