Officially Qualified!

Hi All

Apologies for the lack of a blog update over the past month. Since getting back to selati from my leave the focus has been passing my level 1 qualification. We had a couple of weeks to go over everything as well as 1 week of first aid and wilderness medicine which was a unique experience in itself. The guy running it taught us first aid by scaring the living day light out of us! Video clip after video clip of very stupid people doing very stupid things with guns, knives, fire, wild animals etc etc. you name we saw it.

It was actually a very well taught week and i learnt a lot as well as completing the course with a level 2 qualification. Our final test was a pretend rescue situation. A guy had been walking in the river bed outside our camp and got bitten by a crocodile! it was pretty realistic with blood and amputated arms etc! As a group we had to assess the situation and address the wounds appropriately, perform CPR and stretcher him back to camp. Needless to say we all found it rather funny but also discovered our bandaging needs a little work!

Our final week in Selati camp brought new challenges for me specifically as I had been bitten by something other than a mosquito and  started to feel a little off. But the exam and practicals we in the next couple of days so i held off whatever the problem was and focused on getting through the next few days. My practical assessment was a 3 hour guided drive  in which i had to cover a whole host of topics including, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, amphibians, climate, geology, history of the area, stars (on a morning drive!) grasses, animal behaviour, trees, situational awareness and scenarios the list goes on! I got lucky with my assessor, a guy called Les who was a great guy and always had an interesting story up his sleeve. It went well and I felt pleased at the end of the 3 hours which felt like 3 minutes. Feedback at the end was very positive and i was give the green light of passing!!!! over the moon and on to the exam!

THe exam was a couple of days later and as long as I kept the neurofen pumping round my system the fever was kept low and the headaches at bay. The last few days of cramming definitely helped as the exam was a particularly strange set of questions which are pulled from a database of over 1000 questions. We had some real easy ones and then some super difficult ones! Definitely not your standard exam like the mock papers we had been given to practise.

15 of us sat the paper in the morning and had a nervous analysing couple of hours where by the  "what did you write for this one and ......oh no i didn't put that i must have failed" usual post exam chat every single one of us has experienced pursued! Just after lunch we got called in one by one for the results, each person coming out smiling and returning to the group to a big round of applause. Unfortunately 2 people didn't make it through but we have every faith that they will pass in January when they re sit. Luckily for me though.......

I PASSED AND AM NOW OFFICIALLY A QUALIFIED SAFARI GUIDE!

Job done you are probably thinking. well not quite, the purpose of the one year course is to get a whole range of qualifications making you very employable at the end of the year. Next up was our advanced rifle handling in the stunning Makuleke camp in northern kruger park. 

But first stop was straight to the doctor to find out what was wrong with me, I had shown my now black scabby bite the size of a 20p piece to the Head instructor who almost immediately said i had tick bite fever. Not life threatening but a pretty nasty virus to have and has to be treated by antibiotics. So that night whilst everyone was busy celebrating I was lying in my tent feeling close to death as my body temperature soared and fell every 30 minutes. The doctor in Phalaborwa (45 mins away)  in the morning ran some tests and confirmed tick bite fever, prescribed me antibiotics and some fairly strong painkillers and sent me on my way! 

6 hour drive north to the new camp through kruger park was stunning and we arrived in a very remote location where "no one can hear you scream" so to speak! not even cellphone reception! the camp is located in a private concession area of Kruger, meaning not even tourists are allowed in the area but the animals wonder freely. We had the place to ourselves and it was stunning. The purpose of being here for this week was to go through our Advanced Rifle Handling course and take our exam at the end of it. we had 4 days on the range and had to complete 6 different exercises, each one increasing in difficulty. You have to passed each one to proceed to the next. By day 2 I had the first 5 exercises under my belt and completed which was a great feeling to be ahead and shooting well. Unfortunately I had to spend day 3 in camp whilst many of the group still had the majority of the exercises to complete and need the day on the range to catch up before day 4 of the final exercise. 

This meant i had a day when i could have been practising or attempting exercise 6 but was unable to, frustrating but this did mean i could go on a walk with Bruce Lawson - one of the best regarded guides in the business and incredibly knowledgable. I jumped at the opportunity and joined him on a 2.5 hour walk where we covered 6 kms. We walked through a fever tree forest, amongst a huge herd of buffalo, got surrounded by nyala jumping through the forest, watched zebra drink at the waterhole below us and watch a beautiful african sunset over the floodplains. It was the best walk in the 3 months of the course and one i will not forget in a hurry!

The exercises we had to complete were:

1. load a magazine blindfolded in 15 seconds

2. fire 5 rounds into a 15m target and hit the bulls eye zone

3. Shoot at the 15 m, 10m and 5m target each time scoring 10 in 14 seconds

4. Fire 3 rounds into a 10 m target dealing with a misfire round in 13 seconds

5. Shoot the bulls eye on a 12m and 8m buffalo in 12 seconds (don't worry not a real buffalo!)

6. Simulate Lion charge - controlling your guests, getting down on one knee, chambering a round and firing hitting the bulls eye before the charging lion reaches the 10m target! 

Back to the range for the final day - Simulated Lion charge, the exercise known to rip your ARH qualification from under your feet. And it did just that, I had two attempts and missed the bulls eye by a couple of centimetres. Very frustrating as I had been shooting well all the way through. So I didn't pass and out of the 17 of us attempting ARH only 4 got it. So i will take it again on the 5th jan and hope this time i can nail it!

3 months of training in the African bush are complete, with my FGASA level 1, Wilderness medicine and first aid and my track and sign level 2 i am pretty happy with all i have achieved so far. Now its time for a decent break and 3 weeks off over christmas. I am now in Namibia and have already had 4 great days at Harnas catching up with friends and animals alike (Harnas update to follow!). The next few weeks will be spent between Pattricks farm (Vergeneog) and swakopmund where we have rented a self catering apartment on the beach for the 4 days of the christmas weekend. It will be a little different to the usual big family christmas in cold and frosty England. But absent friends will still be toasted at 2.15pm, crackers will still be pulled and the obligatory bread sauce will still be created! As for the turkey stuffed by granny, mums pheasant casserole and the huge pile of presents under the usual 16ft christmas tree well ....maybe next year!! Dad is also heading out soon after christmas for 10 days of touring Namibia, we are heading up to Etosha National park where i hope to dazzle him with my newly acquired knowledge, just please let the birds be the same!!!

This experience has been everything I had hoped and dreamed for the past 3 years, no regrets only assurances that i made the right decision to move here, the next 6 months are going to be pretty exciting and who knows where i will end up on my lodge placement in february, but no doubt it will bring new adventures, new birds to identify (oh gosh i am turning into a bird nerd!) and more awesome people to meet.

I hope you have all had a fantastic 2011 and have a very merry christmas!!

More from me in 2012 and maybe even a trip home in July to see you all

lots of love

xx

Tracking and the first holiday!

Now sitting in Windhoek Airport (Namibia) at the end of my 6 days leave which has been fantastic and a much needed break from the bush and the intense learning environment!

