To everyone at home, we will soon be around to share our tales and the odd photo or two with you!!
Here are the final week's events:
Day 36 – Saturday 8th May
Jacques was given the morning off so Andrew, Jacques boss, took us into town to use the internet and stock up on supplies. We went to Guidos for lunch, a sea front bar where we could sit outside on the deck. It was a nice day, if a little on the chilly side by the ocean. We took the ‘dirt road’ back to the house which goes right through Kariega’s neighbouring reserve. It was very scenic, but very rough for Daniel and I who were sat in the back of Andrew’s pickup – but ‘we are in the bush’ so it was all good!
Once back at the house it was mid afternoon. A few people went to sleep for a bit, still recovering from last night and the rest of us found things to do before we lit a camp fire about 5pm and sat out until it got dark. It was a very pleasant end to the day. In the evening Jacques came round and we watched England v South Africa in the Twenty 20 cricket world cup. Jacques did not stay for the end of the match – he left once it was obvious that England were going to win!!
Day 37 – Sunday 9th May
Sunday is the only day of the week we all get a lie in, and we were all looking forward to this week’s morning with no alarm. Unfortunately no-one told the monkeys! They were bouncing around on the roof from about 7am to 7:30am. I was now awake so decided to grab my binoculars and camera and sit in the tree house for a while to see what was about.
There was impala, kudo and warthog all around, and I was rewarded with one of the warthog coming to the watering hole and drinking. I have been waiting for 5 weeks to get a shot of an animal drinking at a watering hole – so I have a lot to thank those noisy monkeys for!! We can sleep and lie in when back in England!By the time I left the tree house it was just gone 9am and most of the other volunteers were now up. It was lovely hot day, about 28C, but very windy. Plenty warm enough though to continue with the Sunday tradition of sunbathing in the morning followed by a braai early afternoon. This week, the last Sunday for Miri, Anita and I, we went a bit more adventurous!
Instead of charcoal we cooked on a wood fire and Miri made stick bread, which is where you make bread dough, roll it onto a long thin roll and then wrap it around a stick, which we had had earlier cut from one of the trees in the garden. You then hold the stick with the bread on it over the fire until the bread is cooked. It worked a treat, and it added to the feast which this week consisted of chicken, burgers, braais sausage, ostrich steaks and pasta salad. We kept the fire going and later on had chocolate bananas cooked in the fire before sitting out until it got dark. In the end the smoke got too much so we retreated for showers before Jacques came round and we played pool and 30 Seconds.Day 38 – Monday 10th May
Today seems to have started a long time a go! There was a mouse in our bedroom that didn’t seem to want to leave through the door – so after an hour of moving the beds into the middle of the room and chasing the poor little mouse from one corner to the other I eventually managed to catch it and put it the other side of the garden fence (for how long is anyone’s guess!). Miri and Holly also had mouse dramas in the night and one actually climbed onto Holly’s bed and bit her toe!
When Jaques arrived at 8am we were all feeling more than a little sleep deprived so were glad when he said we would be doing Birds In Reserve Project (BIRP) this morning on KE – we were all fully expecting to be chopping trees! We had a good morning, although it is very windy and that meant that it was difficult to see too many birds. We did see a fair few though and also saw a hippo and a pair of otters as well as getting a quick look at the baby rhino who was doing what a one and a half week rhino does best – sleeping!
After lunch we were to continue the BIRP but this time on KW while we look for the elephants to continue the ear identification sheets.
We didn’t find the elephants, but we did find the whole pride of lions together. It would seem that the dominance within the two males is switched back to Full Mane. Mohawk has been the dominant male for a while, but Full Mane was mating with the Aunt of the cubs so it would seem like there has been a change in the power hierarchy. We got some more good photos of the cubs and some good shots of the males and the lionesses yawning.After the lions we took the long route home, noting down some more bird species that we saw, before having a quiet evening and an early night – much needed after last night’s mouse interrupted sleep!
Day 39 – Tuesday 11th May
We started today with more wattle chopping on KE but it was a relatively short session, and despite being in the same place as last Thursday was nowhere near as bad as our last efforts at manual labour. We left the infestation at about 10:30am and headed back to KW to continue the Birds In Reserve Project. We managed to see quite a few new species of birds but didn’t find the elephants to continue the ear identification drawings.
