Lion around

The radio collars that the lions wear at Amakhala have been wearing out quicker than expected and so the lions need to be darted fairly frequently to replace them. Amakhala is trying to source some alternative collars which will last longer, but they're quite expensive. A teacher in a British school came up with an interesting proposition - they would raise the money if Amakhala would provide regular reports on the lions' behaviour to help educate the children and get them interested.

This is a great idea in theory. In practice, however, it's more difficult because the lions don't really do an awful lot. They spend 18 hours out of every 24 asleep and when they are active, it's dark and you can't really see what they're doing.

The game ranger has given me the task of writing up the short report on this occasion, largely because he has run out of inspiration for what to write himself, I suspect. So we are sat there at 9.30am on Monday morning watching them do their usual thing - snoozing.

The game ranger makes some helpful suggestions for what I might include in the report - what the weather is like; how many flies they are; how often the lion farts; how often he licks his balls. He then went on to explain that there is an expression in Afrikaans - "you're tickling the lion's balls", which is a more colourful way of saying, "you're asking for trouble". I guess you would be.

We decided to return later in the day for a night drive when hopefully they will be more active. In the meantime, we pitch into the activity I've been eager to get on with: road maintenance. We had a very heavy thunderstorm on Friday afternoon and the sandy soil on the reserve washes away very easily, leaving large pot holes in the tracks. So it was out with the pickaxe and spade again.

We also cleared away all the wire fencing that Kapella had fallen into when we darted him. The fencing dates back to when the land was a farm and years later, there are still bits to clear away.

We returned to the lions at 6pm. Dusk is an ideal time to see them up and about and preparing to hunt. They truly are majestic beasts and look in prime health. The pair of them would roar periodically - up to 30 roars in one go at times. They stalk through the bush and you pity whatever animal comes into their sight. At one point, the female passes by only five metres to the left of our vehicle. The male was heading straight for us, but thankfully decided to lie down before reaching us. We reversed out slowly to avoid looking provocative.

The sun goes down and they carry on stalking menacingly in the dark. Alas we can no longer see them and head back at 9pm.

Rhino poaching

The week before I arrived, two rhinos were killed at Amakhala and their horns taken. The whole reserve - and anyone involved in the local safari industry - was devastated by this mindless action. Sadly, it is still a considerable problem in South Africa, where 270 rhinos have been poached during this year alone. The horns are all destined for China, which has a history of using them as an aphrodisiac that dates back for centuries.

In some cases, the poor animal is darted, its horn cut out and then it wakes up to find half its face missing and then slowly bleeds to death, in excruciating pain I imagine. If the poachers are so desperate to have the horns but still give some thought to conservation, they could dart the animal, cut the top of the horn and leave the animal alive. The horn does grow back, just like a nail.

Some reserves are starting to take extreme measures and inject poison into their rhinos' horns, so that whoever eventually ingests it will die. It doesn't seem so unreasonable given the thoughtless slaughter of such a unique but endangered animal. And having got to know Kapella for a brief few hours the other day, it would be heart-breaking to hear that he ended up suffering the same fate. The reserve has responded by introducing round the clock security to attempt to keep the poachers at bay.

During our drive around the reserve on Friday, we went to see the remains of one of the poached rhinos. A week and a half later, there is little left after the hyenas have done their work.

TGIF

After all the excitement of the last couple of days, I was quite happy to have a quieter time on Friday.

We had a somewhat leisurely start, leaving the house by around 7.30am. The first task was to find the lions. They have radio collars on and you have to wave a TV aerial-type device around to pick up the signal. We had found their approximate location in the middle of a thicket area, but didn't want to take the vehicle right in because it would have given us limited options to get away quickly if we needed to. The game ranger told me of a time when he chanced upon the male lion taking his pleasure with the female and was not too happy to be disturbed, so chased the land rover up the track. So on this occasion, we "found" the lions, but did not find them so to speak.

Work on the reserve is not all about exciting game capture. There are a number of more mundane tasks that need to be done as part of the overall reserve management, but are vital to the welfare of the animals. One of these tasks is checking the perimeter fence each week for any damage. We first turned off the electrification, then drove slowly round the edge of the northern section of the reserve looking for any problems. A couple of fixes later, the job was done. It took a good two and a half hours from start to finish and that was just checking a relatively small part of the reserve.

We then spotted that the land rover had a flat tyre - a common occurrence given the rough terrain that you drive through. The game ranger, keen to expose me to all aspects of work on the reserve, got me to jack up the land rover and change the tyre. The last few pulls on the jack required all my body weight to move it. Those sessions in the gym before I came out seem to have paid off.