The last few weeks at Karongwe were great, the camp was really beautiful and the wildlife was fantastic. We completed a week long track and sign course which involves learning the tracks of pretty much everything that moves in the bush, including the grass! After 4 days intense training from 2 of the top trackers in the country we under took a 2 day test to determine what level track and sign we had all reached. This involved the instructor circling a track on the ground and each of us individually identifying it. We were tested on everything from hippo, lion, leopard, frogs, civets, genets, human footprints, beetles, tortoises etc etc! Even the mark that the grass leaves behind when it blows in the wind! Not only what animal it was but what foot it was and what direction the animal was travelling! So it was a challenging couple of days especially in the 40 degree heat!

I came out with a level 2 track and sign qualification which is recognised all over South Africa, i was really pleased as thought i would only get level 1. six people out of the 16 of us reached level 2 and the rest level 1.

After finishing the course we all went on our 6 days leave and managed to spread ourselves far and wide across southern africa, with some people heading to capetown, durban, botswana, kruger, joburg and me all the way to Namibia which is actually closer than london to birmingham in terms of travel time! I spent the 6 days with Pattrick and we headed up to the erongo mountains for a couple of days which was really beautiful, climbed the obligatory mountain for a sundowner and chilled by the pool. Then headed out to the farm near swakop where he is based and spent a couple of days playing with the 3 month old black lab stoffel who is just the cutest/naughtest puppy ever, and finished the time off with a day in swakopmund dipping toes in the ocean whilst looking at the dunes followed by a lovely fishy lunch at the end of the pier!

Now heading back to Selati camp feeling refreshed and ready for some more facts, figures and bush knowledge to be drummed into my head before we take our exam and practical assessment in the first week of december.

thats all for now!

Hope all is well with you all wherever you are all in the world now! 

xx

Exams, Birthdays, unbearable heat, oh and 2 leopard sightings in one morning!

It has been a full on few weeks since my last blog and it is almost impossible to write down everything that has happened but i will try my best.

We are now 6 weeks in to the course and spent week 5 writing our final Eco training exams which involved a 2 hour theory paper on everything we had learnt in the first 5 weeks and a 1 hour practical assessment out in the bush. My exam went really well and i managed 88% which was awesome. But my practical was a little difficult as i was 2nd to go in our rotation which meant i started the drive in an unknown location and one which was full of mopane trees and little else. Unbelievably i didn't see a single animal and only heard 4 birds call in the hour. As you can imagine this made talking about everything in the bush pretty difficult! I managed to link as much in from vegetation to birds and from poo to mammals as i could. I was pretty thankful to come to the end of it and passed all the exams and assessments with a final score of 80% which is pretty good and in the upper end of the group. Huge relief that it is all over and now we can all relax a bit!

We rounded off our time in Selati with an awards ceremony, written and produced by sarah and myself. Everyone received an award for what they had become best known for. I was lucky enough to receive the worst volleyball player award! As we have a volley ball court on the dried up river bank outside camp! very well deserved i must say!

The final weeks at Selati provided us with some awesome game viewing (although not when i really needed it!). And we had 5 rhino (white and black) encounters, including mother and calf, as well as lions, elephant, genet and bush babies. Mainly the Leopard that continued to escape our grasp and much to our frustration we had one in our camp several nights running!

A week ago we moved to a new camp - Karongwe. Which is just an hour west of Selati and the transfer was in our open top landy's so it was a little wind swept to say the least! Karongwe is a commercial reserve with about 7 different game lodges on it. There are all of the big 5 here although the Buffalo are in a breeding pen right in the north so we are unlikely to see them. The camp is awesome and our tents are pretty big, none of this hitting your head on the roof of your tent anymore which is a nice. We even have 2 shelves each to unpack! What a luxury!! I am still sharing with Sarah, who is really nice. Also english, also went to oxford brookes to study business and also went to harnas 3 years ago where i met her there! small world! 

It was my birthday on the day we arrived and so we went out for the obligatory sundowner where we watched the sun set over the Drakensburg Escarpment  with the hippos playing in the waterhole in front of us! Savannah in one hand and very happy days!

Karongwe has already been full of surprises and we are only 1 week in. The focus of the next 3 weeks here is to recap on everything we have learnt and enhance our tracking skills. Day 2 has been the highlight were we went out on a drive and by listening to the radio (which the guides from the lodges use) we heard about lions and cheetahs. We raced over to the lion sighting and waited our turn to view. After crashing through the bush we came across a pride of 7 lions including a mating pair. The lions were very relaxed and didn't seem to mind us being there, we sat with them for about 20 minutes and it was awesome to see them. Next on the radio was cheetah so off we went again and found 2 male cheetah just off the road in the bush, so we walked into the sighting (guide with rifle of course!) and managed to get within just a few meters of these 2 wild but very habituated cheetahs.They were two males in a coalition and looked like they had just had a good feed. Another awesome sighting and to see lion and cheetah in the same day is almost un heard of.

Karongwe is very different to the wild selati where little roams there and no tourists exist. Karongwe does have many tourists although we don't see them too often. But due to that and the use of the radio the animals are pretty used to people and easy to find. This does take some of the thrill and excitement away but it also provides us with fantastic viewings. 

Last weekend was a scorcher and we hit 45 degrees in the sun. I think the only time i have come close to that is in dubai where we could escape to the air conditioned car, house, building!! Not our here in the wilds of africa. We had to sweat it out and carry on learning and going out on activites in the heat! Luckily the instructors took pity on us and drove us 20 mins down the road to a lodge where we could watch the rugby world cup final (very average game) and take a dip in their pool! It was a bit of light relief before heading back to the sweats of camp! The next couple of days were similar and people have started to feel the effects. Water intake is at an all time high and rehydration salts are in well use! Finally the heat has cooled to a balmy 36 degrees!  at least there is cloud cover now so that provides some escape!

Just yesterday we were very lucky indeed as we headed out on our morning game drive as usual. We headed to the northern end of the reserve, it was a cold and damp morning which was a refreshing change from the crazy heat. We drove down one particular road and came across a beautiful female leopard lying in the tree like all perfect leopard sightings should be. Sadly she got up and jumped down before we had a chance to take photos. But we felt very lucky to catch her, it was our first sighting of leopard in the 6 weeks we had been on the course. So we were happy with our sighting and headed back south towards camp. Chris (our instructor) out of no where shouts Leopard! of course we thought he was joking, there is no way we could see 2 leopards on one morning! But there he was a beautiful big male just strolling through the bush! He was really relaxed and so we could spend about 10 minutes watching him. Highlight of the course!!

Leopard, Lion, Cheetah, Rhino (black and white) so its just buffalo to go to complete the big 5!

The group are all in good spirits despite a couple of tifs here and there which is normal when 17 people spend 6 solid weeks together in each others company!

Life is still good in the bush, off out leading a game drive this afternoon so hopefully we come across something good.

Huge thanks for all my birthday messages, i managed to get into my Facebook to read well over 100 messages which was lovely to receive.

Love and hugs to all. I should be in more contact on the 10th november as we have our 5 days leave then!

xx

Eco training - bush life at its best

So its week 4 of the bush life and all is going very well.

