Week 4 Highlights

After 4 weeks here at Na/an Kuse things are starting to settle down, and slowly its become part of my routine. We still have the same activities on a 5 day rota this week (due to less volunteers) but nevertheless its always enjoyable. The horseback game counts continue to be one of my favorite activities as the sights we see are absolutely breath taking. Although I’ve seen zebra’s almost every time I’ve gone out, it remains surreal to see.

Large Herd of Zebra

The days here a long and tiring, and as a result I noticed that my thoughts are completely here. You don’t have much time to think about the “outside” world as you are so busy with the day to day activities. During the day you think about the tasks you have to do, and at night you socialize with the other volunteers. Speaking of the other volunteers, people come and go every week, which is one of the less fortunate things here. At the moment we are at a mere 14 people, which means there a lot of work to do, but within those 14 there are a couple very cool people around my age which is always a plus!

One of the stand out activities of this past week was the leopard release. Its that time of the year when the calls come in on a weekly bases to come and retrieve a problem cat (cheetah/leopard that goes after livestock). Unlike the caracal release where we could all stand around the cage and see them go, due to the nature of leopards being very aggressive, this release was a closed release. This meant that we all sat in closed vehicles whilst Stu pulled the cage open with a rope from the window of his car. Within seconds the leopard was out of sight and off to explore his new home. Always a fascinating sight releasing an animal like that back into the wild. 

Weekly Walk

Leopard Release

Our weekend activity for last Saturday and yesterday was a cooking activity and dodgeball. For the cooking activity we were shown a video on how to make a traditional Afrikaans stew on the campfire. The elderly volunteers loved this as it didn’t require much excise (unlike football or dodgeball). The more exciting activity was dodgeball, which was a great laugh. I was the biggest target to get as I got everyone out without ever getting hit. All with a bit of banter!

Saturday Night Karaoke!

Gomez invading the Lapa

Dinner for the Leopards and Lion

Jules and I

Relaxed Saturday Afternoon

Baboon Update!

Emma and I

No caption needed!!

More than a week after they first escaped, the junior baboons still escape their enclosure every evening. Every night new measures (Shooting them with paintball guns) were taken to keep them in their enclosure, but unfortunately with little success. Thus every night at around 8pm we completely clear the Lapa and head to our rooms as these guys are a bit more aggressive than the big babies. Whilst coming out of the shower I got the shock of my life when I saw this big baboon right in front of me…He grabbed the toothpaste out of my hands and gave me a pretty nasty bite on the foot. Hopefully next week their new enclosure (which lies about 800m from the farm) will be done, so we can finally have our peace again!