Day 6!!!

Good afternoon!

Hope everyone is well who is reading this. It is 12:45 here in sunny SA! You are all probably enjoying a lovely Saturday off where as I am covered in muck again! Ah well... I'm not complaining. Since I last blogged (i still cant get used to that word! BLOG...BLOGGING!!!) I have been pretty busy, so i shall now tell you all about it.

Yesterday morning we got to the farm and myself and Anna another volunteer were picked up by a guy called Jim who works here in the big van which we like to call sprinter, its an in joke thing so you wouldn't understand! ;) We headed off to the Lion Park which is about a 25 minute drive from the farm. When we arrived we were taken through the park which is basically like a tourist attraction with lions, hyenas, a giraffe, mere cats etc etc, and dropped off on the outskirts next to a yard which appeared to have a few large fridges. Here we were met by Laurence another guy on the farm who had indeed started work on the meat...and when i say meat i mean MEAT!!! Inside the fridge, as i glanced in sheepishly, there were horse heads, cow heads, what looked like the head of a small buffalo and a busy Laurence slicing away at a cow carcass...without much ado we were already carrying the pieces from the fridge and dumping them in the yard...where they could at least cool off a bit! When all of the meat was in the yard we were then handed a knife and were shown how to cut through the skin of a cow head and were very kindly allowed to pick one and have a go for ourselves! Not long after i began i did take a little walk to catch my breath, the smell was rancid and my cow seemed to have a funny look on his face which was making me feel dizzy!

After sorting myself out and giving myself a bitch slap i continued, although it became quite apparent that the heads were still too hard from the fridge so we skinned some legs and thighs and stuff instead which was much nicer...although not nice if you know what i mean. When we finished the Swedish girl who i hadnt been paying much attention too said to me with a cheery smile 'Oh, poor Laurence, he has skinned so much and we have both only each done one piece.' 'Yeah...' I replied covered in sweat and blood...but little did she know that all the way back to the farm i felt oddly smug about the fact that i had in fact skinned two pieces, not one! Mwahahahahaha,...But i didn't have the heart to tell her because i am nice like that! On reflection however, i don't know why that made me proud, other than the fact that i was responsible for feeding more lions!

After the bloody ordeal i unzipped the bottom of my trousers (because i have special trousers) and popped them into a carrier bag as they were covered in blood and lumps of flesh and washed myself down a bit, i threw away my gloved because i couldn't bare to wash the sticky stuff off of them and i bought some more later which i know was lazy but it was either that or be sick. We were now allowed to enter the lion park and spend some time with the lion cubs, giraffe and other animals which was nice. I particularly liked the mere cats, especially one which just popped out of his hole and just flopped over it with his arms above his head. He was cool, i don't know what his name was so i just called him 'funny boy'...I then ventured into the shop and bought myself a rather dashing hat and i now walk around the farm like ive just come straight from crocodile dundee...i am very cool!

After returning to the farm i scoffed down lunch and then we all headed to the enclosures to feed the boys with he meat we had collected...and skinned...that morning. By the time it was coming to home time the heavens opened and a big storm came which was beautiful. Rain drops the size of marshmallows, lightening that lit the entire sky as far as you could see and thunder which you wouldnt mess with if you met it in a dark alley...walking across the bridge to get back to the cottage was a bit sketchy!

I went to bed at 8.30am! Shame on me!...

...BUT i was up at 4.30am this morning! SO not that shameful! Myself and Jerry one of the other volunteers got up early and walked to the farm as a film crew and production team were at the farm filming some of the lions, they needed one particular shot to complete some filming that they started last week to use in their feature film which they are creating...its a comedy...i can;t say no more. The lions were well behaved but didn't really do what they wanted them too, as the lions here aren't trained, its quite a tough process trying to get them to do something specific, but i thought it was funny. It was cool to be there and help and it was even cooler driving in the sprinter with to lions in the back! I forgot they were there at one point and look around and one of them was staring me right in the face!

After the film crew had all packed up and gone we went back to base to collect the brushes and buckets and stuff and went to the enclosures to clean the houses which was hot work...its very hot today. Because i got here early it kind of feels like it should be about 4pm now but its not...and there a lot of cleaning to get done this afternoon...alas, its all go go go. Its been an awesome week though, im gonna go and have a little play with the cubs just now...I am looking forward to a lie in tomorrow it has to be said.

I will do my upmost to upload some pictures tomorrow, but if i cant, keep reading! Until next time my little ferrets,

Holz xxx

PS i am always writing these in a rush and am aware of the vast amount of typing errors, however, i have kept them in for your amusement!

God Byee