I feel a career in the RAC coming on..

Just before lunch, we did a count of the wildebeest and blesbok - a sort of stock-take for the lions' future meals. The fact that they keep moving around does not make the task easy, particularly when you're peering through a pair of binoculars.

Later that day, we spent a tranquil half hour near one of the watering holes, where even the buffalo seemed to know that Friday afternoons are about kicking back and winding down for the weekend.

Moving Kapella

I didn't think things would get any more exciting than moving the buffalo, but moving Kapella, the errant black rhino who likes to chase the safari vehicles, was in another league again.

We had another early start on Thursday - up at 4.45am. The vet wasn't arriving until 8.30am, but we had to give ourselves time to find him first. Given his penchant for vehicles, we didn't have to wait too long and he had shown himself by 6am. We then tried to coax him out of a thicket area, as it can be dangerous for the animal to be darted in a location where it is difficult to get him out quickly. And as you can imagine, an unconscious rhino is not that easy to move! So we drove slowly to get him to follow us onto open ground, which he duly did, walking around 50 metres behind us - just like a dog.

I would never have imagined myself getting attached to a rhino, but this guy is quite a character. His mother was killed by poachers and he was hand-reared, so he is familiar with humans. Having seen his behaviour for a couple of hours, he just seems to be curious when people are around rather than aggressive. Unfortunately his habit of sprinting towards the vehicles and subsequently butting them - which has had some of the guests screaming - is not doing his image any favours.

As he followed us into open ground, he started to break into a trot and then gathered speed until he had caught us up and was running alongside us. It was incredible to see. I was at the back of the land rover, so the game ranger told me to shout at him and clap my hands. So I found myself yelling "hey" at a rhino in the vain attempt to get it to stop. After a while, he did! I have some amusing video footage of this episode which conveys the general impression of what was going on, but the file is too big to upload on the slower connection here so I'll have to do it when I get home.

By this point, we were concerned that he would be over-heated just before the darting, so we drove ahead to get out of his way to allow him to calm down and cool off. By that point, I think he got bored and went off in his own direction as he wasn't allowed to run after us.

However, we had him secured in reasonably open ground so we just waited until the vet arrived. The vet has his own custom-made trailer, designed specifically for moving animals around. Apart from being huge, it has various trap doors and ladders inside and out, for accessing the animal being transported. The vet was the same one that did the buffalo darting, and once again, he got his man first time. But Kapella took a bit longer to go down and had some more sprinting to do before he would give in to the tranquiliser.

Then after all our efforts to get him into open ground, he managed to fall in the most awkward place possible, in a bit of a ditch under some thicket and tangled up in some old wire fencing. So it was all hands on deck to saw branches and cut the wire to clear a path to get him out. We were joined by a whole bunch of trainee game rangers today, so there were plenty of people to help.

I must say it was absolutely incredible to see him lying down at such close quarters, with his little legs tucked underneath him. I even had the opportunity to touch him, which was a beautiful feeling. I now know where the expression comes from when you refer to someone having a hide like a rhino. It is very thick-skinned - 5cms thick under its stomach apparently.

As he had fallen into such an awkward place, the vet gave him some more drugs to wake him up a little so that we could walk him out towards the trailer, pulling him via a rope that was tied to his head. He got up, but clearly still a little woosy, fell over again. Eventually on his feet, the task was to guide him as quickly as possible into the trailer - he was still blind-folded at this point. The guys who were in the back of the trailer then had to climb out up the ladder and out the trap door to escape before he had fully entered. Some bars were put across the back of him to stop him moving around inside and then we made our 20 minute journey to another part of the reserve to his new home.

At the destination, I was even allowed to climb on top of the trailer to look at him from above - the top of the trailer has a long door which folds back - and see him make his exit. After removing his blindfold, ear plugs and then giving him a nudge with an electrified prodder, he was out the back door and into his new terrain - a place which is full of thicket and ideal for a rhino.

I cannot express in words what a privilege it was to be part of this experience. I was amazed at how close I was allowed to get. The tourist vehicles were told to keep clear before he was caught, but as a volunteer, I was allowed to be right in the thick of the action, alongside the vet and the game rangers. Once again, the vet was so accomplished in how he handled it. It must be quite a responsibility at stake - not only because of the welfare of the animal, but also because of the monetary value it represents for the owner.

