Working Weekend (26-28 Nov 2010)

Saturday 27 November 2010

Today I was on conservation and game drives. I did the 07:30 game drive with Antonet. We struggled a bit with the Cruiser, but at the end everything went perfect. The game drive consisted of 2 guests and they were quite friendly. We saw quite a lot of animals like: giraffe, blue wildebeest, blesbok, impala, and 21 eland, I have never seen so much eland before, there was also baby eland so adorable.The game drive went quite well and had a lot to talk about. The afternoon at 17:00 we had a game drive with an attitude this is when people get a game drive with snacks. We had an oversees group ''Chinese", they were very interested in what we are telling them and what they saw,I also learned more about them I didn't know that they like eating donkey, this is one of the most expensive meat that they sell in China.We saw the following: eland, blue wildebeest, 6 black backed jackals, serval, red hartebeest, blesbok, impala, warthog etc. I enjoyed this game drive a lot and loved to learn the people new things that they never knew before. We had a woman on the game drive that translated what we told them and then told her people, after the 1 hour game drive we went to the Marula tree at the one drinking area, the guests had snacks and some fruit juice. After wards we headed back to the reception. The people said that they had an unbelievable experience.

**EFAF day 27 October 2010**

This is the iternary we used for the day:

WHERE ARE WE GOING:

EFAF-Elephant for Africa For ever

COST PER PERSON:

R100 per person for interaction

LEAVE AT SONDELA AT:

13:30

RETURN:

16:00

WHERE TO MEET:

Sondela Academy

GROUP MEMBERS:

20 persons

*Chenelle *Christian *Michelle *Monica

*Kyle *Chantelle *Kristi *Salamina

*Antonet *Skigh *Bryan *Jason

*San-Marie *Pg *Dewaldt *Lune

*Zenobia *Lindie *Eddie *Liaan

TOTAL COST FOR THE DAY:

R2, 401.00

Distance Travelled

112 km

Today we had a chance to spend some time with the ellies,was really the greatest time I've had with them. What a opportunity, this was the first time I got so close to an elephant. We arrived at Zebula where the people showed us the interaction (What the elephants can do), it was pretty good how they listened to their teachers they had to sit down like a dog, jump in the air, talk we had to feel their body along the side. We had to feed them small pieces of oranges and boskos every time we had to ask them to do something and then feed them after doing what we asked. I wish we had a unbelievable opportunity to go on a safari with them and swim in the dam. We got very interesting facts about them like when we heard from the owner's son how they can smell a landmine far away and the elephants smell is much better than these of a dog...they founded drugs and the Police's dogs couldn't! The day before we had to get facts, feeding habits, habitat etc. about the elephants so that we know more about them and could tell them about our information we got. This day I learned more about their habitat and how much water they can drink in a day, when do they sleep, how much do they get fed everyday and how good their memory is. This was one big opportunity and I'm glad that I had the chance to sit on the elephants back, it's worse than climbing on a camel it's much higher, you have to do it to believe it.

Will give anything to spend some time with them again.

Limpop Tour 11-15 OCtober 2010

Limpopo Tour 11-15 October 2010

Tour debrief

Monday 11 October DAY 1

The morning we packed everything on the van, and got everything ready in the bus. We left at about 09:00 at Sondela Nature Reserve. We climb on the Bakwena highway and there we were! We set up some ground rules:

1-No smoking in the bus.

2-No talking when someone is talking.

3-Cellphones only allowed when it is important.

4-When stopping at destination a time period is allowed eg. 10 minutes.

While we were driving Cobus told us about the “Kranskop” (place of the spirits). Our first stop was Makopane where we bought snacks for the road; we had a time limit of 10 minutes. Our next stop was in a small little town where there was a long drop and we were very thirsty. After that we had a stop at Burgersfort where we bought groceries and lunch. There after we had a drive past the Echo Caves and stopped at the Forever Resorts at the Blyde River Canyon. Everybody had a long drive so we stopped at our campsite and loosen the van and took a drive to the lookout view. After that everybody got a chance to get their tents ready and we made a fire and had a little “kuiertjie”. Our group were the cleaning team for the night so after we ate we had to clean the pans and cutlery...

Tuesday 12 October DAY 2

We left at 05:30 at the Blyde River Canyon to Orpens gate, on the way we saw Taita Falcon and went through the J. G Strydom Tunnel. At Orpen Gate we stopped to stretch our legs and drove on through to Satara where we did a 3 and a half hour game drive where we saw a spotted hyena, waterbuck, buffalo, crocodile, lion, elephant, kudu, impala, ground hornbill, hooded vulture, yellow-billed kite, marabou stork, hippo, steenbok. We had lunch at Satara where we were the cooking team; we had a mix of egg, boerewors and baked beans with bread. We left Satara to Olifants and then to Letaba, we stayed along the electric fence it was very windy and everybody had to put up their tents. The cooking team had to stay when the rest of the groups went to see the 19:00 movie at the Elephants Museum. The one thing that was very nice to see was the spotted hyenas lying along the fence; there was a guy that threw a piece of steak over the fence while there is a sign on the fence not to feed them.