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Sharon and Anita both had appointments at the Spa this afternoon so we dropped them off after lunch and went to see what we could see. We quickly came across the lions again. Today the mating pair were keeping their distance from the pride and were still on the plain. The rest of the pride had moved down the road a little bit and were basking in the sun. When we first arrived, the mum of the cubs, sub adult male and only one of the cubs were visible. We sat for a while and eventually the other cubs appeared and started playing before deciding they were hungry and stopping to suckle.It was then time to move back to the lodge to pick up Anita and Sharon. While we were there we stopped for a drink, and I also saw the reserve gym for the first time. The exercise bike, treadmill and rowing machine etc all look out through a massive window that overlooks the main plains on KE. Motivation enough for anyone to go the gym I’d have thought!!
Once back at the house we played a few games of pool, and Anita was particularly delighted at beating Jacques, who joined us for dinner. After our food it was time to prepare our lesson plans for the weekly visit to school tomorrow – our last visit :(
Day 40 – Wednesday 12th May
Today was our last visit to the school. It seems very sad as after only 5 weeks we seemed to have built a report with the children and got to know the strengths and needs of each of them. The lessons were one hour shorter than normal as they had a football match and a netball match with another school. As it was the last week for three of the six of us some of the children put on a traditional dance for us and we had a ‘formal’ presentation of the gifts we bought, including a football and pump. The principle likes to have photos of these things in her office.
The lessons went well and we then hung around for a bit afterwards as the children played outside and the football and netball teams got changed into their kits. I then had the task of being ‘official photographer’ for both teams!Once we said a final farewell to the children we headed back to Kariega where we had lunch before setting off to find the elephants. We had a good idea where they would be as we had seen them in the distance on the way back to the house. We found them relatively quickly as managed to do some further identification drawings, but not as much as we would have liked as the proceeded to walk into the bush where we couldn’t follow them. We went straight back to the house, all wandering if we would have a final Wednesday pizza night at Homewoods. Jacques then told us to be ready for 6pm as we would be going for a night drive. So no pizza, but I for one don’t mind a bit! We can go for a pizza any time at home – we can’t go for a night drive with the hope of seeing lion, elephant, rhino etc etc!!
It was another amazing night drive! Within 20 minutes of leaving the house we heard a noise in the bushes, and there just a few feet away from us was the big bull elephant. We reversed up and off the road so as not to startle him and let him walk calmly past our vehicle. Somehow he looked even bigger in the dark than he does in the daylight. After Big Bull had left us we continued and saw various different pairs of eyes staring back at us. The next highlight was a bush pig who was very calm. He allowed us to get much closer to him than is normal, and we were even able to get some pictures. As we progressed through the KW section of the reserve we stopped as Jacques explained the various star constellations in the southern hemisphere, we also could see with the naked eye two satellites moving around the earth. We the then stumble across an aardvark right next to the road. It didn’t hang around for long, but we were able to get a good look at it before it disappeared into the bush. Aardvarks are a very rare sighting – in the two and a half years Jacques has been volunteer co-ordinator he has only ever had 5 sightings of an aardvark and only ever one with previous volunteers! We finished off by finding the lions, still in the groups they we were in yesterday. We then headed back to the house, and it was starting to get quite cold now – we all had several layers on which helped to keep most of the cold out and I have no idea how Jacques managed to the whole night drive in just shorts and t-shirt!!!We got home at about 8:45pm so it was a late dinner and then off to bed. We do get a lie in tomorrow though as we won’t start until 8:30am
Day 41 – Thursday 13th May
Today was Miri’s last day as she leaves for home tomorrow morning, and the weather could not have been kinder! The sun was a bit hazy at times, but the temperature has been warm all day – it was 19C at 8:15am and got up to 29C! Not bad for a winters day where we still saw some locals wearing woolly hats!
We set off at 8:30am and went on a drive around various parts of KE where we saw many of the game species, rhino, ostrich and giraffe. We then came back to KW where we sharpened the machetes and washed the vehicle with the power wash. From the workshop we saw the elephants in the distance, so that is where headed next. Just before we got to the herd we saw the Big Bull (the same elephant that we saw on last night’s night drive) who was browsing right next to the three rhinos on KW. We stopped to take a few photos and then proceeded to the main herd where frantically tried to identify the members that were present – a task that is becoming easier with some of the elephants but equally hard with others. If only they would stand still! It was another amazing elephant experience though at one stage we had some of the herd coming from the left of the vehicle and they got within just a few feet. On the other side of the vehicle Half Moon, one of the cows with a calf, was only about 15 to 20 feet from us and proceeded to cover us in dust as she sprayed it over her back.
