So Sophie and i left the rest of the Acacia peeps and got on a night bus (16-17hrs) to Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg. I was dreading this because my height is not usually condusive to comfortable sleep (if any sleep) on transport. However i was pleasently suprised with the space and comfort of the Intercape bus and was fine throughout the journey.
Sophie and i had a few days to chill in Port Elizabeth. A quiet beach town on the south coast of South Africa. The weather was scorching hot intially so we just relaxed in the sun before we would start our Kwantu game reserve experience. Sophie, randomly, actually had a friend in PE (Tim) who invited to a Fish Braii (that's BBQ for you back home) on the Saturday (the one day where the sun didn't shine. Was a lovely day with some great food and truly lovely hosts. I also got to blow a vuvuzela that was actually used at a world cup game!! The hostel we stayed in was very nice - Lungile lodge. Not a lot to do in Port Eliabth its;ef tho except chillout and walk the beach so it's a good drop of stop if you are going along the coast but not much else.
So on Sunday the 12th December we got taken to the Kwantu Game Reserve. We met the other volunteers and were shown to our accommodation which was lovely and after 31 days mainly camping a real luxury. So for the next 2 weeks we would be provided with 3 meals a day (courtesy of the lovely 'Mama Africa' our resident cook) whilst working Monday to Friday on a variety of tasks and get taken to Jeffrey's bay and Port Elizbeth to enjoy our weekends (no alcohol allowed during the week).
Our days were split into 3 work sessions and the tasks were as follows:
- Lion tracking - using microchips and radio thingys to track the 2 lions on the resrve to check on them.
- General craft work - building things such as platforms from scrap wood for the animal enclosures.
- Tree chopping - with machetes and axes - i enjoyed this but it could be very draining in the intense heat.
- Walking around the enclosed predators enclosure where they have Lions and Tigers that are part of breeing programmes. This also allowed us to enter the enclosure of the 2 lion and 2 tiger cubs (2-3 months old) and generally just play with them. The tigers did like to bite tho and i almost had a nasty experience when one on the tiger cubs sunk his teeth into my crotch area but luckily i had baggy trousers on and was saved from a nasty incident!!
- Game drives in the reserve
- Game counts - game drives but we had to count numbers of different animals.
- Elephant santuary - weeding around the rea and then tracking the elephants before feeding them and riding them!!
- Wilderness walk/fence perimeter check - this was a very nice long trek in the park checking the fences for holes from animals or poachers. The heat was scorching but it was a very enjoyable. Had to avoid the evil ostriches tho or they would run over and attack us - so our guide always had a big stick!!! They are stupid animals apparently with brains the size of their eyeballs. There's a fact for you!!
- A team building sports day type thing that was actually quite good fun
I mainly enjoyed the time on Kwantu doing things i wouldn't usually do but wasn't what i anticipated. It was a private game reserve and it kinda felt like we were just a way of getting unpaid work done. I had hoped it was more animal interaction and rehab for animals in need not maintainence of a private game reserve. Still i enjoyed most of it but will read the details far more carefully next time i volunteer to do something like this.
The people we did it with were cool and good company so that helped. The weekends out were a good way to let of steam. I also spent Christmas with them in Port Elizabeth and had a lovely Christmas Buffet meal in a casino!! Was nice to spend Xmas with a group of people.
We finished the 2 weeks on Xmas day before Sophie and i had a few more days to chill in Port Eliabeth before flying to Johannesburg and then onto Singapore.