I met up with the Ecotraining group 5D at nelspruit over 3 weeks ago now and I can't quite believe how much we have achieved and more than that how much we have learnt in such a short space of time. Our first 3 days were spent in nelspruit filling in forms, registering with DEAT and FGASA (the governing bodies for field guiding) and also taking our rifle competency test which to pass we had to fire 10 rounds (bullets) into a square target on an A5 piece of paper 15 meters away with a .22 rifle. Easy some of you may say, well not when you haven't handled a rifle for a few years!! Luckily I and several others passed first time.

After the first 3 days we drove 4 hours north of nelspruit and entered Selati Game Reserve, which is a 33,000 hectare private game reserve in which no other lodges are present other than the Eco training camp and some lion researchers. The Eco training camp consists of 15 dome tents and an open air lecture/dining room. No electricity and hot water is sporadic, but this would be our home for the next 5 weeks and it was more than adequate. The biggest bonus is the cell phone reception which is only available at the top of a 5 meter termite mound!

Selati is home to the big 4 (Lion, Leopard, Elephant and Rhino, just missing the Buffalo from the big 5). It is a beautiful area full of undulating hills and flat open areas as well, although bush is pretty dense throughout the reserve. We have seen more giraffe than impala, which for those of you who know africa is pretty crazy! The Selati river runs through the reserve and right in front of our camp. Although it is dry at the moment so it is proving to be an excellent volleyball court on soft beachy sand. In just a few months it will be a free flowing river in which we can swim in. We return to selati at the end of november and hope it will be ready for us to cool off from the 40 + degrees it is going to get.

The last 3 weeks have been pretty hectic, on arrival we were told we had 5 days to learn 50 birds by sight and by call. Now I will openly admit that i was not the biggest birder (or more commonly known out here as a twitcher!) just over 3 weeks ago. I am now however pretty hot on the birds of southern africa! So we had 5 days of nothing but bird watching and listening, which when you have arrived straight off a plane from new york can be a little challenging for some people, but we all did very well and surprised ourselves. 5 days after starting the birds almost all of us past. I managed to get 49 out of 50 so pretty pleased with that!

So week 1 was 50 birds, and after we were sick of the sight of the fork tailed drongo, the orange breasted bush shrike and the african fish eagles we were told to crack on and learn 45 trees!! Its no rest for the wicked here!! week 2 We started our fgasa (field guides association of south africa) level 1 training which is the basic level you have to achieve to be able to operate as a guide in south africa. In 28 days we have to learn everything from geology, mammals, fish, arthropods, climate, insects, oh and of course how to be a guide itself!! Our daily structure is up at 5.30am every day quick coffee/hot chocolate and off out for a 3 hour walk or 3 hour drive. THe group is split into two so one group walks and one group drives. Then back for a huge breakfast at 10am before a lecture starts at 11 for a couple of hours, then lunch and back out for a 3 hour walk or 3 hour drive (opposite for what you did in the morning). Back for dinner at 7ish and study time if you have the energy. Most of us sit round the fire before going to bed at 8.30ish. so its a start early and finish early kinda day!

We have a test and presentation every week, so far i am averaging about 84% which is fine as pass mark is 75% lets hope i can keep it up!

Some of the best sightings we have had have been a male lion almost walking through camp in the night, naturally we all jumped on the landy to go find it! A heard of 70 elephants we came across and just sat for over an hour whilst they walked past us! Just 2 days ago i was leading a safari drive and we came across about 10 elephants, luckily i had byron (our assistant instructor) in the car with me so he could tell me where and how to drive around them!

The weather has been really mixed couple of scorching days when it has been 38% in the shade but also a couple of stormy days with hectic thunderstorms. The other night we had 17mm of rain in a couple of hours.

The people are awesome and one of the most diverse groups eco training have ever had. We range in age from 18 - 61 and are split 50:50 guys and girls. There is 17 of us here at the moment with one girl leaving in a cuple of weeks as she is just here for the 28 day course. We also have all nationalities from canadians, americans, aussies, french, south africans and of course the brits (6 in total!)

Today is our first day off in 22 days and a much needed day of not studying and a little bit of civilisation as we have headed in to hoedspruit to use internet, have a boozy lunch and buy the much needed essentials.

Apologies for any birthdays I have forgotten so far and also for the ones i am likely to forget in the coming weeks!!

Hope everyone is well, missing you all heaps

xx

second leg of southern africa - botswana to Nelspruit

From the border crossing at Rietfontain we drove north to the Kgalagadi National Park, a game reserve that borders both South Africa and Botswana. This is the only park in Africa that contains two countries. We spent the night at Twee Rivieren  campsite and started the two day drive through the park the next day. We had such a huge distance to  travel that we had to drive faster than we would have liked and couldn't spend as much time at water holes to see the animals. We were lucky enough to see lions though which was a big bonus! We also saw heaps of birds and the binoculars and bird book came into full swing (mum you will be pleased to hear!). We also saw meerkats, mongoose, puff adders, black mambas, oryx, springbok, red haartebeast, jackals and a honey badger. Beautiful landscapes driving right through the middle of the kalahari desert. 

The second day was an eventful one as we drove north to exit through the Kaa gate on the botswanan side, this time no such border troubles. We knew the road would be bad as it was rarely travelled but what we encountered was something of a different kind!! it was deep sand, heavily rutted and more up and downs than a yo-yo!! we thought the drive out of the park and to Ghanzi would take about 6-7 hours. But 11 hours later and we had only arrived in Kang, it was a pretty tough day of driving, I only drove 3 of the 11 hours with Pattrick driving the large majority. The road was so bad that most of the time we could only drive 15kms an hour! there were points on the road/sandy track where we were so remote no one would have ever found us! It was kind of scary but exciting at the same time, that we had to be completely self sufficient and no one would come pull us out if we got stuck! We reckoned only about 5 cars a week travel that road! We stopped for a quick homemade ham and cheese sandwich freshly made from the kitchen in our trailer!  whilst consuming such sandwich we spotted what looked remarkably like lion poo!! And quickly got back in the car! Even though we were now outside of the park there were no fences on the northern end so Lions could quite possibly be roaming in the area we were driving!.

We gave up on trying to make it to Ghanzi and found a motel type place at a service station that luckily had a room spare. Turns out the Harnas phrase of "Expect the Un Expected" can be applied across Africa!!

We spent the next two days in the Okavango Delta (but based in Maun), camping right on the river which was beautiful but we shared our campsite with plenty of mosquitos!! We spent a day on a Mokoro (a wooden boat pushed along by a local guide with a long wooden pole, much like they do in venice but a little less glamorous!). We travelled for about 7 hours through the delta seeing elephants, zebra, antelopes, lots of birds (still need to learn the names!!) and the odd croc as well, just the small ones though! It was a lovely day out but maybe if we had researched more we would have spent the day in the Moremi game reserve on safari as we might have seen a little more animals. But the delta is about being on the water so it was great to experience that.

Then we travelled to Nata, about 4 hour drive from Maun and stayed in a lovely lodge on the edge of the Maghadihadi pans, a huge salt pan which attracts heaps of birds but mainly flamingos in their thousands. We had a beautiful sunset here and enjoyed the luxuries of staying in a lodge for a night rather than camping.