The two game captures that I have experienced this week are not commonplace, so I am incredibly lucky to have seen these. Next week we will be capturing one of lions to replace his radio collar. I'm particularly looking forward to that.

I see you baby..

Kapella in his new home

Buffalo relocation

Today was pretty incredible. I was fortunate enough to experience the relocation of a buffalo. It was a very early start - up at 3.45am - as we had to drive to Grahamstown to meet the safari vet who was going to carry out the procedure.

The bull calf was only 3 years old and was being moved from the breeder's land to his neighbour's. The vet prepared the dart by putting in the right amount of tranquiliser required for a calf of that age and also added another drug which is designed to make them less sluggish when they come round.

We then got into the land owner's helicopter - he uses it like a car for flying around his terrain. We flew until we located the four buffalo and then swooped in low - only 5 metres above ground - so the vet could take his shot. This is made more difficult by the buffalo running at speed and continually changing direction. But the pilot did an amazing job while the vet hung out the side of the helicopter with his dart gun, taking aim at the selected buffalo. He is obviously pretty experienced at this as he only prepared one dart - confident enough that's all he needed.

Once shot, the buffalo carried on running for a while until its legs got shaky and then it fell to the ground. We then landed the helicopter and were joined by a bunch of guys who were brought in to lift it. The vet put a blindfold on the buffalo and stuffed rags in its ears to minimise the trauma. They then had to roll it onto a stretcher and once aboard, lift it on to a truck. We then had a short drive to the neighbour over the road, where it was lifted off and set free. Once the blindfold was off, we all ran like hell to get back in the truck! It was remarkable how quickly the buffalo came round. The vet obviously knows his stuff on the exact amount of tranquiliser to give.

An absolutely amazing experience.



In his new home, thinking:
Where the hell am I and where did all my mates go?



The Isipho Centre

Each Tuesday and Thursday, volunteers go to the local orphanage to play with the kids. The children are between 4 and 12 and their parents have died of AIDS. Some of the children have it too. I didn't realise before I came here, but South Africa has the highest number of AIDS victims in the world - around 4.5 million (about 10 percent of the population).

The orphanage also caters to other vulnerable children in Paterson, the local town where I am staying. These children usually have parents who are alcoholic or drug addicts and don't look after them properly. So the only meal they often get each day is the lunch they have at the orphanage. Despite this, the kids seem like any others to me - full of energy, pretty cheerful and not at all camera-shy!

We spent 20 mins with them cutting out shapes for them to stick on paper. Apparently that's as long as they can concentrate for. I know how they feel.

In the afternoon, I spent a couple of hours working on the vegetable garden. The goal is to make the orphanage as self-sufficient as possible and provide the children with all the nutrients they need. My assistance entailed pick-axing my way through a section of ground to prepare it for planting. Back-breaking work!

On top of which, I had managed to twinge something in my back when I picked my rucksack off the carousel at the airport on Monday, so it was a kill or cure strategy. And then afterwards, a couple of the kids insisted I give them a piggy-back..

I've arrived..

Having endured almost 24 hours door-to-door travelling, I have arrived at the Amakhala Game Reserve. I have to say "The Sunshine Coast" is not living up to its promise as it is cloudy and raining! This was not part of the programme!

I have settled into my accommodation, which is an old railway station that has been converted into a house for the volunteers and is located just outside the reserve. It's basic but does the job. We also have a couple of resident dogs - Lady and Odi - who tear through the place and follow you wherever you go. And there are two other volunteers here besides me, also from the UK.

This week's activities are likely to include the darting and relocation of a black rhino. Apparently it has become increasingly aggressive towards the safari vehicles driving through the reserve and taken to chasing them for up to 500 metres at 45kph and butting the back of the vehicle in some cases. That must be quite a sight. So the plan is to tranquilise it and move it to another part of the reserve where it can cause less havoc. Sadly, a couple of black rhino were killed last week by poachers who still believe the horn has aphrodisiac properties.

Let's go!

Well, the day of departure has arrived.

The rucksack is packed and I've practised putting it on and trying to walk around without falling over backwards. It's definitely heavier than when I went backpacking ten years ago, but I think I've become higher-maintenance in the intervening years.

I won't pretend that I'm not feeling a bit apprehensive. But to back out now would look a little silly to all the people that I've told that I'm going. And besides, I'm hoping that all the stories from this trip will secure me dinner party invitations for at least the next two years.

So, let the adventure begin..

