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Blog on days 20 + 21st of @ i_to_i volunteering trip posted here; Saturday 20th March - day 20; Everyone leaving for J'Bay about 1430 but as I hadn't been the weekend previously and as the shops shut early Meg, Simon, Lauren, Florrie + I decided to hire a care and go in early. Some guests were being dropped off at PE airport about 0730 so we decided to hitch a lift with them and...

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Blog on days 20 + 21st of @ i_to_i volunteering trip posted here; Saturday 20th March - day 20; Everyone leaving for J'Bay about 1430 but as I hadn't been the weekend previously and as the shops shut early Meg, Simon, Lauren, Florrie + I decided to hire a care and go in early. Some guests were being dropped off at PE airport about 0730 so we decided to hitch a lift with them and...

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Friday 19th March - day 19; Well the weather has certainly improved a lot today and we're all expecting William to be determined to catch some game today given the frustrations of the previous few days but alas he's called up to the elephant sanctuary. That means it chopping down some more alien trees for us. It's blistering hot so tough work. After breakfast Henny (one of the volunteer co-ordinators who has just returned from...

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Day 17; Cold turkey from connectivity This is the day that Meg and Simon have bet that me that I cannot do without my blackberry for a full 24 hours and as I said in yesterdays post this is indeed a tall order. But true to my word I duly hand over my favourite friend at 0730. William has today targeted for game capture. We set out first thing and spend till breakfast hiding in...

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Mon 15th March - day 15; After the excitement of the weekend it was a slower start to Monday morning than previous - many of the other volunteers still recovering from their eventful trip to Jeffrey's Bay. So the prospect of our group attacking the alien trees all morning and most of the afternoon seemed more of a challenge than usual. But we did. And as it was a cooler day we got through quite...

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Frid 12th - day 12; After Moses' shock the night before (notification of a 9am departure from the reserve rather than the 4pm one arranged - for a 7pm flight!) there was a mad panic this morning to decide how best to pack for a weekend at the Lion Park whilst still remaining under the 1time 5kg hand luggage limit. A tough call. In the end I dump half my clothes, half my toiletries and...

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11th March - Day 11 of the trip, day 7 at the reserve Out early for a game count. Chiedza obliged us with another sighting. Must be a shy old girl though cause we only saw her rump this morning and no cubbies. Still haven't seen Zulu (the leader of the wild pride) yet. Amongst the usual suspects - the wildebeest, zebra, impala and hartebeest - we also saw a white bleesbok. Very rare and...

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10th March - Day 10 of the trip, day 6 at the reserve Our group starts off with a game drive. I start the off insanely itchy from mozzie bites! ARH!!!! Darn things! Just beautiful to do a drive in the morning when the world is waking up. We track rhino but don't see them :( We seem then to drive for ages before seeing anything at all but then stumble across Chiedza (the female...

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9th March - Day 9 of the trip, day 5 at the reserve The volunteers are split into three groups and go off and do different tasks during the day. Today was my group's first opportunity to spend a whole day at the Elephant sanctuary. The elephants at the sanctuary have approx 900 hectares to roam about in. They are accustomed to the handlers at the sanctuary but otherwise completely wild. We firstly had to...

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8th March - Day 8 of the trip, day 4 at the reserve The day starts with a game drive where we start tracking one of the lions after finding one of their kill sites. Am very chuffed that I can now identify a ion kill site and from that what animal it had killed. In this case a kill the previous evening (dried blood on the ground with old spoors on the ground) and...

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