The next day we drove 300km to Serowe where there is the Kharma Rhino Sanctuary. We decided not to take the main road to Serowe and just and have a bit of an adventure, as if we weren't already! so we took what is marked on the map as "secondary roads"! As you can imagine this is little more than a dirt track and took substantially longer than planned, but we did see a bit more of the country and the back roads took us through some interesting and very remote villages. the locals waved madly at us and then ran towards the car, i can imagine that they have probably only ever seen white people on the tv!

Kharma Rhino sanctuary is actually more of a rhino game reserve with the aim to breed rhinos in a safe environment to then re locate around botswana to the wild. It is a 5000 hectare area with 30 rhinos in it. We camped within the park and could self drive around which was really fantastic. it only took about 40 minutes before we spotted our first rhino in the distance. You are not allowed out of your cars and you have to stay 50 meters away at all times, but when we could only see the bum of the rhino and thinking this could be our only sighting we took our chances and headed out on foot!! We got within about 20 meters and made sure the wind direction was right so they couldn't smell us! Rhino's actually have very poor eyesight so as long as they couldn't hear or smell us we were pretty safe. Right until we realised it was a mother and calf!! this swiftly brought back memories of a walking safari i was on with my family in zimbabwe when we came across a mother and calf and got a little too close for comfort! The mother charged us and came within just a few meters of us! Luckily this encounter was not so heart stopping but a little nerve wracking so we headed back to the safety of the car!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon spotting many rhinos all over the park, on one particular road we turned the corner and were faced with no less than 7 rhinos including 2 babies!! we switched the engine off and just let them graze around us and wonder pass in their own sweet time!! we must have been there for close to 45 minutes and it was really magical to be so close to them and for them to be so relaxed. Another beautiful sunset and a great campsite, braai and bed. In the night i heard the noises of what i instantly assumed was leopard as there are some in the park. Slightly nervous i peeked out of the tent gauze to try and see but to no avail. Next morning looking at the tracks we deciphered it was a huge hyena and he had walked all the way around our tent! Definitely in the middle of all the action!

Next day we drove to South Africa across the border, which i assumed would cause hassle with my visa etc but it was very smooth and quick. Spent the day driving as far south as we could and made it all the way to the Blyde River Canyon arriving in the dark with no campsite booked we took the first one we found which was adequate!! Following day was a short drive to Nelspruit through a very beautiful and mountainous area. Sadly the cloud was low and the mist was hiding the beauty of it so we saw very little. 

Finally arrived in Nelspuit after 14 days, 6000kms and 3 countries of driving through the most beautiful parts of Southern Africa. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to see so much of the area and travel it with such an awesome person! The only arguments revolved around map reading in the cities!!! I was always right!! But huge thanks goes to Pattrick for doing 90% of the driving and putting the tent up and down every night and every morning!

Next step: Eco Training. 1 year living and working in the bush..........bring it on!

Road Trip - Namibia Section

So it was finally my turn for the sad thursday! Except luckily i left at sunrise with Alex and Jimmy, so i didnt have to go through the emotional process of saying goodbye to everyone on the farm, handing out letters and certificates. The process i have managed for the past 3 months! 

We drove to Windhoek where Alex and Jimmy dropped me off at the Hilton, i figured after 3 months of freezing my ass off in a wooden cabin with cold water and with 11 months of camping ahead of me i deserved a little bit of luxury for one night!! It was a beautiful hotel in the centre of windhoek and had only been opened for 2 months. Long soak in the bath followed by a drink on the roof top bar (the highest building in windhoek) and a heavenly sleep in the biggest bed in the world! The next morning i had a swim in the roof top pool and a breakfast with so much choice i didnt know where to start. it isnt until you have that kind of luxury that you know what you have been missing out on. And in all honesty i didnt miss anything whilst i was at harnas, apart from strong cheese and the compulsory pasta and baked beans!!!

On Friday we started our overland trip, I am travelling with a friend from Harnas (Pattrick). The plan is to drive from Windhoek through southern namibia, across botswana and into south africa where Pattrick will drop me in Nelspruit and drive back to Harnas. Thats the plan anyway, but with overland trips you just never know where you are going to end up!

We left Windhoek in Pattricks car which he has been working on for several weeks to ensure it is fit for travel.We are also pulling a Echo trailer, whcih is a 4x4 trailer with everything you need in it (tent, kitchen, gas hob, freezer, shower, etc).  20kms down the road or should i say steep gravel path and the car starts to over heat! Pull over, put the bonnet up and out pours boiling water. Game over!! Unfortunately despite thousands of dollars and weeks of work the car still wasn't in good enough condition to make the journey. So we turned back! Unbelivable that we had barely left windhoek and already had car trouble! but its all part of the process!!

Luckily one of pattricks friends had a spare 4x4 car that he could lend us, so after camping out in his back garden (not quite where we were planning on spending our first night!) we left early saturday morning with the new car. This time we made it 150km before the car broke down! Yes i can hear you saying how unlucky can we be! The whole rear axel of the car had come loose and the car was going no where. We were stuck on a steep incline and had no way of fixing the car. After being towed to the top of the hill pattrick spent the next 2.5 hours tightening the axel back to the rest of the car! (this man can fix just about anything on a car). Off we go again, 10kms down the road and the axel comes loose again!! At this point i was ready to hire a car for the trip!!! We managed to make it to the nearest farm and lucky use their welding machine. Another 3 hours later and Pattrick had welded the axel back togetehr and we were finally on our way to Sossusvlei.

Arrivng in the dark we found our campsite and pitched the tent.. When I say pitched the tent the whole thing pretty much pops up at the push of a button!! very easy and doesnt even feel like camping! The next morning we got up early and made our way into the sand dune for sunrise. Absolutly beautiful as the sun pops up over the top of the mountain range and shines onto the dunes, one of those take your breath away moments! After a morning spent in the national park we started the long drive south to Fish River Canyon (about 7 hours drive). I was given the worst gravel road stint of the journey to drive but pattrick tells me it is all part of the experience and i need to learn to drive on gravel!!! This time it wasn't us breaking down but we must have seen at least 10 cars on the side of the road. I had to drag pattrick form each and every one of them as he tried to help and fix the problems!!

We made it to fish river after  what felt like the longest road in the world finally ended! "pitched" the tent and could finally relax with a beer knowing the trip was underway and excited for what the next 2 weeks would bring.

The next day (lost track of days, dates, time as it all seems pretty irrelevant!) we headed to the canyon which is stunning, it is the second biggest canyon in the world after the grand canyon, over 500 meters deep and over 100km long with a river winding through it.  We spent the day driving along the edge of the canyon and eventually watched the sunset over it which once again was magical.