Community projects

Another key aspect of the voluntary work is to help with community projects. The Amakhala Game Reserve supports the local Isipho Centre for orphans and vulnerable children. Volunteers visit the centre twice a week to play with the children, help educate them, work with them in the vegetable garden and generally provide a bit of love and affection.

This will certainly stretch me out of my comfort zone as I have limited experience of being around children. My kit lists recommends that I bring an old shirt and trousers "in case of painting with the children". It's been quite a while since I last did any finger-painting.

I am also conscious that it could be quite an emotional experience. I'm mindful of an article that I read recently which criticised short-term voluntary work for being more harmful to the local community than beneficial, because the children start to form bonds with volunteers who then return home within a few weeks. The volunteers feel gratified at having made a connection with the orphans, while the children then experience abandonment of another sort. I guess I can only judge for myself when I get there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hubs/gapyear/8107555/Volunteer-holidays-do-more-harm-than-good.html#dsq-content

Job description

My first destination will be the Amakhala Game Reserve which is located in the Eastern Cape, about one hour's drive from Port Elizabeth. 

The briefing notes inform me that my primary responsibility as a volunteer will be managing the lions. Now I have a reasonable amount of experience in line management, but not an awful lot in lion management. Further investigation reveals that this will encompass monitoring their behaviour, general well-being and checking the fence lines, but not petting them (like I would!).

Other responsibilities will include herbivore monitoring: elephants, rhino, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest as well as various species of antelope. The task at hand is to log sightings, identify individuals, create an age chart and family tree listings, conduct population counts, monitor territorial ranges, breeding, health and feeding preferences, and monitor competition between the species. This seems easier said than done.

Aside from the work with animals, there are a number of other conservation activities to be undertaken on the reserve, including:

• Plant monitoring and herbarium development
• Wetland and watering hole management
• Alien plant control (aka weeding)
• Erosion control
• Road maintenance (particularly looking forward to this)
• Boma maintenance (not a clue)
• Bush clean and clear up
• Fence patrol and maintenance

The brief concludes that reserve duties may change at any time, which means that no week at Amakhala is the same. Sounds like my kind of job.

The Grand Tour

Spent the weekend on a Grand Tour of friends and family around Swindon to bid au revoir - and hopefully not adieu - before I go.

Many cups of tea and meals later, I feel stuffed to the gills but friends assure me that I'll lose weight once I get to Africa. Little do they know that my mother has all the addresses of where I'll be staying, so I fully expect a food parcel to turn up on a weekly basis.

As coincidence would have it, Friday's edition of the Daily Mail carried a centre-spread piece on the wildlife sanctuary that I'll be going to in Namibia. There were some amazing pictures of a local bushman walking with a cheetah in the Kalahari desert. So I take this to be a good omen and look forward to going walkabout with the bushman and the cheetah when I get there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328911/Walking-cheetahs--big-cats-Kalahari-mans-best-friend.html

Life-changing

As the date of my departure approaches, I find myself reflecting on how this experience will affect me. Will I want to step back into corporate life afterwards? Or will I just want to stack shelves in the local supermarket? Or will I become some sort of hippie dropout that people will point to and say, "she used to have a really good job once."

But I consider myself to be a pretty grounded person and my expectation at this point is that I will inevitability end up back on the hamster wheel. I just have the good fortune to be able to step off it for a while.

As a marketer, I'm a sucker for a good copy line. So when I started researching options for voluntary work, I was lured by the promise that "a conservation placement is the ultimate life changing and rewarding experience". But behind every great marketing line, there's always a legal team that wants to spoil the fun with an asterisk and some small print at the bottom of the page. Terms and conditions apply.. So when I received the booking form, my attention was drawn to the Limitation of Liability clause:

...clients undertake these programs and associated expeditions entirely at their own risk. Whilst we take every precaution to ensure the safety of clients, no responsibility can be accepted for any death, injury or loss that might occur...

So basically there is a risk that I may not come back alive. In that context, I suppose this experience will live up to the marketing promise that it could indeed be "life-changing".

Kit list

Running through my recommended kit list to see what things I still need to get. Anti-tick spray is one of them. Not sure that's going to be easy to come by in Saffron Walden, unless the local pet store has some.

Into the unknown

In just over a week's time, I am heading off to South Africa and Namibia to spend a couple of months doing some voluntary work on a game reserve and at a wildlife sanctuary. I am not entirely sure what I am letting myself in for, but it should prove a useful antidote to corporate life.

I won't have access to the internet every day - particularly in Namibia - but I'll try to keep you updated with news, reflections and pics.