Wednesday 13 October DAY 3

Early in the morning they had a game drive, where they saw the leopard. They came back and we had breakfast. We put down the tents and went to the Elephants Museum. This was a very interesting place to visit because we learned much more about the elephants and the size of their tusks. We left the museum and went to Masourini where we saw the history of the place and everything about it like the different stone ages. After that we went to Modjajikloof and visited Cobus dad, he has a hobby of plants so there is over 150 different types of plants and trees. We then went to Tzaneen to go look at the biggest tree in South Africa the Baobab, this tree is 6000 years old. We drove on to the hot water resource (Phukela) where we camped; we were on the packing team so we had to get all of the stuff off the van and we started putting up the tents. We had assessments around the fire and got a chance to go swim in the hot water swimming pool, where we had a lot of fun with Dewaldt. The cooking team cooked for us and the food was very good we had mince. Then after we went to sleep.

Thursday 14 October DAY 4

Today was a day that we had a chance to sleep a bit late, we had a cup of coffee with rusks and everybody had breakfast from the night’s leftovers. Everybody went to take a bath in the swimming pool and we started putting down the tents, we got everything to the van and started packing it. We left at about 10:00 / 11:00 to Modjajiskloof to do some shopping and were on the road again to Georges Valley where I was assessed and we had a look at the canopy tour. We where then on our way to Haenurtsburg where we stopped at the Irish Crown and had a drink and left to the sanitary were we had lunch. We left the sanitary to Nylsvlei where we slept in a house. We had boerewors rolls and sat around the fire and chatted a bit on how the tour was and what we enjoyed most. We then planned what we are going to do the next day and at what time we must wake up.

Friday 15 October DAY 5

Everybody was up early we had a cup of coffee with rusks and the groups were divided to stay to pack and the rest went on a game drive. When they came back the van was packed and we where off to a place that we didn’t know about the aunt that was with us on the tour aunt Collie she had this surprise for us. We drove into the golf estate and we saw that we are going to go on the cable cars. There was a maximum of 8 people allowed on the cable car and we where the second group to have an opportunity to have a lookout view over the mountain. We where then on our way back to Sondela where I had to go do welcoming.

This tour was really nice and I enjoyed it a lot! Will do anything to do something like this again...

Working weekend (27-29 August 2010)

27 August 2010 Friday

Today we arrived on Sondela at 11:00, we where devided into 2 groups, we had welcoming from 13:00 - 15:00 the first group went out to fix fences and to kill some of the tree's that was still burning from the fire from Thursday...the second group that

**serval release**

Releasing a serval

The serval (pronounced serval, Leptailurus serval, is a medium-size Afican wild cat). Modern molecular DNA analysis indicates that servals maintain their own unique lineage descending from the same Felid ancestor as the lion, and though the serval shares common traits with the cheetah, it is the cheetah which is thought to have descended from ancient servals. Similar DNA studies have shown the African Golden Cat and the caracal are closely related to the serval, and may have branched by cross-breeding.

This is a picture of me looking at the serval inside the cage, everybody had a chance to look at the serval before we release him.

This is a video of releasing the serval out of the cage...

17 August 2010

17 August 2010 (Tuesday)

Today we went to the Waterberg Koppies with the Cruiser where we had to find different tipes of rocks. We learned what the people used to use in the early, middle and late stone age. We took pictures of the different tipes of rocks like sandsteen, flint, iron (slag) and had to write the site down where we got from the GPS...we then went up to the koppies where Cobus told us a bit of the different stone ages...

Working weekend (6-9 August 2010)

Friday 6 August 2010

Today we had welcoming at main gate...there came 177 guests in for the long weekend, we where running around, car's waiting till on the road...It got a bit quiet after a while , but most of the people came in early...enjoying talking to the people!

Sunday 8 August 2010

Today I worked at the Wildlife Centre, the morning we started preparing the food for the animals...after preparing we had to feed them! When feeding the animals like the bokkies, you have to check if they dont suck air, this is a very bad thing for them! We then had to take the lion cubbies to their boma...Charmaine asked us to start cleaning their sleeping area in the clinic, we had to get all of the hay out, broomed the floor, had to spray out and disinfect it...the lion's cheetah, and ostrich have ringworms...After disinfecting and spraying out in the clinic we had to disinfect backsters sleeping area as well!!Waiting for the area to dry and then had to prepare bokkie mix...each 2 litre bottle get 100g of dencavite! I played with the cubbies Max and Lex...helped Charmaine feed them and we had to stimulate them after they got their bottle.

Monday 9 August 2010

Today is a public Holiday...The morning we helped with preparing of the food and cleaning the cages. We got a lot of guests to come to the Wildlife Centre!