The next day we drove through Ketmanshoop where we met up with Alex and Jimmy, who had also been to sossusvlei and fish river at the same time as us but staying in different places. After a sad goodbye and an awesome week spent with them on Harnas we left to drive to the border post, rushing madly to make it there before it closed at 4.30pm. We made it with minutes to spare and there ensued the usual border post hassle. Questions like "why do you have 40 litres of diesel spare in your car, are you going to sell it on?" and why do you have a bag of fire wood in your car?". If it wasn't obvious by the huge trailer and tent we were pulling we had to spell it out to them that we were on an overland trip and need spare fuel!!  They also struggled to understand why a Namibian guy and an English girl would be travelling together! Pretty funny but we made it through to South Africa!!!

last few weeks on Harnas - a sad goodbye

Well it has been a rollercoaster couple of weeks. Where to start......3 weeks ago i was standing in the village lapa and managed to trip over and tear a ligament in my ankle! Luckily I had 3 nurses on hand within seconds applying ice and strapping it up! The next couple of days were a bit of a struggle but its almost recovered now luckily. I can't imagine having to trek for 4 hours a day on Eco training with a injured ankle being much fun so fingers crossed it continues to repair.

Alex and Jimmy arrived a week ago and it has been awesome to have them on Harnas, we spent time with pride in the lifeline, cuddled the leopard and cheetah cubs, watched the sunset at Dam house, went on tour and outside feeding, walked Jannie the baby baboon and had many lovely evenings at the lapa. It was lovely to see them and spend time with friends that have heard me talk about harnas so much but never seen it. Now they understand why i love it so much!

In my last week on Harnas it was hectic, but hey when is it not hectic!! I managed to go horse riding on my last day which was great fun, once in 3 months is pretty shocking! The film crew wanted to do a leaving interview with them and pride in the lifeline, so we drove out and found her. I sat down next to her and within seconds she was licking my face and neck all over! pretty awesome way to say goodbye to Harnas and so happy it is on film, maybe one day it will make it on to national geographic. Watch this space!!!!!

The last days were also filled with lion roars, fence patrol and spending as much time with the people and animals i love. It was a pretty awesome last week and i was finally allowed to drive! It only took 2 months 3 weeks and 4 days for them to allow me to drive but hey it happened!! Once i was given the all clear i became a taxi driver on harnas! haha

Last lapa night on wednesday and Herman made a really lovely speech about me saying i was his right and left hand and really i did his job. He seems to think he is really going to struggle without me which is a lovely thing to say but that man is stronger, tougher and more capable than most men in this world and i know that he will be just fine! Sadly there is no one to replace me, Harnas is really struggling for coordinators at the moment as everyone seems to be staying for 2-3weeks which is just not long enough. 

I am hoping to return at christmas but just for a couple of weeks. It really has been the most incredible 3 months, i had hesitations at first that it would never live up to the previous 4 visits. But it really did, it was the best 3 months i could have hoped for. Highlights would have to include: leopard release in southern namibia, Vergenoeg desert trip, the leopard and cheetah cubs, being in charge of feeding elsa (a 21 yr old lioness), managing the whole process of rescuing and releasing samar (cheetah) in bushmanlnd and tracking his progress, working with jo on various projects and laughing till our stomachs hurt in the office, working alongside the most amazing volunteer project manager herman and being inspired by his love of animals and people, flying in the gyrocopter with schalk, and watching over 90 sunsets and sunrises in my favourite place in the world, with every one of them being different from the last and beautiful in its own way. Africa is in my soul!

Herman always says "when you leave harnas i want you to say: i did it, not i should have done it." I can most definately say I did it, i achieved everything i wanted and was given so many great opportunities over the past 3 months. Now the next adventure begins!!!!

I am spending the next 2 weeks on an overland trip with a friend driving from Namibia to South Africa via Botswana camping all the way. Next blog will be from Nelspruit

Keep the news coming would love to hear what you are all up to

lots of love

xxxx

A sense of normality but only 3 weeks to go!

I have now been on Harnas for 9 weeks, i can't quite believe how quickly the time has flown by, yet at the same time it feels like i have been here forever and normal life involves playing with leopard cubs, releasing wild dogs, throwing donkey heads to lions and only showering twice a week!

It has been another awesome couple of weeks but my father has recently commented on my over use of the word awesome so instead i will use the word .....awesome!

We have been working with 5 wild dogs to prepare them for release so over the past 10 days we have been darting them, microchipping them and fitting them with radio collars. Tuesday this week was the big day and a group of volunteers headed out to the enclosure. Marieta and Schalk also joined us, this is the first time we have ever released wild dogs so it was a huge moment for Harnas. We tied a spingbok carcass to the back of the car, opened the gate to the enclosure and drove with the springbok dragging behind. The dogs took a little persuasion but after about 10 minutes they worked out what was going on and took their first steps to freedom! (see photos above) it was a pretty amazing moment and they followed us all the way down the road and into the bush. The 5 of them are now happily living in the life line, they even made a kill on their first night!! Now we just have to watch out for pride (the cheetah) to make sure they dont come into any conflict.

The other big part of my week was made up of writing a proposal for the MET (minister of environment and tourism) its a huge proposal and takes a lot of time, so its pretty difficult to sit down and write it when there is so much excitment going on at the farm and every 5 minutes i get interupted to help with animals etc.

we also had a couple of sad deaths on the farm this week, the decision was taken to put lasse the Eagle to sleep, she had lost the use of her legs and one wing and there was no hope for recovery so rather than let her struggle for the rest of her life not being able to walk or fly she was put to sleep yesterday.

Winter the springbok also sadly died unexpectedly yesterday, we are still unsure of his death as he seemed fine in the morning and in the afternoon he was found dead. Both were buried this morning.

Some key people have also left in the last couple of weeks; Rikki and Owen left to move to australia, Erin left very suddenly to go back to the US to be with her family, Hannah left last week back to germany and today astrid left to go back to Norway.

Now we are a coordinator team of 3! Herman, Vicky (animal caretaker) and myself. Orton is injured, Pattrick is in Vergenoeg and then on leave and Juanita is also on leave! Running a project of 54 people with 3 coordinators is kind of stressful! but we are getting by!

Frikkie is back on the farm and doing much better, he is currently running the mature volunteer project and seems to be very happy being back running a project.

Everyone else is doing good - cheetahs are all well as are the baboons, vervets, dogs, lions, wild dogs, meekats, mongoose, caracals.etc etc. you name it all are doing well!

Only 3 weeks left on harnas, i can't quite believe how quickly it has gone. making the most of every day now! I will be sad to leave, but also very excited about the next phase of the adventure!! But before then Alex and Jimmy are coming out to visit in 2 weeks which is very exciting.

obviously you all have heaps of letters, parcels, presents for me etc so please feel free to give them to alex to bring out. ahahahahahahahah

missing cheese the most!

Heard about the riots in the UK, sounds pretty insane. hope you are all keeping safe. Just move to africa its the safest place ever, the only risk is the thorns and bushes here!!!

love to all

xx

Life only gets better!

Firstly apologies for the delay in the blog, the past two weeks have been pretty much non-stop. But I won't bore you with the detail and just pick out the highlights from what has been the most incredible two weeks. And you are probably thinking how does it get any better than releasing leopards, sand boarding in the desert and cuddling baby leopards.

