Thursday 3 November 2011

Day 4!!!

Hey there y'all!

Well, its day here on the farm...but i suppose i should tell you what i did yesterday!...

Yesterday was physically very challenging. It was very hot in the morning and in the afternoon, it wasn't until the evening that it cooled down. In the morning we fed the cubs to start with which consisted of day old chicks and chunks of meat covered in a powder which has multivitamins in it for them. The cubs are very playful in the morning and are always happy to have somebody to play with. As i was taking their food into their pen i did walk into the hyena cub cage which is made out of iron and i am now sporting a nice red bump on my forehead! haha.  After feeding the cubs we went off to the big cat enclosures and had the task of clearing them all of bones and poo! This already not the most loveliest jobs was added too by the heat which was was quite intense. I think we cleared about 6 or 7 enclosures which are really quite big. The process takes place with the workers and volunteers standing in a spaced out line at one end of the enclosure holding a bucket, a spade and a little brush. Then we all walked forward in a line and picked up all the poop and bones! When we reached the other end we turned around and cleared the rest of the enclosure going the opposite way! Being away of puff adders which will kill you in 15 minutes if they bite you, i used my spade to tap the floor ahead of me! Just to scare them off! :) God knows what i must have looked like!

At about 13:00 we headed back to base for lunch where myself and the other 3 volunteers fell asleep for a little while in the shade, we ourselves looked like a pack of lions i am sure! I woke up with dribble all down my cheek and hand! Lovely!

After luch we headed back to the enclosures in groups now to clean out the houses which is where the animals are locked away into during their feeding times and whilst the enclosures are cleaned. So that was another few hours of picking up bones and getting a bit messy, a bit back breaking too as the ceiling are not very high! But we managed to get them all done which was good. Quite a satisfying task really.

We returned back to base to give the cubs their evening meal and to put them to bed, and once again i head butted the cage! If it happens again i am going to start blaming the cage!

I got back to our cottage last night and had a well need shower as i really stank...but we all did so it was ok! After that Quentin one of the guys who works here came over and cooked us a braai which was soooooo good! I was in bed by 9.30pm...again! WILD!

This morning has been amazing! We played with the cubs for well over an hour and they were particularly playful whihc explains why i had 4 muddy paw prints on my back!!! They are sleepy at the moment because of the afternoon heat and are flopped of the tree trunk! After playing with them we were taken off in the van to find out what our 'surprise' was! Rodney, one of the guys who has worked with the lions here for year took to of the lionesses out for a walk (Meg and Aimee), so we were allowed to follow on behind in the van and see him with them, as soon as they were let out of the cage they just ran and let the wind brush through their fluffy ears, so lovely to see, they were supposed to carry on following Rodney over the plain but instead found some bones under a tree and decided to lay there for a while! hehe, eventually they came back to us and we headed off down to the river. The most beautiful spot ever! Here, we were able to do a role reversal! On the sandy bank next to the river stood a cage which we all got in, not a very bog cage i might add. When we were in Rodney released Aimee and Meg and they had a nice play by and in the water, we watched them from the cage and they looked so beautiful. Got some great pictures too! We stayed there for a while and they came and led next to us, we couldn't have got any closer! It was lush. When it was time to go we headed back here to base to grab our lunch which i have just scoffed down as i was staaaarving and now i am writing this, so we are up to date! :)

I think after lunch we are doing road maintenance which is basically filling in holes and stuff...its gonna be hot! Was 34 degrees last time i looked! Also, we are having a braai here tonight when we are finished so wont be rushing back to the cottage...does mean we have to walk over the monkey bridge in the dark though which i am not thinking about at the moment!...Errrrrrr...

I shall be back to fill you in on Saturday...tomorrow i will be skinning large pieces of fresh meat for the first time so i will tell you all about it! Look forward to it wont you!

Bye for now....Holz x

PS pictures on Sunday hopefully! Am not allowed to do uploads here. x

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