Thursday 11 August 2011
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
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
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