Well lets start there I guess, yes can you believe it we have 4 baby leopards, the cutest cubs in the world. They are 8 weeks old now and just the most adorable bundles of joy you could imagine. 3 males and 1 female and about the size of 2 bags of sugar. At the moment the volunteers are on leopard interaction rotations but us lucky co-ordinators get to spend time with them when we want which is pretty awesome. It has been amazing to watch them grow up over the past 7 weeks. They already have really sharp claws and teeth, not quite drawing blood yet but it wont be long before the monsters become trouble!

We also had an incredibly sad day last week as the time came to say goodbye to the greatest cheetah that ever lived. Goeters was 24 years old and had spent most of his life on Harnas from the day when Frikkie picked him up on the side of the road as a cub 24 years ago. Over the past few weeks his quality of life massively deteriorated and it became increasingly hard for him to stand up, walk, eat and in the end even breathe. The family took the very tough decision to put him to sleep and it really was felt that this was the right decision. We had a beautiful memorial and burial for him which Frikkie led and the family attended. Marieta's tears were the trigger for most of us to start crying too, just seeing how much he had meant to her was heartbreaking. But we all knew he would go to a better place.

The very same day a baby cheetah arrived, 1 month old and named Athena. She is adorable and very tame so people can spend time with her. It is strange how the world works that on the same day we loose Goeters a new baby cheetah arrives.

The other major highlight of last week was when schalk called me on my radio and asked me to meet him at the hanger. A little strange I thought but hey this is the CEO of Harnas I should probably do as he says! So i met him at the hanger, where the Gyrocopter (very small helicopter) was sitting and Schalk says get in. To put this into perspective hardly anyone gets to go up in the gyro with schalk just randomly. Normally volunteers pay huge sums of money in donations to be able to go up in it with him. So I felt pretty damn lucky to be able to go. He wanted to test the telemetry on Pride's (cheetah we released last year) VHF collar. so in we got to the tiniest hair dryer of a machiene and off we went, it was so so awesome to see the farm from above, i was a little hesitant at first mainly because this thing doesnt have doors! we flew over the village and the outside enclosures and then to the lifeline to look for pride, my job was to listen to the beeps of the telemetry to work out when we were close to her location. 10 -15 mins in and I spotted her from the air only about 30 - 40 meters below us. Awesome to see her running free and from a gyrocopter! Then we flew around the perimeter of the farm and spotted tons of animals; Eland, springbok, Oryx, Impala, Kudu, Vultures and even a brown hyena! It was one of those moments when you realise just how lucky and fortunate you are. I said to schalk through our head sets "how much would you like to see your lions running free out here" Schalk is a man of few words but he did say "more than anything else, that is my dream". Hopefully one day his dream will come true.

Right when I didnt think my week could get any better we had a phone call from a local farmer saying he had caught a wild cheetah in a trap and could we pick it up. This was awesome news for many reasons, the first being that the farmers are educated enough to phone us and ask us to take the cheetah away from killing his livestock but also it means we have a wild cheetah to release in Bushmanland so we can continue to build on our release project up there. So Pattrick, Hannah and I set off to rescue the cheetah not really knowing what to expect. When we got there there it was a massive male cheetah in a box trap, really beautiful but very stressed out with the situation so we had to act fast to minimise the damage he would do to himself in the trap. We put our box up against the trap and opened both doors he was pretty aggressive and charged at us a few times, thankfully the trap was in the way! He took a bit of persuasion but eventually we got him to move into our box and back in the rescue car.

Once back at Harnas we darted him and Erin carried out a medical check up, we were also supposed to put a GPS collar on him but after a very stressful couple of hours we just couldnt get the collar to give out a signal. So we didnt want to take the risk of putting a collar on him that might not work. In the meantime I got to name him Samar (named after Jo and Schalks son). We took the decision that we  wouldnt release him the next day and instead wait until the collar was working correctly. Luckily on Friday a new time release collar arrived and we could now release Samar on Sunday.  This collar is the collar that we bought with the money raised from my London fundraiser last year so I had a pretty strong connection to the cheetah already from rescuing it and now from the collar. There were 7 spaces in the car going to release the cheetah and they would be auctioned off to the volunteers to raise money for the next collar to release another cheetah. Schalk yet again made my week and told me that one of the seats in the car was mine! So saturday night we auction off the seats in the car and raised N$ 12,200!! (£1200). Incredible! We darted the cheetah once again to fit the collar, Schalk called me to the clinic and asked me if I would fit the GPS collar as it was my blood sweat and tears that had resulted in this cheetah running free. On Sunday morning we left early and arrived at Tsumkwe at about 10.30am we met up with the bushmanland group and drove for another hour into the Nyae Nyae conservancy to the pans where there is huge lakes of water right in the middle of a very very dry area of Namibia. It was an awesome location and after unloading Samar, we opened the door and hoped that he would run free. It wasn't quite as easy as that and it took 45 minutes and a lot of persuasion to get him to leave the box and run free. But it eventually happened and Samar ran across the open plains and into the bush to start his new life! An incredible moment and very rewarding. Now we just had to hope that he stays safe in his new environment. I have been tracking him these past couple of days and he had walked about 10km south so far, its awesome that the cheetah can be 500kms north of us and I can still see where he is on the computer. So there we were in the north of Namibia, cheetah released and ready to return back to Harnas when we stopped for Diesel. But this is Africa and it was a sunday whcih means no Diesel anywhere and not enough in the tank to get home! New plan was to stay overnight but we had nothing with us, no sleeping bags or mattresses, no food and very little warm clothing. So we were in for a rough night, luckily we were with the bushmanland group so we could share their food and share their bedding. We lit a fire, had a braai and settled down for a pretty chilly night. It was actually not too bad and awesome to be out in the bush. Expect the Unexpected became true once again! Monday morning and we headed back to Harnas 6 hour drive back stopped at a massive Baobab tree and arrived back at about 3pm.

Oh and of course in the middle of all of that I did the induction for 17 newbies and continued my job as volunteer mum!

so thats my news what have ya'll been up to hey?

hope all is good with you guys, sorry i havent been able to reply to your mails yet I will find time!

xx

Desert Life

Last week was Desert week, I spent 7 days in the far west of Namibia right on the coast near Swakopmund with 7 other Volunteers from Harnas. We drove for about 7 hours right into the middle of nowhere to a farm called Vergenoeg about 100km from Swakopmund. We spent the days exploring the area which is mainly desert although not all sand dunes! It is quite a mountainous area and we spent a couple of days exploring the mountains, climbing to the top of a couple of big summits with the most astonishing views!! 

We also slept out 3 nights, under the most amazing starry skies both in the mountains and in the middle of the dunes! We also went sand boarding which was so much fun, flying vertically down the steepest dunes you can imagine at about 50 mph! One of the days we went swimming in the ocean as we had a couple of americans with us who live in land locked states and never see the sea. We were about waist deep in the freezing sea when we saw a fin, first thought was sharks second evaluation proved to be dolphins, 4 of them and they came right up to us. They were so inquisitive and so friendly, pretty amazing unplanned moment!! We also had a survivor afternoon, pattrick dropped us in the middle of the desert where we could see nothing but sand dunes for miles around. He gave us 1 water bottle and told us to walk towards the sun until we hit the coast! slightly daunting prospect but 1 hour and 30 mins later we hit the ocean and there he was waiting for us. phew we made it out of the desert alive!!

