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DISPATCH 02: Vehicle repairs made and fossils found
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Mr. Were the mechanic has been working hard on getting more of the vehicles on the road but had a close call with a carpet viper this moving when he moved a stone from in front of a wheel so he could remove the fuel tank to fix the holes with Steel Epoxy. Fortunately he heard it rubbing its scales together and so he was alerted just in time. This noise is why that particular snake is sometimes called a saw scale viper. So for the moment KYE has hole in the fuel tank repaired with Steel Epoxy…

The fossil prospecting has got off to a good start with several interesting finds including a partial humerus of a bird and many teeth and mandible pieces of Theropithecus brumpti which is a large grass eating baboon that lived here 3 million years ago. They also found a Dinothere,
an early browse eating elephant, which will need collecting before the end of the season as it looks as though it might be in fairly good condition. The team has been prospecting in an area close to the camp but that has not yet been resurveyed since the 1970s. This close proximity to the Koobi Fora base camp allows us to continue with mending vehicles and servicing equipment with good access to water and communications for the first week or so. Louise meanwhile did another flight across the lake to the town called Lodwar to the west where we had arranged to collect the National Museum representatives of the field crew, Robert, Steven and Justus.

A pile of flat tyres has accumulated and so these were repaired one afternoon which is no easy task. A 12 ply tyre from a land rover requires a certain determination and skill to get into it to remove the inner tube, identify and patch up the hole. With the abundance of thorns in this area punctures are common.


 

 

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