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