We had an awesome meal in swakopmund that night, with baked camembert, kingclip and chocolate mousse! wow it tasted good. then we slept out in the dunes and got up early to watch the sunrise over the desert......incredible moment!

Long drive back to Harnas last thursday, Frikkie is back! He is slowly recovering from being sick for 3 months. He is no longer running the project here but is still involved in bits and pieces, the parts that frikkie is amazing at...star talks, bush walks etc. 

Other than that Harnas life continues, I did my second induction on Friday which went well only 11 people. Although 17 arrive on this friday so we are up to 60 vols pretty much! Hectic times!! 10 minutes doesnt go by without a question from one of them! fountain of knowledge.

Goeters is continuing to struggle and we are all pretty worried about his health, but he is getting the best care and attention and has a volunteer with him at all times tending to his every need. All the other animals are doing well. Elvis and Llody are growing up so fast and i got my first baboon bite in 5 weeks! Nothing major dont worry mum!

Thats all for now, will report back on the latest news in the next week or so

xx

Volunteer Mum is off to the Desert

So lets try this for the second time, the first time I tried to write this blog entry I got called on the radio to go to the clinic as a volunteer had been attacked by the vervet monkeys. Expect the Unexpected!!

This past week has been another cracker, lots going on, more sad goodbyes and some amazing daily highlights!  I spent the beginning of the week learning Tess's job whilst also teaching foodprep to the newbies. Tuesday night was Girls nights at Jo and Schalk's house and we made pizza. It was just the girl coordinators and Jo and Annika and of course the beautiful Aviel (Jo's daughter) who is the cutest little girl in the world. It was a really fun night and the pizza we made was amazing!!

Wednesday was crazy busy trying to get Tess to handover everything whilst also working for Jo. And the usual Lapa night took place in the evening which was a lot of fun but sad too as 3 of the group leaders were leaving and they are all awesome girls (Fire, Charlotte and Dearbhaile). Thursday morning was really sad, saying goodbye to some really good friends and of course Tess. Thursday was my first day as "Volunteer Mum" although I hate that title with a passion and have tasked the volunteers to come up with a new more suitable name! I also moved into Topnaar, which is so nice! Really appreciating having my own cabin and bathroom.

 Thursday and Friday went by in a bit of a blur as I was preparing for the newbies arriving but also taking care of a journalist from Air Berlin. Jo asked me to show her everything Harnas had to offer in just two days so i was running round like a mad woman trying to show her all the animals. As a result I got to spend some invaluable time with Pride who is doing so so well in the life line and looking amazing. I also got to spend time with a lot of the other animals as well which was fun. Friday induction went well, lots to remember! Mostly the 17 names of the newbies! Think I just about pulled it off, (not a touch on Tess though!! haha).

Saturday was the second day of induction and I get to run through all the do's and donts of Harnas which is always fun and challenging to not sound like a bossy b*tch! In the afternoon we started a game of silent murder as well a  few Boer sports, including the apple bobbing followed by the find the stone in the bowl of flour with only your face. You can guess the result of that one!! 

Weekend was quite relaxed, Herman gave all the coordinators the day off on sunday as we had all been working pretty flat out recently. Pattrick went on leave but stayed on the farm, so i managed to persuade him to take me out to see pride although we found her kill (impala) but not her! 

All in all another great and varied week, now i am a coordinator you start to get more involved with different things which is fun and its nice to do something different rather than be in a group still.

On thursday this week I am going to Vergenoeg, which is a new desert project harnas has started about 2 hours north of swakopmund. Pattrick runs the project out there and there are 7 of us going so it should be a lot of fun. Will report back next week. Hoping to meet up with Kerstin in Swakopmund on Tuesday as we get to spend the night there so that will be nice to see a friend.

Hope all is well and please keep the news coming, even if I havent had a chance to reply yet I still really enjoy getting your mails

xx 

3 jobs but still time for cheetah sleepouts

From Harnas Marketing and PR  to Group Leader to Volunteer Coordinator - 3 jobs in one and still time to sleep out with the cheetahs!

Just when I thought things were quietening down it gets hectic again! But thats Harnas life and always.... Expect the Unexpected. Last week was a lot of fun again, Jo finally came back from looking after her mum in Windhoek on Monday night and by Tuesday morning I was in the office with a list of 10 big projects! There is so much to work on here and its all interesting exciting stuff. There are a couple of big proposals to the government Jo has asked me to work on as well as the more fun side of the PR and Marketing stories of Harnas that we need to push out to the Namibian and International media. Office life is not too bad and I generally work 10am - 1pm and then 3pm - 5pm so its not all day and there are lots of breaks in the day as animals need attention or people need help! (already been de-worming puppies and finding lost baboons this morning!)

On Thursday my group leader left Harnas and I was asked to take over leading our group the Hound dogs! So thats awesome fun and the people are still great, its just hard managing a group of 11 people and still spending time doing the long list from Jo. We also won the team competition for the week which was awesome. The competitions were a mixture of Harnas olympics, Scavenger hunts and a game of silent murder. All of which our group won which was awesome! And what do points mean......PRIZES! So our team had a Lapa breakfast on Thursday morning which was truly delicious, full english, toast (which believe me is a rarity here!) and fresh orange juice! It was lovely that Tineke (our group leader) could have a lapa breakfast before she left. So, depressing Thursday arrived (my first of many to come!) and a really good bunch of people left which was sad. On Friday we had 23 people arrive which is the biggest group of arrivals in months! They all seem nice so far and we have 5 newbies in our group.

Main piece of news for the week is that I am taking over from Tess as of Thursday this week. Tess is the volunteer co-ordinator here and does all the inductions and generally manages the volunteer process from arrival to departure. Sadly Tess's visa has ran out despite a huge effort to get an extension. She has been here since January and is the Mum of the volunteers! I have big shoes to fill so it will be an interesting week ahead when she leaves and I take over. Luckily I am giving up group leader at the end of the week as there is no way I can manage 3 jobs! Just the 2 jobs now!

Best part of taking over Tess's job is I get to move into her Cabin (Topnar - for those of you who know). It is a 1 bed cabin with its own bathroom and Hot water when the bushmen light the fire!! So that will be a nice luxury to not have to share cabins or walk through the bush in the dead of night and freezing cold just to empty my bladder!!

It has been super cold these past 4 days with temps of -4 degrees at night. Last night Charlotte and I slept out with the 4 Cheetahs (Nikita's group). It was a bit warmer at about 2 degrees!! But an awesome night nonetheless, we spent the first 30 mins cuddled up with the 4 of them and then we made our beds for the night. Unfortunately the cheetahs didnt come and sleep with us but we didnt really expect them too. Just lying under the african stars with the sounds of lions around as well as the sound of the bush was amazing. It wasnt cold by the time i got into the third sleeping bag and had a surprisingly good nights sleep which bodes well for my future life in the bush!! 

Tess is currently on her 4th page of handover notes to me which is a little daunting, but hopefully my first induction session with the 18 volunteers arriving on Friday will go smoothly! WIll update next week.