We then headed back to the house for lunch, and once there Jacques said that, if we wanted to, we could go in to Kenton-On-Sea for some lunch and then a walk on the beach doing beach ecology. It didn’t take for everyone to decide that this was a good idea, so off we went to Homewoods where pizza was eaten and beer was drunk before the walk and learning about the beach. We stopped off at Spa for essentials (not that we needed very much for a day!). Unfortunately Jacques then got a puncture but luckily we were at the petrol station, which also has a tyre service so it could have been much worse!This evening we all had a braai, our final braai in South Africa, for now at least! It was dark when I started to cook, so it was a braai by torch light! It was still warm enough to eat outside and we had a really nice relaxing evening looking at photos on the lap top, having our final springbok shots and playing pool.
Day 42 – Friday 14th May
So this is our final day of our Kariega experience. As I always thought would happen, the six weeks have absolutely flown by! I cannot believe that a month and a half has been and gone since that Saturday afternoon when we first arrived wandering what the next six weeks would bring. The day started with a very short drive over to reception for 9am as we had to drop Miri off for her long flight back to Zurich via Johannesburg and Dubai! It was then off to do our final Wattle chopping which we did until about 10:30am. I think I am finally getting the hang of a machete!
After lunch Jacques asked what we would like to go and see as it was our final afternoon and we decided a final farewell to the lion cubs would be the perfect ending. It didn’t take us long to find them – they were in more of less exactly the same spot as when we last saw them on Wednesday’s night drive. I say more or less because they had moved into a small piece of clearing that we could not get to. The male lion was lying in the road and two of the cubs poked their heads out say goodbye (at least that’s what we chose to believe!). We then went off for a drive around the rest of the reserve and saw the rhinos, plenty of game, black backed jackal and many different birds. We couldn’t find the elephants but we did have a very good sighting of them yesterday.So our final game drive is over and we have seen so much. One last meal in the house followed by our first desert made by Sharon (apart from the Braai chocolate bananas!), has it really taken her 6 weeks to discover we have all the ingredients for a really nice apple tart??
Day 43 – Saturday 15th May
So it is time to go home. I have enjoyed the last 6 weeks so much and learnt so much. It was on the way from the reserve to the airport when I saw numerous things from fork tailed drongos to wattle trees to being able to identify the call of hadeda ibis to knowing we could see a ‘dazzle’ of zebra and a ‘sounder’ of warthog that I really realised how much new information I had absorbed – so thank you Jacques as it was all down to you :)
The transfer from Kariega to Port Elizabeth airport picked us up at 10am, which seemed ridiculously early as all the other guests on this flight were picked up at 12:30pm. As it was Saturday we went with it as it did make life a bit easier for the other guys heading into tow, and it’s not like we were missing out on a final game drive as a result. It did mean we had 4 hours at PE airport, but it went quite quickly as we had lounge access where we could use the internet, and watch as a light aircraft landed on the runway and flipped on to its nose! No-one was hurt and fortunately the runway wasn’t shut for long so it didn’t make our flight to Jo’burg late! The flight to Jo’burg was painless and once there, we saw how much more ‘world cup fever’ seemed to have infected the place! We spend time in the ‘Out Of Africa’ store, spending way too much in the process!
Then it was on to the plane and the 11 hour flight to Heathrow. Again the flight was painless enough – we managed to get some sleep, and the flight actually landed early at 6:20 am on Sunday – thank you Hugo and Fraser for getting up at 4:30 am to pick us up, much appreciated :) We just made it in time as later on Sunday the airports would again close due to the ash from the volcano. Thank you also to Oliver and Emma for the Welcome Home poster when we arrived :)So the Kariega adventure is over and now it is back to adjusting to all these buildings surrounding us and far too many people in one space. On the plus side, it will be nice to catch up with family and friends, and no doubt bore you all over time with tales of what we got up to and the odd picture or two!!
We hope you all enjoyed the blog, and see you soon
Simon & Anita xx
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