For all you Harnas fans - the animals are all doing well, Goeters is very old now and his age is taking its toll on him, he can still walk around just about but spends most of the day lying down in the sun. At the age of 26 he is pretty amazing. Elsa continues to struggle with her back legs, although the remote control car and pattricks massage sessions seem to be helping. 4 cheetahs (nikita, jeanie, shingala and lueke) are all doing well and enjoying the huge amount of volunteer interaction now they are the only tame cheetahs on the farm. Pride is making a kill almost every 3 days which is awesome, she is doing so so well. She even let me sit next to her kill as she ate it the other day! pretty sure she remembered me as soon as a group of us sat down she came right over to me for a cuddle! Baby baboons elvis and lodi are gorgeous as ever and getting walked regularly. the 6 baboons (coco, jessie etc) are getting a bit naughty and biting a lot but still being walked most weeks. Zion and Trust are huge and still gorgeous, the Brothers have also grown up so much and are now on tour but still come to the fence for a scratch and cuddle, the baby lions (now 2.5 years old!) are also big but still gentle most of the time (except martha who is a nightmare!) although all lion interaction has stopped now as they are all too big. Such a shame but for the best!

Keep the emails coming with the news from England and around the world please, its good to hear what is going on outside of this Harnas bubble!

Have a lekker week 

xx

Leopard Release and Wild Dog Darting

So its been a week since I arrived on Harnas and it has not stopped!! Its been pretty hectic and lots going on. On Tuesday we had to dart Tom the wild dog who was being attacked by the other dogs in his enclosure. We went out to his enclosure, schalk darted tom and then once he was asleep we picked him up and drove back to the clinic. Erin (animal caretaker and vet nurse) worked on cleaning his wounds and checking he was in general good health and then we put him in an enclosure. All went well and he is now out in an enclosure with a female. All with the aim to form a new pack of wild dogs.

Then Wednesday night was lapa night, the theme was animals on harnas (orginial!) so Tess (volunteer coordinator) and I went as zebras. At dinner it was announced that the wild leopard who came to Harnas a month ago would be released back into the wild tomorrow and there was space for a volunteer to go with the car to release. We all put our names in a hat and Herman picked one out. Unbelievably I was the lucky one.

So at 3am that night I had to get up and start the 12 hour drive south with Charlotte, a German volunteer who came with us as the film crew who are living on harnas making a german TV documentary were also coming to film the release! And Patrick, who is helping run the volunteer programme. We arrived on the farm at 3pm the next day after the most treacherous journey up a mountain which was on the edge of the desert. Spectacular scenery and a real challenge to get the car up the mountain, There wasn't even a road so it took some time. The 4x4 course i went on with dad a couple of months ago came in handy when i had to guide patrick up the mountain. Sadly i wasnt able to drive. The leopard was in the back of the car with us for the whole journey. Dont worry she was in a cage! She was pretty much silent until we found the right spot to release her when she went a little bit crazy!

We roped up a lever to a tree so we could all be safely in the car when we opened the cage. She initially just sat in her cage looking around for a while and then made her escape and ran off into the bush. 12 hour journey for a 3 minute release but it was worth every second. Seeing her get her freedom back was awesome. We then spent the night in the mountains at a tiny little farm house with no electricity. Luckily one of the guys had picked up a big curly sausage which we braaied and found a random bag of rice to cook as well. We weren't planing on staying overnight but the journey took way longer than planned. We also went for a walk in the mountains and climbed to the top of a peak where there was the most amazing view over the Namibrand National Park. Photos to follow soon!

Friday was spent driving the 12 hours back south, however we were only 60kms from Sossusvlei which is the second oldest desert in the world and is a national park with the most amazing dunes. It would have been a crime to drive 900kms and not drive an extra 60kms to the dunes so with a bit of persuasion Patrick drove us to the park. Charlotte and I climbed Dune 45 the biggest and best and it was totally awesome. I feel so lucky that I could be involved in the trip and get to experience both the release and the desert! We got back to Harnas at 7pm on Friday night absolutely knackered. How Patrick drove for 24hours in 48 hours is pretty incredible! And now I have seen so much of Namibia! Such a beautiful country.

12 vols left on thursday, 9 arrived on friday and now we are 32 people which is a really nice number. Its an awesome group right now, most people in their early 20s and from Norway, US, Denmark mainly. I am the only person from the UK which is unusual.

Yesterday we had a small Harnas Olympics competition which my group the Houndogs won! Today is sunday so a day off, and this afternoon we are playing paintball!!

Thats about all for now, everything is great and having the best time! Jo is back this week so I may end up in the office by the end of next week. Really enjoying normal volunteer life right now and trying to make the most of it before the office beckons me!

Weather is hot during the day about 26 degrees and pretty chilly at night about 3 or 4 degrees.

Will try and update again next sunday

Hope all is well with you, it would be great to hear your news.

x

Back in the Bush

So I arrived at Harnas on Friday and have had an awesome couple of days. The people are really nice and everyone is super friendly.

The Lions (Brothers & Babies) are all doing well but have grown up so much! They are all out in bigger enclosures now and all walks have stopped as it just got too dangerous. All other animals are well too, Goeters (cheetah) is still going strong unbelivably at the age of 27 years old. Pride is out in the lifeline and is very successful. Havent had a chance to see her yet but hopefully in the next couple of days. The 4 Cheetahs (were 5) Are all good but sadly we can't just walk into their enclosure and spend time with them any more. Health and Safety has reached new levels but all for the right reasons. Now we have cheetah interaction sessions!!

Frikkie has left harnas for the time being as he was really sick but we hope he will return to visit in a couple of weeks. Herman has taken over running the volunteer programme. He is awesome, very funny and knowledgable.

I have just finished my induction and am in the Houndogs Group (originally Group 2)! We look after Goeters, Baby baboons, Mongoose, Ostritches, Squirrels, Puppies (so cute!) Tortoises and the very exciting Rabbits! haha. There are no cubs on the immediate farm any more which is good and bad! Although we have had a very very exciting arrival 1 week ago but will reveal more in week or so. Its all a bit hush hush at the moment as usual!

We currently have a game of silent murder going on which is hilarious, you never quite know when you might be killed! We also have movie night tonight and we had a Braai last night with the standard stick bread!

Not much more news at the moment, Jo and Schalk have been away in Windhoek but get back next week so I will probably start working in the office then but for now i am really enjoying spending time with the animals and being a "normal" volunteer!

hope all is well with you guys

x

Leaving Party - London

So here goes my first attempt at writing a blog in the desperate hope to keep my friends and family up to date and informed of my African adventure!

Last night was my leaving party in London which was a great night spent with 40 of my closest friends in a bar in Notting Hill. It was great fun and sad at the same time to have to say goodbye to so many incredible friends that I have made not only in my 3 years living in London but throughout my life; from Bromsgrove to Uppingham, Raleigh to Uni, Placement year friends to Grad friends all from J&J and London friends. You will all be massively missed!

I am now on the 2 week count down until I fly to Namibia on 9th June. Final kit purchasing, visa chasing and packing up of my life and into my 1 100 litre bag has commenced!